Tea and Power Part 2: From Luxury to an Everyday British Tradition

11 MINUTE READ

We followed the violent emergence of tea in Tea and Power Part 1, when we saw it become a coveted trade commodity that consolidated the reach of the British Empire. Here in Part 2 of the story, Belonging Across Cultures author Yang-May Ooi, looks at how this initially new high-end product impacted British society when it first arrived in Shakespeare’s time – and how it evolved to become a cheap every day necessity and part of British identity. [This story was first published on MetroWild and is slightly edited here]

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When tea first arrived in Europe in the late 1500s/ early 1600s, it was an expensive luxury. The likes of you and me would have had no chance of tasting this exotic beverage at that stage of the game. Only the very wealthy could afford it – and rather like the high-end items that are valued in our time (think champagne and caviar), at that time, only royalty and the rich elite were able to enjoy it. Beyond its novelty value, this, of course, added to tea’s cache and made it the ultimate aspirational drink. 

Tea and All Its Sexy Kit

By the 1700s, it was more widely available – but still largely only to the upper classes. The lady of the (very big and important manor) house would keep it under lock and key. Part of the sexiness of tea as a new exotic import from the East was the kit and ritual that came with it across the vast oceans. The Chinese drank tea in little porcelain cups and poured it out of teapots – so, naturally, it was de rigueur for the fashionable upper-classes to have all the accoutrements of stylish international savoir-faire to show off their sophisticated worldliness. 

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At first, the teapots, cups and other kit were imported from China – which is how porcelain came to be known as china. Beyond porcelain, the kit also included tea caddies and tea poys to store the dry tea – these were made of fine hardwoods and could be locked. They were beautifully decorated so there was added status in having them on display for all to see  – not only the tea itself but everything associated with it showed off your wealth and sophistication. 

It was not just teapots and cups that were coveted. Chinese porcelain generally was prized – as exotic, never before seen, items that were objets d’arts as well as functional.  They were distinct and delicate compared to anything in Europe at that time, with their eye-catching painted blue and white scenes. The rage for them was so huge that the Dutch began to make their own version which was cheaper for being local and a knock-off instead of the original – and over time, these “pirated” versions gained a cache all their own and became collectible Delftware. 

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Early Designer Branding

The Brits also began to make their own porcelain, with the finest and most famous potter emerging out of Staffordshire: Josiah Wedgewood. A savvy entrepreneur as well as a skilled craftsman, he knew how to create demand by luxury branding. In the 1760s, he supplied a tea set for twelve people to Queen Charlotte who allowed him to call it “Queensware” – the equivalent in modern times of superstars carrying a Kipling bag in the 1990s and royalty wearing your Topshop dress today. 

There is a blog Kate’s Closet which, according to its author, was created “to help women emulate the style of The Duchess of Cambridge for a fraction of the price. I find budget-friendly “repliKates” of the princess’ popular pieces to help Kate style fans develop their Duchess inspired closet!” 

Like women today who would head off to Alexander McQueen for that designer gown just like Princess Kate’s, those who could afford the originals would buy their full tea sets from Wedgewood to emulate Queen Charlotte. Those who couldn’t, might still afford a small status symbol Wedgewood item – their equivalent of the Topshop dress – or would buy a full set of whatever “repli-chinas” they could afford. 

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So it was also boom time not just for the high-end brands like Wedgewood but also for lesser potters who would be manufacturing more affordable versions for the lesser upper-classes, middle-classes and eventually, working classes, too – especially as tea itself also became more affordable. And that affordability would have been, in part, to do with the British gaining control of the growing and processing of tea in India and its colonies as I touched on in Tea and Power Part 1. There were also different grades of tea emerging, with lower grades being cheaper, and enabling expansion of the market to the wider population.

The Impact of Milk

The Chinese drank tea “neat”, ie without milk, in tiny cups with no handles – and still do. In the West, adding milk became the done thing. It is not clear how that originated. One story suggests that in the mid-1600s  a Dutch traveller tasted tea with milk at a banquet as served by Tibetans who would add yak butter or milk to their tea to make it more nutritious. Another story offers that a Parisian salon in the late 1600s served tea with milk and thus made it trendy. 

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European china cups got larger and a handle was added – presumably to minimise the burning of the delicate fingers of all those high-born ladies of the manor. Milk perhaps became part of the tea time ritual as well because it cooled the hot drink and saved these ladies from (quel horreur!) blowing on to the tea to cool it! A saucer, too, became part of the tea set – again, presumably, to allow those same ladies to rest the tea cup somewhere without scalding their dainty digits. And perhaps also giving them somewhere to rest the teaspoon they would have used to stir the milk into their tea. 

The Trickle Down Effect

The lady of that very important big manor house was in charge of the dry tea under lock and key – so, naturally, she took charge of the tea when it came out of its fortress and was brewed for afternoon tea time. As boss of the teapot, she would pour the tea. When the ritual trickled down the classes along with the affordability of tea for the masses, so did this aspect of tea time. Mum would be the equivalent boss lady of her little terrace house and so would take charge of the teapot. Hence the phrase, “Shall I be mother?” meaning “Shall I pour the tea?” when a group, whether related to each other or not, sits down for afternoon tea.

Staff at the manor houses began to have tea included as part of their wages. This presumably minimised the risk of their trying to steal their mistresses’ tea. As cheaper grade tea became more widely available, workers in mills and other industries were also given tea as a perk – and a tea break to drink it in. Tea has a mildly stimulating effect so this was a good move on the part of employers in giving their workers a boost of energy after their brief rest and their caffeinated drink. Over the centuries, the tea break became part of workers’ rights in Britain – and emerged as a battleground when Prime Minister Thatcher tried to curb the power of the unions in the 1970s. Among other erosions of the rights of workers, she shortened the sacred British tea break and this resulted in enraged trades union strikes across the country.

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Tea and Dinner

So how did the ritual of afternoon tea, with all its associated cake, scones, cucumber sandwiches and tiered serving racks become a distinct meal in itself and a British institution? 

It seems that the Duchess of Bedford, a friend of Queen Victoria, started the trend of afternoon tea because she was peckish between luncheon and dinner. She asked for tea, cake, scones and other light snacks around 4pm and began inviting her influential circle of friends round. Thus, tea in the afternoon became a thing. 

With the trickle down of tea drinking and lifestyle fashions as we have seen, so too did the ritual of afternoon tea spread across Britain – and the colonies – along with the food that we now associate with it. 

It is said that the working class, who would not have had the resources or the time to have a separate afternoon snack of such range and proportion, began drinking tea with their main evening meal. This would be around 6pm when they got home from the factory or mines. This fare would be something simple and cheap like bread and cheese – and the hot tea made it feel a bit more special, like they were having a hot meal. The trend caught on and this is apparently how it came to be that the working class and regions today still refer to their main evening meal as tea – and their midday meal as dinner. 

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For the middle- and upper-classes, they took this trend (think jeans starting off as working trousers and becoming fashion statements for the rich and famous) and turned it into high tea, involving a more substantial spread that included savoury platters such as cold meats and sandwiches. Dinner, for them, remained the main evening meal – which would always be cooked and hot, usually accompanied by wine, possibly preceded by soup and followed by pudding depending on the wealth and staffing levels of the family. High tea could either be an indulgence or luxury –  if dinner was also on the cards for later that evening – or it could be a version of supper, a lighter more casual meal, eaten informally with family or friends with less pomp and circumstance than dinner.  

Tea, the Universe and Everything

How we drink tea, who we drink it with, the kit we use to take tea, the language we use around tea is loaded with personal and social meaning. All of it contributes to our sense of identity and belonging, whether it is our class or our Britishness – even though tea might have originated from the other side of the world. Tea is intertwined with not just power but politics, too. On the international stage, as we saw in Tea and Power Part 1, it was inextricable from Britain’s power struggle with China over trade. It was one of the causes of war – the Opium Wars.  From an exclusive luxury item when it reached the West, it became part of the wage economy. It gave rise to new industries, innovations and jobs. It became a right enjoyed by workers – and a symbol of Thatcher’s battle to break the unions. In its rituals and associated language and social paraphernalia, we can see the British class system at play. 

And I haven’t even got to the Boston Tea Party yet – or tea’s ever present role in today’s Britain and across the world! I am not planning a Part 3 to this story but no doubt, you can think of other examples and stories of how tea has shaped our society – and also world economies and politics. Do share your thoughts with me – and/ or have a natter with your friends and colleagues, perhaps over a cup of tea! I love it when we can look at something familiar in a fresh or different way – especially if that prompts us to appreciate that the eco-system of our present lives is connected to history, belonging and the world around us.

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Sources:

National Trust, History of Tea – https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/the-history-of-tea 

Homes & Antiques, History of British Porcelain – https://www.homesandantiques.com/antiques/history-of-british-porcelain 

Wikipedia, Wedgwood – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedgwood 

Tin Roof Teas, History of Milk and Tea – https://www.tinroofteas.com/tea-blog/history-adding-milk-tea 

NPR, The Tyranny of Tea Breaks – https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/23/467861988/when-britain-fought-against-the-tyranny-of-tea-breaks 

Milk and tea – https://www.tinroofteas.com/tea-blog/history-adding-milk-tea 

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