A BRIEF STORY OF TEA...   

        

   

Once upon a time in China…

Tea is often believed to be a quintessentially British drink, as they have been drinking it for over 350 years. A lot of Brits cannot even imagine their life without this beverage. The truth is that the history of tea goes much further, to ancient China. Legends say that in 2737 BC, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Since Shen Nung was a renowned herbalist, he decided to try the infusion accidentally prepared by his servant. The tree happened to be a Camellia Sinensis, or what we colloquially call tea. Although, we do not know whether there is a grain of truth in this legend, there is no doubt that tea was discovered in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the west. The earliest signs of tea drinking in China date back to Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). But it wasn't  popularized until the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD), when tea officially became the national drink of China. Later, tea was also introduced to Japan, thanks to Japanese Buddhist monks who had studied in China and become an essential part of Japanese culture.

 

From China to Europe

World's tea production

 

Tea was introduced to Europe relatively late, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, thanks to Portuguese traders and missionaries who travelled to East. However, it were Dutch who were responsible for commercial shipment of tea to Europe, establishing a trading post on the island of Java. At the beginning of seventeenth century tea became a well known drink in Holland, and from there it spread to other countries of the continent.

Tea in Britain

 

 

Since Brits have always been a little suspicious of continental trends, tea was not introduced to Britain until the mid seventeenth century. However, at that time this beverage was still unpopular among the society. It was the marriage of Charles II to Catherine of Braganza that has highly contributed to popularizing tea drinking among Brits. Thanks to her tea addiction, this beverage has become a fashionable drink, first at court and then among the higher classes. The East India Company began the commercial import of tea from Java to Britain in 1664 and for long had monopoly for trading with China. In 1851, when almost all tea in the country had come from China, annual consumption per head was less than 2lbs but in 1901 it had increased to over 6lbs thanks to cheaper imports from India and Sri Lanka, former colony of Ceylon. During that period tea has become a part of the British way of life and it was officially confirmed during the First World War, when the government took over the shipment  of tea to Britain, in order to ensure the fair pricing and  availability to all Brits. The situation repeated also during the Second World War.

What has changed?

 

 

Although the habit of tea drinking is still continued in Britain, the form of preparing the beverage has changed. In the early twentieth century tea bags were invented. Since then they gained such popularity that it would be difficult for many tea-drinkers to live without them.  Even though the British Empire collapsed, British companies and brands continue to play a leading role in the world's tea market.