Black Loose Leaf Tea in the UK
The drinking of tea is one of the most widespread stereotypes of British people and British culture. But while the caricature of the bowler hat-wearing, smooth-accented, impeccably dressed Brit sipping tea from a fine porcelain cup is not born out by reality, the British people’s love of tea is certainly true. This small island nation is one of the world’s largest tea consumers – the third highest in the world in terms of tea consumed per capita. Over 130,000 tons of tea are imported to the UK each year, and for centuries the vast majority of this has been black tea. And nearly three quarters of Brits still say that their go-to tea is black tea. While there are signs that the national love affair with tea is cooling, recent surveys show that just over half of Brits drink three or more cups of tea per day.
What is the History of Tea in Britain?
The tea plant (the leaves of which are used to make the beverage) is native to East Asia, with the earliest records of tea as a drink being found in China over 4000 years ago. But how did this refreshing and soothing drink reach some rainy islands off Europe, nearly 5000 miles away?
European nations began formal commercial trade with China in the 17th century, when ships and navigation improved sufficiently to make the long, dangerous voyage regularly. The Chinese government placed strong restrictions on the tea trade, making only certain quantities and types of tea available to merchants and which ports they were available at. Export of the actual tea plants was banned and smuggling them out of China could be punishable by death.
Tea began to arrive in Britain in the 1650s, imported by the British East India Company via Dutch and Portuguese merchants. It was a very expensive drink and treated mainly as a curiosity for the upper classes. In 1662 King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. Tea was already established in Portugal and Catherine popularised the drink in England. By 1700, when the East India Company began trading directly with China for tea, it was still costly but was affordable enough to be a fashionable luxury good and a status symbol. Tea attracted an import duty of over 100% (more than doubling the sale price), which not only kept it an exclusive commodity but also made smuggling rife.
While people in Burma, China and Japan consumed green tea, only black tea (formed by drying and curing the leaves) could survive the months-long voyage from China without spoiling. So black tea became the form of the drink known and loved in Britain. The leaves would be compressed into bales which would then be packed into wooden tea chests. Tea merchants would buy tea by the chest and would slice off a portion of the bale to sell to customers. Loose leaf tea would be kept at home in a tea caddy, often decorated with Chinese or Japanese patterns or landscapes and having pride of place in the home.
Tea: A Drink and A Meal
The mid-19th century also saw the start of ‘tea’ being a meal as well as a drink. The question of when to have tea and the difference between tea, high tea, supper and dinner can still spark lively debate between Brits to this day!
In the early Victorian era, wealthy people usually had their main meal of the day near midday (this being ‘dinner’). Traditionally a lighter meal was eaten in the early evening (‘supper’). Improved lighting and the opportunities of urban life for business and recreation extended the active day, so supper was being eaten later and later. This left a large hunger-inducing time between lunch and the next meal. The upper- and middle classes began to fill this uncomfortable gap with a light meal consisting of a restorative cup of tea and some bread and butter or cake. And thus ‘tea’ (later ‘afternoon tea’) was born. Anna Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, is often credited with inventing the tradition, but it is much more likely that she merely popularised an already existing trend.
This tradition of afternoon tea is also part of the British stereotype, with lots of hotels, resorts, restaurants and cafes around the world offering ‘British style’ afternoon tea, even if most British people only have a full afternoon tea on special occasions, if at all.
The Drink For Everyone
In 1784 the tax on tea was cut from 119 percent to just 12.5 percent. Combined with ever larger and faster ships (such as the famous clipper Cutty Sark, designed to carry 10,000 tea chests from China to London in just 100 days), this made tea available to middle classes. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 the price dropped even further, and by 1840 it was reported that tea was being drunk regularly throughout Britain by men and women of all social classes.
By 1850 workers and their managers had both discovered the advantages of regular tea breaks throughout the working day. It was refreshing and hydrating while avoiding the problems caused by drinking beer (the traditional workman’s drink). Making and drinking provided short physical and mental breaks for the men while also being a chance to inspect and repair machinery. Because making tea required boiling water, it was also a healthy choice in cities where water often carried disease and pollutants.
It was the British working class that really popularised adding milk and sugar to a strong black tea (creating the ‘builder’s tea’ that makes up the majority of teas brewed in the UK to this day) as a cheap energy-boosting beverage. By 1870 the homes of British people of all classes, occupations and incomes nearly always had a kettle and teapot ready to go, and offering a cup of tea (a ‘cuppa’ or ‘brew’ to many) to guests when they arrived was already seen as good hosting and manners.
The British love of tea required new implements to create the perfect brew. The classic ‘Brown Betty’ teapot was already common by the end of the 18th century, with its distinctive chubby shape allowing the loose-leaf tea to circulate and brew. Square teapots allowed tea to be brewed on the road or at sea, while enamel flasks (with an in-built mug serving as the lid) allowed factory workers, miners, train drivers and more to take tea with them on the job.
Keep Calm and Have A Brew
The rest of the world really came to know the British love of tea during the Second World War. It made a particular impression on Americans who were stationed in Britain and fought alongside British troops. The global conflict disrupted the tea trade, but the British government understood how important the supply of tea was for morale and a symbol of the British way of life. Tea was rationed during the war (and remained so until 1952), but at a relatively generous amount enough for three cups of tea per day per person.
This period really answered the question of what does tea stand for in history for the British. Royal Navy sailors were permitted unlimited amounts of tea when their ships were at sea. The Navy, Army & Air Force Institute (NAAFI) provided servicemen with regular access to tea, including mobile canteens when they were on exercise or behind the fighting lines, while British Restaurants provided the same service for civilians. Civilians who found their homes destroyed by bombing or suffering the loss of a loved one would swiftly find a mug of tea pressed into their hands by neighbours. Making and sharing a cup of tea became an egalitarian and bonding experience that was shared between everyone – civilian and military, rich or poor, regardless of service, rank or background.
In 1942 the British government moved to secure its supply of this war-winning leaf and bought up the entire global supply of tea (apart from that supplied via the enemy nations of Germany and Japan). Of all the material shipped to British forces by the War Department during the conflict, tea was second only to bullets by weight.
American soldiers were often baffled and frustrated by their British allies’ tendency to stop for regular tea breaks. On D-Day a British infantry division secured its landing beach but delayed pushing inland to make tea. In fact, the British senior command encouraged its soldiers to take tea breaks wherever possible to keep energy and morale up during long days of heavy fighting. Numerous official and improvised methods and devices were used to quickly make tea in the field. British tanks were – and still are – fitted with ‘boiling vessels’ so tea can be made quickly and without leaving the safety of the tank.
Bagging a Brew
All these millions of cuppas were brewed with loose leaf tea. Military field rations provided tea in sachets, but the leaves themselves were still tipped into the pot or can be brewed, and the tea had to be strained as it was poured.
The tea bag was invented in the early 1900s in America, and Tetley introduced it to Britain right before the outbreak of the Second World War. It didn’t catch on then, but Lipton tried again in 1952, with a stronger but freer-flowing design and this had staying power. Brits were still slow to give up a ‘proper brew’ – only 3 per cent of all tea brewed in Britain in 1968 used tea bags. But the convenience of the tea bag when making a quick cuppa at work or sticking the kettle on during the ad break of your favourite TV show meant that the situation is almost perfectly reversed today, with 96 per cent of all tea being made with a bag in the 21st century.
Best British Loose Leaf Tea
Whether bagged or brewed, the British love affair with tea is still here. To the extent that the country built four pumped storage hydroelectric power stations to combat the ‘Great British Kettle Surge’ – the sudden load on the national grid of millions of kettles being switched on at once during breaks or when the credits roll on popular TV shows. The largest of these can make enough power to supply over half a million kettles in just 12 seconds.
British tastes in tea are changing, with more customers exploring green tea, fruit teas and other flavours, and trying out other aspects of other tea cultures around the world, such as combining tea with savoury rather than sweet foods. Brewing loose leaf tea in a proper teapot still provides superior, richer flavour and maintains more of tea’s intrinsic health benefits. In a world increasingly conscious of sustainability, eliminating the materials used in tea bags and getting the most tea from every leaf is bringing people back to the traditional methods.
