The History of Tea

  “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hours dedicated to the ceremony known as the afternoon tea.” – Henry James “The Portrait of a Lady”

    Today, I have seen 2 documentaries about the history of tea. When I was still young, I like to drink tea, with an added sugar (we use the Lipton tea in sachets), I prefer sugar because I noticed if you add honey there's a certain aftertaste. I disliked adding milk or cream to my tea back then. But now I enjoy drinking a mug of tea with non-fat powdered milk. (yup, it's a mug and not a cup!) I prefer Twinings brand. I like the English Breakfast, and I also bought Lady Grey, a milder tea. I'm contemplating if I'm going to buy loose tea in the future since, I'm concerned about the filter paper that's used in teabags, I have read that there's an added plastic in it, and if that's the truth, it can do more harm to us than good. I prefer tea over coffee because it doesn't give me palpitations, and I can sleep well at night.

We all know that British people love tea, and they are one of the largest consumers of tea. If Americans love coffee, the British have their cuppa, or cup of tea. This holiday season I also gave away some teas (green tea and fruit flavored teas), to my boss and to our pastor and his wife as a Christmas gift. I even bought a beautiful teapot set from the popular British modern vintage store Cath Kidston (see photo below). Anyway, since, I am also learning about the British culture and tradition each day. I made a transcript with regards to the documentaries that I have seen.

    Hope you enjoy reading, and if you want to watch the videos are still available in YouTube. (just search for the username, I posted it below). Thanks to the people who posted the videos, credits are below.

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 A Brief History of Tea

Tea is the world most second best drank beverage after water  at 3 billion cups a day. Tea is native to southeast Asia especially around Southern China. Legend has it that Chinese emperor Shen Long was sitting in his garden sipping a cup of boiled water as was the custom leaves from a nearby bush flew and landed into his cup turning the water green. He tasted it and liked it. This Legend has no proof however. During the Tang Dynasty, a book was published by Lu Yu (kwon as the Sage of Tea) entirely about tea. It talks about tea drinking, how tea was grown, how it’s processed, how to prepare tea, and how tea was evaluated in quality. Tea was made into bricks which were used as money in the outer regions of the empire. In the Song Dynasty people invented powdered tea making it easier to brew. Later in the 13^th century the Chinese roasted the tea leaves and crumbled them instead of steaming them, thus inventing loose leaf tea. Tea became popular that the government accepted it as tribute from other countries or provinces.

Japanese priests and monks introduced tea to Japan, and the emperor encouraged the people to grow it. Tea promptly became a drink to the higher religious classes and an important part of Japanese life as shown in their tea ceremony. Tea then spread across Asia and then towards Europe. An Arab trader in 879 recorded that most of Guandong’s money came from taxes on tea, and salt.

In 1557 Portugal took control of Macau. Use of the wonderful teas crept back to Europe. The Dutch established, the Dutch East India Company, and brought back Green tea leaves to Amsterdam. Teas spread into England in the 1650’s, and from their spread to British colonies around the world. In India, before British ruled, tea was ground for medical usage. Britain decided to grow tea there as the climate were similar to China’s. They hope to stop relying heavily on the Chinese monopoly . Tea was stolen out of China and Indian plantation began production. In 1833 the East Indian Company sent a botanist to China to bring back more species of tea to India so that the company could begin its own production, instead of trading Chinese tea.  Using Chinese seeds and techniques the British gave land to anyone who agreed to grow it, and export it. Native tea plants were soon discovered in Burma, however. The British East India Company came to India and began mass production of tea on plantations  across the colony. It spread to India from Sri Lankan in 1867. These plantations solely grew black tea. India became the largest producer of tea in the world for nearly a hundred years.

The largest consumer in Europe was the United Kingdom. Britain began to import tea in 1660’s from Amsterdam. British East India Company became one of the largest in the world controlling parts of India owning a private army of around 280,000 men by 1857. The company even bought Singapore and established it as a colony. At one point the East India company controlled more territory than the United Kingdom itself did.

The East India Company learned that tea was most profitable of its trades it was originally advertised as a medical drink but at the close of the 17^th century by the power of advertising was an all-purpose one by 1750 tea had become Britain’s favorite drink. The British East Indian company noticed that ships returning from East Indies were sometimes empty or half full. Huge amounts of advertising to the British public rose demand and shipments began filling the half-empty ships.

A fungus in 1869 destroyed Sri Lanka’s coffee production making tea even more popular. Sri Lankan farmers devasted by the destruction of the coffee soon switched over to tea. Britain like tea but it likes sweet tea even more. The solution grow sugar cane, and lots of it. African colonies began to export sugar more rapidly to meet the best demand. Tea is still seen as a symbol of Britishness and rightly so as Britain inhales a staggering 160 million cups a day or around 58 billion cups a year. As the American revolution kicked-off. Tea drinking in the 13 colonies dropped sharply as it was considered unpatriotic, and that is why most Americans drink coffee today instead. This took the East India Company close to bankruptcy.

Unfortunately during the Qing dynasty the Emperor decided that China was the center of the world, and

of everything, and so everyone must pay China in silver. British wealth began to drop as silver from his treasury was traded for the precious tea. To solve the money issue the British began to grow opium poppies which were then traded into China for tea. Opium spread through China, and soon the public was hooked. The Chinese ban the opium trade and with now no extra income to pay the traders to bring back tea, and tea forming a big slice into British empire’s taxes, London declared war in 1839. Britain lost 69 troops in three years while China lost around 20,000. After peace, where Britain forced China to buy drugs from them.  Britain declared war again in 1856, saying that China had broken the treaty, starting the second opium war.

Tea also help contribute to the start of Industrial revolution, because of the caffeine boost it gave workers allowing them to work longer shifts in the factories. During the industrial revolution, tea drinking prevented disease across cities because in order to make tea the people had to boil the water , thus killing most of the bacteria inside.

Nowadays many people use the tea bag in order to brew their tea. Tea merchant Thomas Sullivan first invented tea bags in the United States in 1908. He began to sell samples of his tea in small bags. People thought that the bags were supposed to be put in the teapot as with metals strainers, and thus the tea bag was born. The idea took of in the United States quickly but in the United Kingdom tea bags didn’t catch on until 193 when tea producer Tetley began to advertise them. Today as in the past, India and China are still the leading producers of tea. Though tea spread to 35 countries,  a long shot from the old Chinese monopoly. 3 billion cups of the stuff are inhaled everyday across the globe. Perhaps because tea is cheap to make, at roughly 3 cents a cup at home.  To meet the demand for 2012 alone, 4.68 million tons were grown, and more added every year.

(From History of Tea in 6 Minutes by Wignall Enterprises)     

Afternoon Tea (a brief history) 

Tea was introduced to Europe in the mid-16^th century by a Portuguese missionary. But didn’t become available to the British public until a century later. Around the same time, Catherine of Braganza of Portugal married Charles II and brought tea to the Royal house of England for the first time. By the 18^th century, tea had become the principal drink for the entire population, and the rest shall we say, was history.

For upper class Victorian, dinner was often served late in the evening around 8:30 or 9pm, and one hungry Duchess of Bedford, Anna Russell came up with the idea of serving tea and snacks in the afternoon to tie her over until dinner. Thanks to the Duchess that the tradition of Afternoon tea was born.

  

The practice of taking afternoon tea has once again become extremely popular. Especially for tourists who see it as a quintessential London experience. So many hotels and cafes are now starting to serve up their own unique versions of this British occasion.

 (from FollowThatBug)