Since 2005 the International Tea Day
has been observed in many tea producing countries like Bangladesh, Nepal,
Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya,
Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda,
India and Tanzania. International
Tea Day is to draw global attention of governments and citizens on the impact
of global tea trade on workers, small growers and consumers. The first
International Tea Day was celebrated in New
Delhi on 15th December 2005.
Since the 18th century the United Kingdom
has been one of the largest per capita tea consumers in the world, with average
per capita supply at 1.9 kg per year. The popularity of tea occasioned the
furtive export of slips, a small shoot for planting or twig for grafting to tea
plants, from China to British India and its commercial culture there, beginning
in 1840; British interests controlled tea production in the subcontinent. Tea,
which was an upper-class drink in Europe, became the infusion of every class in
Great Britain
in the course of the 18th century and has remained so.
In Britain, the drinking of tea is so
varied that it is quite hard to generalise. While it is usually served with
milk, it is not uncommon to drink it black or with lemon, with sugar being a
popular addition to any of the above. Strong tea served with milk (and usually
one or two teaspoons of sugar) in a mug is commonly referred to as builder's
tea.
Before it became Britain's number
one drink, China tea was introduced in the coffeehouses of London shortly before
the Stuart Restoration (1660); about that time Thomas Garraway, a coffeehouse
owner in London, had to explain the new beverage in pamphlet and an
advertisement in Mercurius
Politicus
for 30 September 1658 offered "That Excellent, and by all Physicians
approved, China drink, called by the Chinese, Tcha, by
other nations Tay alias Tee, ...sold at the Sultaness-head, ye Cophee-house
in Sweetings-Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London". In London
"Coffee, chocolate and a kind of drink called tee" were
"sold in almost every street in 1659", according to Thomas Rugge's Diurnall. Tea was mainly consumed by the
fashionably rich". Two pounds, two ounces were formally presented to Charles
II by the British East India Company that same year. The tea had been imported to Portugal from its possessions in Asia as well as
through the trade merchants maintained with China
and Japan.
In 1662 Charles II's Portuguese queen, Catherine of Braganza, introduced the
act of drinking tea, which quickly spread throughout court and country and to
the English bourgeoisie. The British East India
company, which had been supplied with tea at the Dutch factory of Batavia imported it directly from China from 1669. In 1672, a servant of Baron
Herbert in London sent his instructions for tea
making, and warming the delicate cups, to Shropshire;
The earliest English equipages for
making tea date to the 1660s. Small porcelain tea bowls were used by the
fashionable; they were occasionally shipped with the tea itself. Tea-drinking
spurred the search for a European imitation of Chinese porcelain, first
successfully produced in England
at the Chelsea
porcelain manufactory, established around 1743-45 and quickly imitated.
Between 1872 and 1884 the supply of
tea to the British Empire increased with the
expansion of the railway to the east. The demand however was not proportional,
which caused the prices to rise. Nevertheless, from 1884 onward due to new
innovation in tea preparation the price of tea dropped and remained relatively
low throughout the first half of the 20th century. Soon afterwards London became the centre
of the international tea trade. With high tea imports also came a large
increase in the demand for porcelain. The demand for tea cups, pots and dishes
increased to go along with this popular new drink. Now, people in Britain drink
tea multiple times a day. As the years passed it became a drink less associated
with high society as people of all classes drink tea today which can be enjoyed
in many different flavours and ways.
Tea is not only the name of the beverage, but of a
late afternoon light meal at four o'clock, irrespective of the beverage consumed.
Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford is credited with the creation of the meal
circa 1800. She thought of the idea to ward off hunger between luncheon and
dinner, which was served later and later. The tradition continues to this day. There
used to be a tradition of tea rooms in the UK which provided the traditional
fare of cream and jam on scones, a combination commonly known as cream tea.
However, these establishments have declined in popularity since World War II. In
Devon and Cornwall
particularly, cream teas are a speciality. A.B.C. tea shops and Lyons Corner
Houses were a successful chain of such establishments. In Yorkshire
the company Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, run their own Tearooms. Café Tearooms, established in 1919, is now classed as a British
Institution. In America
it is a common misconception that cream tea refers to tea served with
cream (as opposed to milk). This is certainly not the case. It simply means
that tea is served with a scone with clotted cream and jam.
Do you like to drink tea?
Explain the reasons for the
popularity of this beverage.
