Cultural interactions behind British tea consumption

Would you like a cup of tea?

Having a cup of tea has become a daily routine for many British people. Like many other consumer goods such as chocolate and coffee, tea is imported from overseas and once was a luxury product in Early Modern Britain. The shift from a pricy upper class consumer goods to nowadays people could easily get it in the supermarkets indicates key turning points in British economic history. More importantly, there are continuous cultural interactions throughout this change.

For the western world, tea first appeared in the 16th century as a product of the Age of Discovery. The development of naval technology enabled European travellers to explore the eastern world and discovered this new type of drink. Only in the second half of the 17th century, tea began to be sold in England. Imported from the far East, there were imaginations that this drink has magic power. Doctors, who were known as ‘physicians’ in the Early Modern period, believed that tea was a medicinal drink that could cure all maladies as well as enable long lives. Before the Industrial Revolution and the 19th century globalisation, tea was a luxury product that only wealthy aristocrats or merchants could afford. It became popular for upper-class ladies to serve their guests tea as a way to show off.

The first wave of globalisation and imperial expansion led to what is known as the Consumer Revolution. Leading to consistency in the tea export and reducing the prices. Middle-class could gradually afford this product. The East Indian Company continued tea export and was in monopoly of tea supply. Tea was even the most popular consumer good when compared with coffee or alcohol. The growing variety of the goods encouraged the British to work more as there were more ways to spend their many and enjoy what used to be ‘luxury’. The economy was further boosted when consumer goods came into bundles. For instance, both sugar and tea were both considered ‘luxury’ and which sugar was added into tea. A set of china would also be ideal when enjoying the tea. Since then, tea has never lost its popularity.

Eventually, the never-ending import made the price of tea so cheap that some historians argue that by the 19th century, the price of tea was even lower than beer. It now became common for the working-class to consume tea. The warm drink helped with the dry consistency of bread or cheese. Yet, unlike the upper-middle class who were joyfully spending their cup of tea in well-made china at their mansions, tea consumption for the working class was always associated with work in the Industrial Revolution era. The tradition of adding sugar inside tea also meant that drinking tea was a way to boost calories intake for workers.

For the modern day people, tea can be consumed anywhere and anytime. In recent years, there is a new way of having your tea. That is the introduction of bubble tea! It is believed that this new trend originated in Taiwan, China. Adding milk and tea together for the locals is one legacy of the Dutch arrivals but in the 1970s and 80s there was an invention of adding ‘bubbles’ into milk tea from one local tea house. It has gradually began to spread out firstly in South East Asia and Asia. With the new wave of globalisation, bubble tea’s popularity reached the western world. Indicating the cultural interaction never ends, but every time in a new form.