Tea in Britain

The first tea seen in Europe was brought back by Dutch and Portuguese traders in the early 17th century. Within decades the East India Company was importing small quantities directly to England.

In the early days it was a rare and extravagant product, made expensive by hefty taxes. The Portuguese wife of Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, introduced the elegant rituals of tea-drinking to the English court in the mid-17th century, and soon the ladies of the aristocracy were offering tea to their guests in imported Chinese porcelain cups.

Wealthy ladies kept their finest leaves under lock and key, and there was a rampant black market in smuggled leaves.

Wealthy ladies kept their finest leaves under lock and key, and there was a rampant black market in smuggled leaves. Unscrupulous traders sold fake and adulterated teas, some of them made from the leaves of sloe and other native trees, coloured with poisonous verdigris or logwood in an attempt to make them look real.

The earliest imported teas had been sold as infusions in the new coffee houses of the 17th century, clubby establishments that catered solely to men. Thomas Twining opened the first tea shop for ladies in London in 1717 and, before long, tea gardens were offering entertainment to people of both genders and all social classes.