Tea Time

“Higher tea intake was associated with lower mortality risk among those drinking two or more cups per day, regardless of genetic variation in caffeine metabolism. These findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet.”[1]

“Why don't we get submissions like this?” I wondered when I had to desk reject yet another manuscript along the lines of “IGF3XY5 promotes lung cancer growth by influencing methyladenosine metabolism. A rat model.” The UK Biobank, an effort made possible by the much-scolded National Health Service, builds on the data of half a million participants after all. And the message is sound, something to identify with, and one which makes you feel good. If you drink tea, that is.

Tea has been consumed in China for an eternity. Laozi supposedly called it “the froth of liquid jade,” green, unfermented tea leaves being the preferred method of preparation there until today. It reached Europe as a medical potion in the 16th century through the Portuguese settlement in Macau under its Cantonese Chinese name “chá.” We find tea, recommended by an apothecary for his wife's “colds and defluxions,” mentioned in the diaries of Samuel Pepys in the 1660s. At the same time, tea also appeared as a more exclusive drink in the coffee houses of London. These had established themselves as important places of debate for intellectuals and tradesmen alike. The served coffee—and now tea—invigorated the brain and promoted logical thinking—in sharp contrast to beer consumed in the public ale houses which featured quite different kinds of discussions.

In 1706, Thomas Twining opened what is supposed to be the first tea shop at 216 Strand, London, where it remains until today. In the 18th century, black tea brewed from leaves fully fermented during the long transport established itself as the British national drink, usually consumed with milk to confine the bitterness and further sweetened with brown cane sugar which was imported from the other side of the British Empire, the West Indies.

Speaking of the Americas, the colonists over there had to import the fashionable drink from London through the East India Company. It was heavily taxed, following the Townshend Acts in 1767, to finance the administration of the colonies. The smuggling of vast quantities of cheap Dutch tea ensued. In 1773, the British parliament issued the Tea Act, trying to counteract and reestablish its company's monopoly. The increasingly self-confident settlers, however, felt that their interests were not represented by the faraway government anymore and voiced their protest at the Boston Tea Party in December of the same year, dumping a lot of expensive tea about to be imported from London into the Boston harbour. The resulting unrest culminated in the American War of Independence. In the newly founded United States of America drinking tea the English way was subsequently considered unpatriotic. In fact, the vast majority is still consumed there as a sweetened and often additionally flavoured concoction called iced “tea.”

These different attitudes to tea consumption have been summarized in the following dialogue, as recorded by P.G. Wodehouse, between Bertie Wooster and the intimidating Isabel Rockmetteller of Illinois, United States:

“Tea, tea, tea – what! What!” I said.

It wasn't what I had meant to say. My idea had been to be a good deal more formal, and so on. Still, it covered the situation. I poured her out a cup. She sipped it and put the cup down with a shudder.

“Do you mean to say, young man,” she said, frostily, “that you expect me to drink this stuff?”

“Rather! Bucks you up, you know.”

“What do you mean by the expression “Bucks you up”?”

“Well, makes you full of beans, you know. Makes you fizz.”

“I don't understand a word you say. You're English, aren't you?”

I admitted it. She didn't say a word. And she did it in a way that made it worse than if she had spoken for hours. Somehow it was brought home to me that she didn't like Englishmen, and that if she had had to meet an Englishman, I was the one she'd have chosen last.[2]

America always a fertile ground for entrepreneurs, it comes as no surprise that it were two American ladies from Milwaukee, WI, who invented the practical tea bag in 1903: Roberta Lawson and Mary McLaren (U.S. patent: 723287). This was further developed over time, for instance into the refined pyramidic/tetrahedron shape with increased surface area to enhance diffusion as used for the magnificent PG Tips.

Back home in England, tea had arrived with the working classes at the beginning of the 19th century. Appealing to the wet and cool climate, the hot beverage fortified and stimulated the workers, especially those working outdoors. As a side effect, the boiled water also helped to fight waterborne diseases. In 1854, Dr John Snow correctly associated the spread of cholera, which had just claimed 14,000 lives in London, with the use of a water pump on Broad Street in Soho. It is still there, the street now known as Broadwick Street, with an adjacent pub appropriately named John Snow. Incidental London trivia: if you want to cross inside from the Public Bar (entrance on Lexington Street) to the Saloon Bar (entrance on Broadwick Street), you still have to sort of duck and crawl under a partition. But I digress…

This steadily growing demand incited the East India Company to become independent of the expensive supply from China. It took advantage of appropriate climatic zones within the British Raj and started tea plantations in Assam and Darjeeling in the 1820s, soon extending to Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka. Tea remains a vitally important export business for many former colonies, now independent countries. Old Mother England alone still imports roughly 2 kilograms per head and year.[3] According to our inspiring study,[1] almost 90% of the tea consumed there is of the black variety, with 7% being green. What about the rest? As a connoisseur, one would hope that it belongs to Oolong (Chinese: black dragon). For this, leaves only partially fermented are pan-fried, rolled, and dried. If hot water is poured over the rather nondescript crumbles, they unfold to their former grandeur at harvest, emanating a rich, tangy flavour. A rare treat and a true pick-me-up, not least for Bertie Wooster:

I turned on the pillow with a little moan, and at this juncture Jeeves entered with the vital oolong. I clutched at it like a drowning man at a straw hat.[4]

Publication History

Article published online:
08 October 2024

• References

• 1 Inoue-Choi M, Ramirez Y, Cornelis MC, Berrington de González A, Freedman ND, Loftfield E. Tea consumption and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the UK biobank: a prospective cohort study. Ann Intern Med 2022; 175 (09) 1201-1211
• 2 Wodehouse PG. The aunt and the sluggard. In: Carry On. Jeeves. Harmondsworth. England: Penguin Books; 1975. , first edition 1957; first published in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in 1925
• 3 Statista. . Tea market worldwide - statistics & facts. Accessed August 26, 2024 at: https://www.statista.com/topics/6922/tea-market-worldwide/#topicOverview
• 4 Wodehouse PG, Right Ho. Jeeves. Harmondsworth. England: Penguin Books; 1975. , first edition 1953; first published in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in 1934