It’s tea time. Boil some water, get your tea bags and honey and enjoy a healthy, delicious cup of tea, with or without caffeine. A Chinese proverb states it is “better to be deprived of food for three days than
It’s tea time. Boil some water, get your tea bags and honey and enjoy a healthy, delicious cup of tea, with or without caffeine.
A Chinese proverb states it is “better to be deprived of food for three days than of tea for one.”
In the early 16th Century the first Europeans reached China by sea. In 1557 China allowed the Portuguese to set up a trading post in Canton.
Despite some tea being brought to Lisbon by Portuguese sailors, it wasn’t until 1610 that the Dutch brought a small commercial shipment to Europe.
In the 1630s tea reached France, and in the 1650s it reached England. Still, 50 years later, in the beginning of the 18th Century, almost no one drank tea in England.
By the end of the century, however, England had surrendered to tea. In 1699, England imported six tons of tea. One hundred years later that number increased to 11,000 tons, while the price dropped 20 fold.
As the popularity of tea grew in England, dysentery and other waterborne diseases declined. The reason was likely the boiling of the water and tea’s natural antibacterial properties.
Infant mortality also declined, and doctors in the early 19th Century attributed this to the tea’s antibacterial properties being passed into the breast milk of nursing mothers.
Less diseases and higher infant survival rate contributed to densely populated living quarters and a larger availability of workforce, crucial for the development of the Industrial Revolution in England during the 19th Century.
Tea also played a major role in the United States independence.
The Tea Act of 1773 allowed the British India Tea Company to ship directly from China to America, bypassing British import duties and benefiting a much lower American duty. The act was intended to get the British India Tea Company out of a financial hole and would also lower prices in the U.S.
What the British didn’t take into consideration was that American colonists depended on dealing smuggled tea for survival and resented British tea monopoly. They boycotted British goods and refused to pay taxes to England on principle.
On Dec. 16, 1773, protesters dressed as Mohawks boarded three company ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. Other tea parties followed.
In March 1774, England closed down Boston Harbor until the company got compensated and ended self-government in Massachusetts. It marked the first of England’s Coercive Acts, which culminated with the declaration of the Revolutionary War in 1775.
The rest is history: United States’ Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
Now, have yourself a cup of tea for the sake of history, better health or just pure pleasure.
