For centuries, tea has been a much-loved beverage and a major influence on British culture, from architecture, design and fashion to manufacturing and marketing: it has even changed the course of history. Enjoyed by millions down the generations, tea-drinking is an important domestic and social ritual, a British institution.

Tea is harvested from the leaves and leaf buds of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen bush with yellow/white flowers that probably first grew in the fertile jungles of Eastern Himalaya. The origins of tea-drinking are obscure, but evidently under the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) it developed throughout China, involving intricate brewing techniques, using various utensils and following complex etiquette. Over time the Chinese produced ‘bricks’ of compressed tea as valuable trade goods that were transported along the ‘Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Southern Silk Road) from China to Tibet, Nepal, India and the Middle East. The great age of European maritime exploration furthered the expansion of global commerce in luxury commodities, including silk and loose-leaf tea. From c1610 Dutch and Portuguese merchants imported tea into Europe, and in 1657 the first cargo arrived in England. During the 1660s the English East India Company (EIC) began importing tea directly into Britain, consignments multiplying from 143lb in 1669 to 5000lb in 1678, beginning the nation’s long and continuous history of tea-drinking.

The new beverage
The arrival of tea, coffee, chocolate and sugar from overseas transformed European drinking habits as westerners discovered a liking for the hot, sweet, addictive beverages that differed greatly from the usual ale, beer, wine and cordials. Infused in boiling water, sweetened with sugar and served in shallow bowls, tea was soon available in the public coffeehouses that had multiplied from the 1650s, following the first coffee imports. Unlike disorderly taverns and alehouses, coffeehouses serving restorative non-alcoholic drinks that revived flagging limbs and sharpened minds inspired lively, civilised conversation among educated men of business, becoming the place for shipping news and other commercial updates, and reading gazettes. By 1675 Britain boasted around 3000 coffeehouses, many linked to certain trades and professions: Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse near London’s Royal Exchange, frequented by merchants and underwriters, was the birthplace of Lloyds of London, the world-renowned insurance market.

Only men frequented coffeehouses but, unlike coffee, which required roasting and grinding, tea was easy to prepare at home and many coffeehouses began to sell loose-leaf tea to their customers, so that they could also enjoy the drink indoors. The earliest Englishman to record tea-drinking was the diarist Samuel Pepys, on 25 September 1660: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.” Later, in June 1667, Pepys found his wife making tea “…which Mr Pelling the potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions”. From the outset, tea was considered both revitalising and medicinal.

An elite fashion
Initially tea-drinking was a luxury pursuit, its popularity at the English court perhaps first encouraged by the arrival in 1662 of King Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza Portugal, where tea-drinking was already established, with subsequent monarchs continuing the regal custom. At this time tea remained the preserve of the affluent classes: being heavily taxed, one pound of quality tea in 1700 cost some three weeks’ wages for a skilled craftsman, whereas in prosperous households tea-drinking was becoming part of daily life. Leisured ladies also began formally visiting one another for tea,

a custom requiring appropriate furniture and tea ware. Servants set the table then the hostess brewed the tea, serving her guests in an intimate sitting room, ‘closet’ or boudoir. Tea leaves were stored in Chinese porcelain jars, the drink – taken without milk until c1720 – poured from dainty porcelain teapots into cups or bowls. Such was demand for exotic tea-drinking apparatus, that imported Chinese porcelain totalled over 200 million pieces between 1684 and 1791. Some country house owners even had dedicated tea rooms designed, like the Chinese Room in Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, or new garden tea houses incorporated into classical landscapes.

Popular taste
Until the mid-1700s tea rituals symbolised wealth, status and refined manners, but in 1745 the duty was slashed from 4 shillings to 1 shilling and tea-drinking steadily filtered down through society, gaining momentum following the Commutation Act of 1784 that reduced tax from 119% to 12.5%. The escalation in British tea-drinking and surge in English EIC imports demonstrates how increased supply influenced popular taste and growing demand in turn fuelled trade. Even before tea became more affordable, vast quantities were smuggled into Britain illegally, the beverage and even its cheaper, adulterated versions using common leaves satisfying growing consumer demand and also helping to suppress the Georgian craze for gin, the source of many social problems.

By the late 1700s throughout much of Britain all social classes were enjoying the benefits of tea. In The State of the Poor, 1797, social investigator Sir Frederick Eden observed: “Any person… stepping into the cottages of Middlesex and Surrey at meal-times, will find that, in poor families, tea is not only the usual beverage in the morning and evening, but is generally drunk in large quantities at dinner.” Now appearing in regular homes, tea could also be enjoyed as a social diversion in various public places. In 1706 Thomas Twining opened London’s first teashop on the Strand, later known as Twining’s Golden Lyon shop – still trading today. Taking tea or coffee with milk, bread and butter at elegant tables was favoured by high society who patronised large Georgian pleasure gardens like Vauxhall and Ranelagh, while smaller suburban gardens with picturesque arbours and tearooms catered for the middling and working classes.

English tea wares
The surge in tea-drinking prompted unprecedented demand for Chinese goods including tea canisters and caddies, kettles, teapots, porcelain tea sets, spoons, trays and tables. This drew the attention of European potteries and in England the production of ceramics now featured prominently in the burgeoning industrial economy, chiefly around Stoke-on-Trent and North Stafford, where world-famous names like Wedgwood, Spode and Royal Doulton emerged. Their success was consolidated when the EIC ceased importing Chinese porcelain in 1791 and pure-white, durable and economical bone China was developed c1800. Subsequent improvements in porcelain manufacture, transfer-printed designs and the development of the technique of electroplating meant that aspiring families could now make an impression with attractive tea sets and teapots resembling solid silver.

The Anglo-Chinese Opium War, 1839-42
Tea-drinking grew even more affordable throughout the course of the 19th century, due largely to shifts in the sourcing of tea. British had relied on Chinese tea, but the trade was morally-corrupt, being funded by the illegal export to China of immense quantities of opium grown by the EIC, mainly in Bengal. By the 1830s China had some three million opium addicts and in March 1839 the Chinese government took drastic action, informing merchants that they could no longer supply opium, confiscating supplies and blockading ports. The so-called First Opium War that ensued ended with British military success in 1842, but clearly the situation had to change.

Plans were already afoot for growing tea within British Indian territories. Tea plants had been discovered in 1835 in Assam and progressively the area was developed into a vast tea plantation. British speculators purchased plots, employed ‘coolies’, cleared the land, planted bushes in long rows over the hillsides and brought British manufacturing concepts of discipline and efficiency to tea cultivation. Following Assam, further tea estates were established throughout the British Empire, in Darjeeling in the early 1850s and Ceylon (1860s). In 1889, for the first time Indian tea exports to Britain exceeded Chinese tea exports and within 10 years Indian exports were

14 times higher than Chinese tea.

The nation’s drink
The rise in British-controlled plantations impacted significantly on tea-drinking habits in the United Kingdom. Tea from India and Ceylon was mainly black, whereas Chinese tea was both black and green; hence the Victorians came to favour black tea, setting a precedent for the future. Tea produced on an industrial scale became even cheaper and more widely available, merchants like Thomas Lipton purchasing their own tea plantations, eliminating the middleman and reducing retail prices. Most tea now coming from British colonies, it also came to be viewed as distinctly ‘British’ – no longer an exotic novelty, but a familiar feature of daily life. The nation’s tea consumption soared from just under 24,000,000lbs in 1801 to nearly 259,000,000lbs in 1901, exceeding the impressive population growth of the period.

With manufacturing and commerce advancing apace, tea merchandising also became increasingly important, as reflected in eye-catching packaging, targeted advertisements and enticing displays. Different companies publicised their own ‘unique selling point’, from tin foil packaging and rock-bottom prices to specialised tea labels, like Lipton’s Yellow Label tea, launched in 1890; some pictured Queen Victoria on their goods, for added cachet. Other brands used dividends to encourage customer loyalty, like Co-op Tea, each packet bearing a stamp to be stuck onto a card, completed cards then being exchanged for money or a reward. By 1900 tea was a prominent and inexpensive consumer product, enjoyed throughout society, with different sectors of the population developing their own tea-drinking habits and routines.

Afternoon tea
The introduction of formal ‘afternoon tea’ within high society was prompted by the progressive shift in dinner-time from 4-5pm in the late-1700s, to 7-8pm by the 1840s/1850s. To bridge the lengthening gap between luncheon and dinner, an afternoon ‘snack’ of tea, sandwiches and cake evolved. Reportedly Anna Maria Russell, Duchess of Bedford, instigated the custom, inviting friends to join her and establishing the British ritual of afternoon tea. As the fashion advanced, from the 1870s ladies began to don special tea gowns – relatively comfortable gowns with inserts or looser styling than regular garments, often created from fragile, flowing fabrics. While the upper classes hosted refined gatherings, ordinary people developed their own tea-drinking occasions, drinking tea during the day and again when they returned home from work to the satisfying meal of ‘high tea’ at about 6pm, accompanied by a pot of comforting tea.

Tea shops and tearooms
A major trend of the mid-late 1800s was the spread of dedicated tearooms, beginning when a manageress from the Aerated Bread Company (ABC) shop started serving tea and snacks to customers. Her enterprise inspired ABC to open a commercial tearoom in 1864 in the courtyard of Fenchurch Street station and by 1900 they operated at least 50 tearooms. Other companies followed suit, such as Kardomah and the Express Dairy Co., but most successful was J Lyons & Co. who established a tea-shop chain by the early 1890s. As high-street tearooms sprang up nationwide, one location outside London became particularly significant – Glasgow, where the Temperance movement exerted a powerful influence. As local people were urged to renounce alcohol and ‘take the pledge’, tea came to symbolise temperance and many Glasgow tearooms opened, as alternatives to public houses.

Tearooms were one of few public places where respectable women could eat and drink alone or with friends, without a male escort. Department stores and prestigious hotels like Brown’s in Mayfair were also opening elegant tearooms where ladies could go ‘out to tea’. Service by deferential waitresses neatly-dressed in formal black dresses and starched white caps and aprons, much like parlour maids’ uniforms, was part of the genteel experience. Yet tea-drinking was not just a leisurely indoor pursuit: city workers could buy tea and snacks from stalls en route to work; at skating rinks tea was served at tables on the ice; and in summer groups enjoyed tea at home in the garden, in orchards and woodlands, using portable tea-sets.

Corner houses and Tea dances
Domestic and public tea drinking continued to rise, peaking in the early-1930s, despite the Great Depression, with average daily tea consumption 5 cups per person. Tearooms became increasingly important for young workers, particularly those in lodgings without meals provided, who sought nourishing, affordable food and hot drinks. Best-known and frequented by many were Lyons’ Corner Houses, operational from 1909 and typically located on busy streets in London and other cities. Some branches featured several floors, orchestras and hundreds of staff, images of the smart Lyons’ waitress or ‘Nippy’ in her black and white uniform representing the brand on advertisements, packaging and special promotions. Other smaller teashop chains like Betty’s of Harrogate, established in 1919 by Swiss confectioner Frederick Belmont, offered a selection of tea blends and delicious pastries and cakes, tables laid with elegant tea cups and ornate sugar tongs.

During the 1910s and 1920s tea dances were all the rage, following the arrival of the tango in Europe and, later, the Charleston. Grand hotels held weekly tea dances, like the glamorous ‘tango teas’ in the Palm Court of the Waldorf Hotel, other tea dances arising in purpose-designed tea gardens in tourist locations. In urban areas, tea pavilions and teahouses became an established feature of municipal parks, while in the countryside some cottage-dwellers opened their parlours and gardens for afternoon tea in summer, attracting cyclists and walkers. At the seaside, from the late-1800s onwards, stalls, beach cafés and kiosks serving drinks, ice-creams and snacks beckoned from the promenade and pier.

England’s ‘secret weapon’
Despite tea being rationed to 2oz weekly per person in both WW1 and WW2, nobody had to relinquish tea-drinking. During the Blitz volunteers handed out hot drinks and food to rescue workers and the thousands affected by the bombing. Some believe that tea, both reassuring and energising, had a major impact on the outcome of the war, the historian AA Thompson claiming in 1942 that tea was England’s “secret weapon… That’s what keeps us going and that’s what’s going to carry us through”. Tea has provided refreshment, as well as solace in difficult times, to generations of our forebears and remains one of life’s pleasures today.