Teapot, teapot, short and stout…ahh the power of tea. I am sort of, kind of, in love with tea. Even before I went to England, I was kind of a tea snob. I go to nice tea shops (like Teavana here) and only buy tea leaves (obviously far superior to tea bags) and drink my tea with my pinky out. Okay, so scratch the last one. But still–when it comes to tea, I can be really annoying.
Tea is some magical stuff. Apparently, it dates back roughly to 1,000 BC, somewhere in Asia. Who on earth discovered that special, ground up leaves placed in a cup of hot water makes a delicious, medicinal beverage is beyond me. One myth says a leaf fell into Buddha’s cup and he discovered that it tasted delicious, another says that Shennong, an Emperor of China, discovered it in the same way.
Then tea went through a series of circuits around Eurasia, and eventually, in the 15-1600’s, tea found its grip in Europe, first, by Portuguese traders, then later the Russians, the French, the Dutch, and finally, the English. Remember how the colonists dumped all the tea in harbour for the Boston Tea Party because of high taxes? Well, apparently, the English had high taxes too, but in the late 1700’s, their taxes were also abolished, and everybody started drinking tea.
There was just one problem. The English really liked Chinese tea. Now, being at the height of the magnificent British Empire, they usually got what the wanted–except for that frustrating Chinese tea. See, the Chinese were apparently content with everything they had, and refused to trade the English for their commodities. So the English, (this was back in the days when they could still be ruthless when they wanted to be), said, “Hey! We’ve got this fine crop of opium that we’ve stolen from a poor, hapless colony; let’s make them cultivate it, then we’ll give it to the Chinese, get ’em hooked on it, then they’ll have to give us some of that infernal tea!” Which led to the lovely, aptly-named opium wars.
So I guess it’s no wonder the English are so hooked on tea–they had to work so hard to get it that they just drank it like crazy until (muhaha) China got them hooked on the tea. What a vicious circle. And a Catch-22. And karma.
What a great little redux of tea history! and we fully agree – leaves make a far superior cup to bags. if you’re ever in NYC, stop by our tea store and grab yourself a cuppa!