Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Pastimes/Drinks

Tea

During the Seventeenth Century Tea was first introduced to England. Hot infusions of dried leaves, such as sage, have long been found in England, making tea a natural progression. Tea grown in Asia was first brought into England through the Dutch, who acquired it through their colonies in East Asia. The date of tea entering England and first being consumed is unknown, but as early as 1577 the Portuguese began to import tea into Europe.

When Catherine of Braganza married Charles II in 1662, the tea industry in England took off, as the Queen was incredibly fond of tea and the delights of having a nice warm cup. She reportedly substituted teas for wines and alcohols in her court.

In the 1660s, coffee houses in London began advertising tea for “£6 and £10 per pound,” it was a very expensive habit that could only be afforded by the landed and noble classes. These were sold by Thomas Garway in Exchange Ally. Tea would be used as an indicator of wealth, and was something that gentry and nobility were quick to offer their guests, as a way to show off. Tea was also marketed as a health product as it would improve health and elongate life. The rise of the enjoyment of Tea in England corresponded with the rise of clubhouses and coffeehouses, where middle and upper classes frequented to be entertained, to increase their knowledge of public affairs, and create social ties. In the coffeehouses, tea was often drank.

Wine

Wine was popular and widely available by the seventeenth century. It did, however, need to be imported, which made it more of an upper class type of beverage.

Wine was a status symbol as it was generally imported from France and Spain, especially from Provence, Languedoc, and the Rhine, but also from Naples and Florence. But because of different political events, such as wars, sometimes wines would be imported from elsewhere on the continent such as Portugal. Claret was the most popular variety of wine in seventeenth-century England, and people often added sugar to it. Wine was not something to be wasted as it was often quiet expensive, so even if it was terrible it could be made drinkable by adding cloves and honey.

Wine was an extremely useful item in the seventeenth century household. It was not only used as an enjoyable drink, but made itself very useful in medical purposes as it could be mixed with herbs to make medicine. It was vital in medical compounds. It was also used in a cosmetic application as a skin cleaner with “powered white mercury, lemon juice, pulverised egg shells, and white wine.”

The wine industry saw a brief decline in the 17th century. The effects and echoes of the protestant and other eccentric religious sects did little to promote it.W ine also had to go up against the readilly available beer and what was beginning to be cleaner drinking water. Wine had gone from a major staple drink to a luxury item. As a slight decline was happening wine makers expanded their horizons adding accessories like corks.

France was one of the major wine making countries and because of sometimes strained relations wine had to be imported from other places like Portugal and Holland

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