The Origin of English Tea
Ah, tea. The delicious warm leaf drink that everyone seems to enjoy drinking while snuggling up with a good book (or Netflix, in my case) after a long day. Generally, when people think about tea, they either think about traditional chai or green tea from certain parts of Asia, or they think about classic earl grey mixed with milk and sugar from England. The fact of the matter is that, well, both are fairly accurate, and neither version is wrong.
The creation of green tea in China actually dates all the way back to 2737 BC, however, the tea didn’t get exported to England until 1660, where it was introduced to a coffeehouse in London. As this was a new drink in England at the time, it quickly became very expensive, costing almost six times as much as coffee cost. In fact, tea was only popular amongst the upper class for a while, as King Charles II’s wife (Queen Catherine of Braganza) introduced it as a “custom drink” that was enjoyed amongst her friends at afternoon parties.
It wasn’t until much later that a man by the name of Thomas Twining opened the first tea shop in London in 1717. This is when tea became more affordable, and therefore, more widely enjoyed by people of all classes. The most common English tea at the time was, of course, the English Breakfast Tea, which was mixed with milk and sugar and sometimes served with biscuits, scones, or crumpets.
Made in China
Traditionally, in China, tea was served in porcelain cups without handles, however, the popularization of tea in Britain made for large growth in the pottery industry. Tea sets were typically sold with a saucer (small plate) and, of course, the teacup. The common etiquette at the time was to hold the saucer in one hand, and the teacup in the other (dominant) hand so that the teacup could be placed back down in between sips.
As for teapots, the earliest versions were in small vessels that could only hold up to two or three cups of tea (due to the expense of tea at the time). In England, metal teapots were quite common, as they were able to keep the tea as hot as possible, however, porcelain teapots that are used in China are believed to keep the tea a better flavour.
Sources: Davis, Melissa. “The Continuing Tempest Over Teapots.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Feb. 1979, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/02/15/the-continuing-tempest-over-teapots/4dd9230f-522a-4b02-a3ff-b4eaee4f5d2b/. Lemm, Elaine. “The Different Types of Tea in Britain - There Are Many.” The Spruce Eats, www.thespruceeats.com/history-and-types-of-british-tea-435180. “Tea in the United Kingdom.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_in_the_United_Kingdom. TopicTea. “The History of Tea in Britain - Who Brought Tea to England?” TopicTea, topictea.com/blogs/tea-blog/history-of-tea-in-britain. Images: Elizabeth Pepys’s Potticary Tea https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/twinings-tea-shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/862499433/roslyn-primula-tea-set-stunning-early?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=english+tea+set&ref=sr_gallery-1-3&cns=1