May 20, 2024 · Tea began to arrive in Britain in significant amounts from the beginning of the 18th century. Over 200,000 pounds of tea were imported during 1700–1704 via large ships called East Indiamen. As imports increased, tea also became more available to the middle classes.

Since the 17th century, the United Kingdom has been one of the world's largest tea consumers, with an average annual per capita supply of 1.9 kilograms (4.2 lb). [1] . Originally an upper-class drink in Europe, tea gradually spread through all classes, eventually becoming a common drink.

Tea, that most quintessential of English drinks, is a relative latecomer to British shores. Although the custom of drinking tea dates back to the third millennium BC in China, it was not until the mid 17th century that tea was first introduced to England.

Aug 19, 2019 · Tea is the British and Irish national drink. Tea in Britain is drunk daily, often many cups a day, but from where did this love of teas in Britain come? Tea was first brought to Britain in the early 17th century by the East India Company. It was an expensive product and one only for the rich and often kept under lock and key.

Oct 4, 2018 · Early European tea drinking gained popularity in the 1700s. England wasn't the first European country to sip tea, but it's where the beverage really took off, so I'm focusing on British teaware for this post.

British researchers have found what they believe to be the oldest tea in Britain, and to the surprise of contemporary British tea drinkers, the tea is green! The unassuming box of Chinese tea was acquired around 1700 by a ship’s surgeon James Cuninghame.

Oct 21, 2019 · The tea was sold to smugglers who supplied the black market in Britain, where tea was taxed heavily, often well over 100 percent. According to some estimates in the mid-eighteenth century, more than three-quarters of all tea consumed in …

When British merchants and consumers first encountered tea in the late seventeenth century, it was recognized as an exotic, luxury, herbal, and sanative commodity sourced from China.

From 1700 to 1721 import rates of tea into England increased fifty times. Tea was brought from China — until the middle of the 19 th century there was no other tea but Chinese (Japan exported next to nothing).

Green and black teas, milk, sugar and alcohol Both green and black teas were drunk in 17th and 18th century Britain, the black varieties being nluch cheaper. Until the 1840s, when tea plants were first successfully cultivated in India, all Britain's tea canle from China.