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British Culture Alphabet: T
4 年前I'm writing about British culture.
I thought a cool way to introduce some British culture into the Verbling community would be to work through the alphabet and talk about a topic for each letter.
So, for T we are focusing on.....
Tea
British people love tea. Is it true? Apparently, yes. On average, every UK citizen consumes around 2 Kilograms of tea each year. Britain in total consumes 60 billion cups per year, according to the Tea and Infusions Organisation.
So, where did this love of tea come from? It is widely accepted that tea was first imported into Britain by the East India Company in the early 17th century. As an exotic import tea was expensive and was also highly taxed, meaning that it was not initially available to most people. It was available at Coffee Houses and was sold as a remedy for a myriad of issues. Thereafter, the drinking of tea was adopted by the rich and wealthy. The Royal Court introduced the ritual of drinking tea during the reign of Charles II and thereafter the drink became fashionable and the trend of drinking it trickled down into the aristocratic ranks.
During the later seventeenth century, heavy taxes on tea meant that tea smuggling became a huge problem and led to lower quality tea being sold on the market. Tea adulteration (bulking up low-quality tea with other ingredients which were sometimes dangerous) remained a key problem until the government made it illegal in 1875.
In 1840 Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford introduced Afternoon Tea. Rumour has it that the Duchess would get hungry around 4.00 pm and given that the evening meal was not served until 8pm Anna needed something to tide her over in the meantime. So, she asked for a tray of bread, tea, butter and a cake be brought into her room late in the afternoon. This actually became a habit that she introduced to her friends, thereafter it became a fashionable social event for upper-class women. It is still enjoyed in hotels, restaurants and homes around the country.
In my experience Earl Grey and Breakfast Tea are the most common tea varieties drunk in Britain. Earl Grey is not usually drunk with milk whereas Breakfast tea is. I take my tea with milk and a small spoonful of sugar (often with a biscuit). How do you drink your tea?
