Trade and treachery: the story of tea sent to Britain
The Brits LOVE their #tea. From #pgtips to #tetley and #twinings to #yorkshire tea - tea has become an institution. Whether its milk first or last, one sugar or two - you will find tea lovers in every household across the nation!
But when did this obsession start?
Tea was brought to the UK in the early 17th century by the #EastIndiaCompany who traded extensively across #Asia. It was an expensive product, introduced to the British Royal Court by the wife of King Charles II, and its high price tag meant it was reserved only for the aristocracy. Gradually, tea became more popular and more readily available, with the first #teashop for ladies open in 1771 by Thomas Twining.
By the middles of the 1800's, demand for tea had soared, as it became more widely available for the masses. Increased demands for tea (as well as porcelain and silk) from China, created a trade deficit, as the East India Company had little to offer China, which as any business person knows is where the problems start to emerge!
Did they give up and go home? Of course not!
A plan was hatched: steal the seeds of cuttings for tea plants to grow in India - which was now part of the British Empire - where tea could be grown and sold easily.
The first few attempts at this failed as the tea from #Guangdong, in #China's south would not grow, and the ones that did, didn't taste right for the British palate.
Was it all over?
No. This is where Robert Fortune entered the scene.
At that time strict Chinese laws prevented Europeans from travelling outside of the port areas, and from engaging gin the merchant tea trade in China/ this made it very difficult for Europeans to explore China and its tea regions - and of course to steal seeds and plant cuttings to smuggle into India and grow.
Not to be deterred by this, Fortune would disguise himself as a Chinese merchant in order to travel and explore China. And it was on one of these journey's that he found himself at the Tianxin Yongle Temple (天心永乐禅寺) in the Wuyi Mountains (武夷山). Here, he learned the secrets of tea cultivation, and armed with new knowledge and stolen Da Hong Pao seeds and seedlings, he absconded to India, where his knowledge allowed the #Indian tea industry to flourish (although the #Assam tea variety became more common rather than the plants Fortune had stole from China.)
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