The History Of Drinking Tea In England

In this video Alan Macfarlane shares his knowledge on the history of drinking tea in England. According to Macfarlane Tea was first discovered in India in Assam Province where he was born and brought up on a tea plantation. The tea plant developed two great features, caffeine and something that killed off the bacteria which attacked the plants leaves. It was then found by various tribal groups who chewed it an rubbed it on their wounds with a positive effect. He states that some Chinese visitor must have noticed these tribal actions and tried it himself. having discovered it relaxed him he took it back to china.  In the period before Christ the tea leaf was taken back to china and planted in Monastery gardens and grew it a medical herb.

Then in the 8th century a visitor from Japan took some plants back to japan and again planted them in monastery gardens.  Here a Zen buddhist monk found if you ground the leaves into samll pieces and drank it as green tea and turned it into a formal ceremony it was found to have great properties. He wrote a book on its qualities for helping the stomach as well as helping concentration. Tea drinking then became a national institution in japan much like cricket was in England. Everything in japan became tea orientated from the pottery to the arts and even religion. It permiated everything in japan and people were drinking small thimbles full throughout the day.

It was this culture that the European discovered when they first visited Japan. They were so struck by this that they quickly took the idea back to Europe.

 The History Of Drinking Tea In England

You can view a selection of silver tea sets and silver tea strainers by clicking these links

The History Of Drinking Tea In England