Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Cultural Topics/Tea

There is another section on tea and drinks that this should be merged with.

Today afternoon tea is a very typical British pastime and is often mimicked around the Commonwealth, for example in India cricket matches are stopped for a tea break. The first mention of tea by a western explorer was in 1559, a hot beverage believed to have medicinal qualities. However, this herb derived concoction did not actually become popular in England until Charles’ II new wife, Catherine of Braganza of Portugal, drank it on a regular basis. Up until 1662 the popular, and lets face it, more fun spirits, like wine and all sorts of ales, were usually served in the King’s court. However, when Catherine became queen she quickly replaced them with her preferential beverage, tea. Due to the Navigation laws prohibiting the import of goods from any foreign nation to England, the East India trading company was able to monopolize on the popularity of tea in London, and became quite wealthy off the import of vast quantities of tea from Asia. Because of this high demand for trade the East India company made it one of it's priority commodities. From 1650 - 1700 Britain had imported roughly 182,000 pounds of tea and by 1750 the nation had imported 4 million pounds. It was first served for its medicinal properties in apothecaries and was eventually sold throughout the coffee houses and was advertised from £6 to £10 per pound of tea.