In other countries, tea’s fashionability was established when the monarchy and nobility took to it, so in England it had to await the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II before it really took off. In 1662, Charles married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of Portugal, and she brought with her not only the tea-drinking habit, but the territories of Mumbai (Bombay) and Tangier, as part of her dowry. These enabled the East India Company to establish a permanent operational base in India, from where they could supply the English domestic market.

Like all new and exotic products, tea was initially hugely expensive, and so consumption was confined to the wealthiest classes. As its price moderated, though, it became more widely drunk, and soon replaced beer as the national drink.

Before long imported tea was cheaper than home-produced beer. Tea has been a genuinely democratic drink ever since – the fuel for manual workers and poor households just as much as it is the symbol of polite refinement when sipped with cucumber sandwiches at four in the afternoon (“tea time”).

Tea on board

For a brief period during the 19th century, the tea trade relied on great sailing ships known as clippers, among which the famous Cutty Sark – now moored in dry dock at Greenwich in south-east London – still survives. These ships were designed for the long and arduous journey along the Eastern trade routes, which involved sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

The Twinings Tea website describes the defining characteristics of the tea clipper as “a sharply raked bow, overhanging stern and acres of sail. The clipper was a ship built for speed – and Britain was a nation obsessed with speed of tea delivery.”

So proud was the East India Company of the speed of its clippers that trading journeys turned into races. Substantial bets would be placed on which ship would be the first to dock in London with its precious cargo. Illustrious tea party hosts would then pride themselves on being able to serve tea brought in on the winning boat.

According to www.twinings.com: “1866 saw the most thrilling tea race of them all. Five ships left the Chinese port of Foochow between May 29th and 31st. On September 6th, the Taeping and the Ariel docked in London within half an hour of each other; the Serica followed two hours later.”

There was no particular reason for such urgency. As a dried product, tea wasn’t in danger of going bad. The thrill of the tea races endured for a generation though, as a mid-Victorian version of today’s competition among wine importers in November – to see who can land the first bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau.

The tea clippers were cut off in their prime in 1869, when a route through the Mediterranean and via the Suez Canal opened, and steam propulsion replaced sail.

The East India Company

The East India Company, which enjoyed the monopoly of the tea trade for so long, had been founded under Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31st, 1600. It had the right to trade in the East Indies for 15 years, but the charter was extended indefinitely by James I in 1609. Tea was initially imported from India, until a trading post was set up in Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China in 1711. Colossal demand for tea created a major trade deficit with China, which was to lead the Company to establish its own tea plantations in India.

The Company saw its pre-eminence start to decline in the 19th century. In 1834, its stranglehold on the trade with China was loosened, enabling other companies and private citizens to import Chinese tea as they wished. Then the Navigation Acts of 1849 relaxed the requirement whereby only British-registered ships could land tea in the UK. This opened the way for rival foreign companies to bring tea to Britain.

Despite being a commercial concern, the East India Company was also the administrative authority in colonial India. Following the mutiny of native soldiers in its pay in 1857, its executive powers were revoked and the government took over this responsibility.

The most famous tea party in history

In the 18th century, tea was very popular in the North American colonies, but it was heavily taxed by the government in London. This led to a boycott by many American settlers. In 1773, a consignment of Chinese tea carried on three ships landed at Boston, Massachusetts. It had been refused at several other ports, and now an attempt was made to offload it under the protection of armed naval vessels.

While the ships lay anchored, a band of militant rebels calling themselves the Sons of Liberty forced their way on to the ships one by one, and proceeded to smash 342 crates of tea, dumping the contents into the harbour. As a result, the British authorities closed the port of Boston. The episode became known as the Boston Tea Party, and is still seen as an iconic precursor of the American Revolution.

These hostilities help to explain why tea declined in popularity in America, as patriot rebels switched their allegiances to coffee. Simultaneously, and for the same reasons, patriotic Brits shunned the previously more popular coffee and embraced tea instead.

Selling tea

One of the most important early tea retailers in London was Fortnum & Mason, in Piccadilly (established 1707). Nowadays, Fortnum’s sells around 60 varieties of tea, not including herbal infusions and tisanes. They include Mandarin Jasmine, Rolling Clouds and the reputedly aphrodisiac Silver Tips.

The first dominant name in the modern tea trade is Thomas Lipton, a Glasgow entrepreneur who opened his first shop in 1871. Lipton imported tea directly from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and was also a master of self-promotion. His slogan was “Direct from the tea gardens to the teapot”. He also coined the advertising phrase “Accept no substitutes”. Lipton received a knighthood from Queen Victoria in 1898.

Tea types

The original simple division of tea into two types (green, as favoured by the Chinese, and black, the oxidised Western preference) has now branched out into many different varieties and styles. Infusions such as camomile tea are not truly teas as they are not made from the leaves of the tea bush, Camellia sinensis. There are many other variations on the basic cuppa, though. Indian chai – tea spiced with ginger, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, bayleaf, nutmeg, etc – has become fashionable among a new generation of tea-drinkers in search of novelty.

Today the nation’s most popular brand is PG Tips, followed by Tetleys and Typhoo. Britons consume an average of 2.1kg of tea per head per year – one of the highest rates in the world, along with the Republic of Ireland and Turkey.