Tea facts That May Surprise You
These tea facts that have been assembled in the course of our research for our information pages and our blog articles. They may well surprise you!
1. The Cutty Sark is the world’s last surviving tea clipper. A cutty sark is a short Scottish chemise or shirt. It was worn by a comely witch in pursuit of Tam O’Shanter on horse-back in Robert Burn’s poem of that name. It is depicted in Hercules Linton’s original design for the Cutty Sark’s figurehead.
2. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 sparked American Independence as the colony rebelled at paying taxes to the British Government.
3. The first teapot in England is reputed to be a Chinese example from Zhangzhou, China. It was given by Catherine de Braganza wife of King Charles II (1662-85) to friend Elizabeth, the Duchess of Lauderdale. It is now at Ham House, Kew Gardens, Surrey.
4. As long ago as 1667 tea was considered to be beneficial to health: ‘I went away and by coach home, and there find my wife making of tea, a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.’ Samuel Pepys
5. Tea gave rise to tea dances, a popular society passtime.
6. Until the British colonial tea planters cultivated teas in far flung corners of their empire, especially in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), all tea was grown in China.
7. The United Kingdom is the largest market for exported tea in the world.
8. Ireland has the western world’s largest per-capita tea consumption.
9. Tea seed was first imported to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from China in 1824 and from Assam in 1839 to be grown on an experimental basis.
10. The tea clipper ‘Champion of the Seas’ was the fastest sailing ship ever. In the 1850s 150 miles marked a good day’s sailing and 250 miles was typical for a clipper ship. In 1854 ‘Champion of the Seas’ sailed 465 miles in one day.
11. Regular trade by sea became established, traders sprinting across the seas by the famously fast tea clippers such as the Sutty Sark, launched in 1869, and the Thermopylae. Racing against the clock, the latter made the voyage with the new season’s teas from Shanghai to London in a record 105 days.
12. In 1889, for the first time, Indian tea exports to Britain at 94.5 m lb exceeded tea exports from China at 92.5m lb.
13. Earl Grey was supposed to have been presented with his blend when he saved the life of a man in China. However, what Is known is that the Earl never visited China!
14. Preston, Lancashire in 1833 was the centre of the tea-temperance movement. At Christmas 1,200 people were served tea from a 200 gallon boiler by forty reformed alcoholics.
15. Uji, south of the city of Kyoto, is the oldest tea growing area of Japan famous for its top quality teas.
16. In 1698 Lady Rachel Russell in a letter to her daughter said green tea was good with milk. No one since seems to agree with her!
17. In the 1770s more than 7m lbs tea was smuggled into England annually compared with 5m lbs declared!
18. The statue on Grey’s Monument in Newcastle upon Tyne was designed by the same sculptor as that of Nelson in Trafalgar Square, London.
19. Queen Victoria’s Governess, the Duchess of Northumberland disapproved of the fashionable activities of drinking tea and reading the Times newspaper. Once the new queen had been crowned she straight away did both – and brought about tea time at Buckingham Palace.
20. In continental Europe tea drinkers generally have their tea without milk. This explains why they prefer lighter bodied teas such as China and green teas.
21. In 1968 loose leaf tea accounted for 97% of the UK tea market. By the 2010s it accounted for less than 10%. Perhaps you are one of these discerning tea drinkers!
22. Britain exports more tea than great tea producing countries such as Tawan and Vietnam by value.
For more on the history of tea see our page giving the Time-line for Tea.
