Tea's Impact On Great Britain And The World

Evan Williams

Honors English 11

Mrs. Steely

2 March, 2016

Tea’s Impact on Great Britain and the World When an individual is asked the first thing that comes to his/her mind following the word “tea”, the response is very commonly Great Britain or the English culture in general. But how did this stereotypical generalization come to be? The birth story of tea dates back to 2737 B.C., when a ruler named Shen Nong unintentionally unlocked the key to "the worlds favorite drink". The legend says that Nong was boiling water in his garden when a few leaves from an overhanging tree descended into the pot. Upon consumption of the liquid, the emperor tasted something quite different and delicious. The liquid is believed the be the first tea ever made.

Tea had not only been known as the national drink of the country, but one of the “seven necessities of life," due to such high consumption rates among not only the wealthy, but also the common people. The Japanese, on the other hand, believed that tea originated in their country through the actions of Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who's teachings were traced back to the fifth or sixth century. The legend states that Bodhidharma stared at a cave wall and meditated for nine years, but on the seventh year he started to fall asleep. Frustrated and angry at himself, Budhidharma cut off his own eyelids to stay awake. As his eyelids hit the floor of the cave tea plants sprung up from the dirt floor and provided the world with a healthy and refreshing beverage (The History). The modern way of drinking tea, by steeping tea

Well, the first recorded trace of tea to appear in the Western countries is credited to a Portuguese missionary, who brought tea back from expeditions to China in the early 16th century. Tea had not begun to be seriously exchanged until Dutch merchants shipped it through the Dutch East India Company in 1610. Tea also blossomed through trade on the Silk Road, especially in Russia and big cities such as London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Because drinking tea was viewed as "a way to partake in a bit of Eastern adventure," prices on it were extremely high, restricting tea drinking to only the upper-class and royals (A History). Europeans obtained the drink by trading a precious plant of their own, the poppy, Papaver somniferum, which was prepared into the narcotic drug, opium. The drug was produced, manufactured, and distributed in India to the Orient under executive rule of the English empire through the East India Company. The opium-tea exchange became one of the most influential parts of Britain's economy, with roughly £1 in every £10 sterling brought in by the government coming from tax on the importation, marketing, and dealing of tea. The tax on tea brought about many much-needed services and necessities in the developing industrial era (Rose). In 1689, tea sales nearly came to a halt due to the leaf being taxed at up to 25p in the pound. In