Tea - Dawn A Denton

Tea – the most popular drink on the planet after water. It is also the national drink of Great Britain and seems to have moved from the exotic to the ritual. It started as an aristocratic luxury. Now is so much a part of life, that many of us would not go a day without a cuppa. Or two, or many.

More than 60 billion cups of tea are drunk in Britain every year. And nearly three teas are consumed for every cup of coffee. It is the drink that is the most social of drinks. It brings warmth, it is used to engage people and there are few things more British.

So, why this passion for a little leaf?

Tea is the answer to everything! If you have had a bad day, need to make a decision, want to celebrate, want to be comforted, it gets the job done! ‘I’ll put the kettle on’ is how these situations are managed in British homes. It really is part of being British.

History of Tea

There are records of tea grown over 5,000 years ago. Today is it grown in almost 40 countries, but in the seventeenth century, it was only grown in China, which was closed off to the West. It was grown in some of the most spectacular and mountainous parts of China. It was a real challenge to get tea down the mountains which was often over 1,000 miles before it even got to the sea, and then onto England. A round trip to and from England took almost 2 years in the early days.

This thus made tea very expensive and only really for the rich, who locked it away so that their servants couldn’t get to it either. The Chinese kept their secret of where and how tea was grown. But by the end of the eighteenth century, the British got a taste for this treat from across the seas. They just couldn’t get enough of it. And they were prepared to do anything to get their hands on more tea, and so they decided to find other sources of tea.

Fun Facts

Tea has many health properties due to being an anti-oxidant, anti free radicals and even anti-aging.

Robert Fortune from Botanical Gardens in Chiswick in 1840s went on a search to get information about this remarkable drink. He disguised himself to get deep into China to secure some seeds.

Legend in China was that tea or chai was discovered by Emperor Chinung in 2737 BC. Strange leaves flew into his drink. Not noticing or caring that his water had turned brown, he drank it. It was refreshing and invigorating. He loved it!