British Tea: Tradition, Spread, and Trade in London

The British Tea Ritual

Tea is considered the most traditional and popular British drink. it is usually drink with milk and sometimes sugar. It is consumed at all hours of the day, from waking when still in bed, at breakfast, during the morning , for lunch or dinner, for tea time and in the evening. It is often accompanied by various kinds of pastries or cakes, especially scones, muffins and other tea-cakes.

Tea is also served in tea-shops as well as in restaurants and snack-bars. A "cuppa" is a colloquial term for a cup of tea and it was, and still is, the ideal British way to relax.

The Spread of Tea in England

Tea was imported in Britain for the first time in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 1706 Thomas Twining began to offer this exotic drink as the specialty of his coffee-house, "Tom's Coffee House" in London. From then Twining meant, and still means, real English tea all over the world.
In the nineteenth century England began to import tea not only from China but also from India. Today London still remains, by tradition, the center of the tea-trade, but the temple of tea is without doubt, "Fortnum and Mason" where all types of tea with particular flavors are sold: Earl Grey tea, English breakfast tea, Rose tea, Peach tea, etc.