The origin of tea drinking
The practice of tea drinking may be traced back some 5,000 years to the reign of the Chinese Emperor, Shen-Nung. It was travelling traders that first talked about the strange properties of the tea bush and brought the concept to the West. Indeed for some time it remained far from certain exactly what tea was or how to produce it. Father Jasper de Cruz, a Portuguese missionary in China, was probably the first European to sample and drink tea in 1560.
It was Portugal that opened up a trade route to China some four years later and soon other countries followed suit, and tea began to 'flow' in Europe.
Initially, tea was very much a drink for the upper classes, mainly because of its very high price. However, as the cost fell over the years, tea came to replace ale as the English 'national' drink. First mention of adding milk to tea was in the writings of the Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné in 1680.
Tea was also to be found in the 'coffeehouses' of London, sometimes referred to as the 'penny universities'. Garway's Coffee House was one of the first to sell tea. The East India Company owned or leased several properties in the City of London, the first in Philpot Lane, Fenchurch. It finally leased Lord Craven's House in Leadenhall Street. For the sum of a penny any man (women were not allowed) could obtain a pot of tea and a newspaper. One such coffeehouse was run for ship-owners and merchants. It later branched out into insurance and became Lloyd's of London.
