History
TIME FOR TEA By Catherine Rose Tea is enjoyed all over the world but the English adopted it as their own around four hundred years ago. Believed to have originated in Southern China, tea drinking dates back to around 3000 BC. However, it didn’t become popular in England until the 17th century, when it was made fashionable by King Charles II and his Portuguese wife Catherine de Braganza, who brought it over to the Royal court from her native country. Coffee houses had recently been established in London and the custom of tea drinking was quickly introduced. Samuel Pepys referred to it in his diary of 1660: ‘…I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before’. The coffee houses also sold loose leaf tea so that women, who did not frequent them, could enjoy it at home. It soon became popular for wives to host tea parties and invite their friends. Tea was very much the privilege of the wealthy. It was expensive to import and seen as a valuable commodity, kept locked inside ornate caddies. Teapots, tea-cups and saucers were prized possessions and there were many different designs produced during this time. Because it was so expensive, the tea smuggling trade flourished. In 1785, following pressure from tea merchants, the government slashed the high import tax on tea, making it much more affordable to the masses. Thus, tea drinking grew in popularity among the working classes, sparking a debate about whether tea was bad for the health, causing ‘idleness’ and ‘melancholy’ amongst other things. Eventually, alcohol came to be viewed as 92
the far greater evil and working class people were then encouraged to become ‘teetotal’. The concept of afternoon tea is a peculiarly English tradition but tea served with food was only introduced in the mid-19th century by Anna Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, to bridge the gap between lunch and dinner, which in those days was traditionally served quite late in the evening. Soon friends were joining her for ‘afternoon tea’ at her home in Woburn Abbey and, thanks to her frequent trips to London, the custom grew to become a fashionable social event amongst the upper classes. During the Victorian era, a wider selection of tea began to be imported from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and India. Tea rooms serving afternoon tea grew in popularity, especially among women, being one of the few places where they could meet without a chaperone. By the early 20th century, many establishments had expanded on the custom of a musician playing in the background and were holding tea dances in the afternoons. Today, tea has become an integral part of our daily routine and could be described as Britain’s national drink. Although invented in America in the early 20th century, the tea bag didn’t become popular in England until the 1970s, when it revolutionised our tea drinking habits and put fortune tellers who read tea leaves at the bottom of a cup into decline! Still considered a rather genteel English custom, today, sumptuous afternoon teas are served by many top hotels with a bewildering number of different tea blends on offer along with a ‘tea sommelier’ to help you choose. They are often booked up months ahead - a testament to tea’s enduring popularity.