a nice sit down and a cuppa (Tea in general)

Member Name: kissy1

Product:	Tea in general
Date:	22/05/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tastes lovely

Disadvantages: :-)

A (not so) brief history of tea:-

Brits have been drinking tea for 350 years, and we'd like to think of it as ours, but actually the history of tea goes back much further.

Tea originated in China, almost 5 thousand years ago. Allegedly an old Chinese emperor was sitting under a tree and his servant poured him some boiling wall. Some of the leaves fell into the water and the emperor (who, coincidentally, was a herbalist) decided to give the infusion a try. And so tea was born (allegedly, although nobody can actually prove the story is true)!!

The Chinese were drink tea for hundreds of years, before the drink made it to the west. Many Chinese emperors had tea containers buried in their tombs with them, and some have been fund which date back to around 200BC. Tea eventually went from China to Japan, taken by Japanese monks who were returning to Japan after studying Buddhism in china. This is how tea became so integral in Japanese tradition, and how tea ceremonies came about.

In fact, tea never reached the west until the 16th century. It was introduces by the Portuguese, who lived in the east and worked as missionaries and traders. However, it was actually the Dutch who first shipped tea to the West on a commercial basis (at the end of the 15th century, when the Dutch effectively stole the Portuguese's trade's routes). In 1606 the first tea was shipped from China to Holland (via Java, Indonesia). Tea became a popular and fashionable drink, but was very expensive; so was drunk by the rich. It was a status symbol to be able to drink tea.

Tea didn't reach Britain until around 1670, this is because the East India Company had the monopoly on any imports, and were suspicious of goods from abroad. Sailors would bring tea home as gifts, but it was not widely available.

The real pivot point for tea in Britain was when Charles II married Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, who loved tea! She introduced the British royal family to the drink, and eventually they introduced their friend, and the tea revolution began, although only the rich cold afford it. It was only then that the East India Company saw the market for tea, and started to ship it in. In 1664 the first order was placed, for 100lbs of tea. Britain's then fell in love with tea, and it was available in coffee houses all over the country. In 1689 the first tax on tea was introduced, at a whopping 25p per pound (see, the government were ripping us off then too!) But the tax was too high and stopped importation, so it was reduced to 5p per pound in 1692. The tax on tea would change very frequently until 1964, when they finally abolished the tax all together.

The high taxes on tea led to what was possibly the biggest smuggling gang of all time. They are thought to have smuggled a total of 7 million pounds of tea every year, the smugglers would also add other dried leaves, or even sheep's poo to get the right tea colour. In fact the trade on illegal tea has been compared to the more recent trade in smuggling cocaine. It took a cut of over 100% of the tax amount on tea to stop the smuggling.

Although we now though that drinking tea is good for us, 250 years ago philanthropists believed that if the middle classes were allowed to drink tea that it would lead to weakness and melancholy.

When the East India Company lost the import monopoly they began to look for ways to continue to make money out of tea. Up to that point all of the tea imported to the UK was from China. The East India Company led the way in growing and importing from elsewhere. They started with Assam, in India. By 1888 more tea was being imported from India than China.

Another effect of the East India Companies loss of the import monopoly was that it gave rise to tea clippers. People saw there was money to be made and all raced to China on fast new clipper boats, in a bid to be the first back with the tea, and to make the most money. Tea clipper races between America and the UK became very popular. They would race all the way from China, and the winner was the first to throw their cargo onto the dock in London. This continued until 1869, when the Suez Canal opened in Egypt, meaning steam ships could do the journey faster than the clippers. It saved the steam ships the journey under and around Africa, which the clippers still had to do as they weren't allowed in the Suez Canal.

In the First World War the British Government took over the importation of tea to the UK, because they saw the drink as morale boosting; and wanted to ensure that people could still get it at an affordable price. They continued to ensure tea was sold at the London Tea Auction, which was the world centre for auctioning tea from 1706, right up until it closed, with the last ever auction being held on 29th June 1998!

Some tea customs:-

Afternoon tea - Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford first thought of afternoon tea, as a way of stopping hunger pains between lunch and dinner. At about the same time the Earl of Sandwich had a great idea to get 2 bits of bread and put something between them, and so the 2 combined to form afternoon tea!
Teetotal - in the early 1800's the only places you could get tea were the Inns and Taverns. The temperance movement used tea in the battle again high levels of alcohol being consumed (gin particularly) and tea meetings were held in taverns and inns all over the country. And thus if you went to a pub to drink tea then you were teetotal!

I love a nice cuppa. It's just so British. We seem to have the belief that a cup of tea can cure all our woes. "Your house has fallen down, and you have nowhere to sleep? Have a cup of tea, it will all be ok"!!!! "Can't sleep? Have a cup of tea" "crashed your car? Have a cup of tea!" you get the picture!

My personal choice is Tetley, and I am also partial to a cup of Earl Grey. All together there are over 1500 different varieties of tea. The teas are all different and the taste changes depending on the height of the garden, the soil, wind conditions and temperature.

The term 'cha' comes from a Chinese book called Ch'a Ching (translates to 'tea classics'), and the Chinese still cal it cha. Black tea, green tea and oolong are the main types of tea which are now consumed. All three of these come from the same type of plant, it is the process they undergo which makes them different (how much oxidisation it has undergone, to be precise!!). Most of the teas we drink in the UK are Black tea. Our teas are usually blended from the Indian teas Sikkim, Assam, Ceylon and Darjeeling; and the Chinese teas Keemun and Yunnan. The most common blends are English breakfast, Irish breakfast and Russian caravan.

Most people buy their tea these days in a tea bag (invented in America in the 70's), but some still prefer leaf tea. We pop the tea bag or tea infuser (funky metal cage on a chain, which the leaf tea goes inside) and drop it into the hot water. Once it is a dark enough the bag or infuser is removed and the tea is either drank black, with milk or lemon. Contrary to popular belief you don't need to heat the pot prior to brewing, you can store it in glass jars, you should use the cold tap (not hot as there are nasty things in hot water that has been sitting for a while) and adding the milk first does not stop the mug staining. Most teas available in supermarkets all come from the same plant, and are just blended and processed differently.

Anyway, I love the stuff and can't get enough. If you're not sure why not make yourself a cup and have a nice sit down and a cuppa!

Summary: pour yourself a cuppa and relax!