The social butterfly, Anna the Duchess of Bedford, found tea charming and invented an entire meal around it. She was finding the gap between the two meals the British then partook dreadful. She especially regarded dinner, which was such a heavy affair with a sinking feeling. As she began to appreciate tea, she began to invite her friends for ‘tea and conversation’ around five-ish. With tea she served wafer-thin, crust-less sandwiches, bite-sized cakes, scorns and crumpets. Her afternoon teas were such a success that soon all society ladies began to invite friends for tea and conversation.
This was the beginning of the ‘low tea’ as it was served on the lower part of the afternoon. The common man also began to emulate the afternoon tea with a more substantial fare than the flimsy tidbits and enjoyed a solid meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas and tea of course. This was the ‘high tea’ or rather the ‘high’ meal of the day for the blue collar.
As tea appeared in Dutch taverns, tea began to replace coffee in coffee houses. However, unlike the Dutch patron, who enjoyed his cup in solitude or with friends, in Britain it became a witty issue. Men with similar interests congregated in certain coffee houses and for a penny got a pot of tea, a newspaper and the chance to engage in the ongoing sharp discourse. Coffee houses were soon referred to as ‘Penny Universities’. The government was wary of such gatherings and wives might have not been too pleased either to be excluded, but Penny Universities remained too popular to be eradicated. Edward Lloyd owned such a coffee house favored by ship-owners, merchants and marine insurers. Imagine the cliental the Lloyd’s insurance firm began with!
As the British strengthened their trade ties, a whole new commerce language emerged bridging the British with the Orient. Known as “Pidgin English”, this was a combination of English, Portuguese and Indian, all pronounced in Chinese! We still use some of these words, such as ‘cash’, without even realizing that we are speaking Pidgin English. A new language is not the only thing the British came up with. They formed the John Company to promote the entire Asian trade and this was one of the most powerful monopolies ever to exist, until the newer East India Company, which almost drowned against such power, was merged and the latter were given the monopoly of India and China.
Tea was a great beverage that became a way of life for the British. However, as an expensive commodity, tea also posed a huge problem to the Treasury of England. There was no way they could safely transport such a large treasure half-way across the world. For one thing, it would have financially crippled England. Even if they could afford it, to protect the money from pirates and foes would be a task for Hercules.
The wily British then found an evil solution to their problem – opium from the newly occupied India! The addictive opium ensured a lifelong revenue to pay for tea. The Chinese emperors were not impressed, but the British were ready to take up arms to protect their right to trade opium. As this drama was erupting into a crescendo, a Scottish botanist Robert Fortune gained the rare confidence of the guarded Chinese, and was one of the very few to have secured access to the well-protected Chinese tea plantations. He then blatantly breached the trust the Chinese bestowed on him and sneaked some tea seeds, after having closely observed the essence of tea cultivation.
He then began to experiment on tea cultivation in India. After many failed experiments and many a ruined younger son of noble families, who invested in tea during these experimental stages, the British slowly progressed into mastering the art of tea cultivation.
Read the next in series, Tea Sneaks into Sri Lanka |
