Tea first reached Europe via whispers. As the travellers kept noticing in the Asian cultures a strange predilection for this divine drink, the gossips and rumours began to spread. This was the first of the series of events that were going to shape the empire of tea.
Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1577), an Italian scholar, mentioned in his travel accounts a conversation with Hajji Mohamed, a trader from Persia. The trader talked about a mysterious plant, or rather its leaves, which the people called Chiai Catai.
“This mysterious herb,” Mohamed said, “can be used dried or fresh in order to produce an infusion that is drunk as hot as can be tolerated, and which promotes relief from a litany of ailments affecting the head and stomach.”
While these whispers were going on among the certain quarters, the trade between the East and the West had also been growing. Traders from different parts of Europe, whether Britain or Portugal or France or Spain, were gaining access to different commodities. Many of them even migrated to China. As more people travelled to the East, slowly, the mention of tea among the common folks became more frequent.
To give you some examples, here is what some of these travellers wrote about tea.
"Whatsoever person or persons come to any man's house of quality, they have a custom to offer him in a fine basket one porcelain [cup]... with a kind of drink which they call Cha, which is somewhat bitter, red and medicinal." ~ Gaspar da Cruz (1520-1570), Portuguese Dominican friar "Here they gather its leaves in the springtime and place them in a shady place to dry, and from the dried leaves they brew a drink which they use at meals and which is served to friends when they come to visit. On such occasions it is served continually as long as they remain engaged in conversation." ~ Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Italian Jesuit priest
Similar accounts of tea can also be found in the writings of travellers who visited Japan.
"After their meat they use a certain drink, which is a pot with hot water... made with the powder of a certain herb called Chaa, which is much esteemed, and is well accounted of among them." ~ Huyghen van Linschoten (1563-1611), Dutch merchant
In fact it was — not from China but — from Japan that tea was first procured and transported to Europe. Linschoten’s endeavours were instrumental in opening routes between Holland and Japan, successfully facilitating the pragmatics of political and commercial exchange. After the Dutch East-India Company was founded in 1602, the establishment of a Japanese factory was one of its earliest priorities. Seven years later, the first cargo of tea was carried to Europe.
Once it reached in one part of Europe, it was only a matter of time before the tea would attract every Empire’s attention and the trade would grow manifold. Eventually, what started as an elite fascination for the Oriental culture, became a household custom in many parts of Europe.
The British got particularly obsessed with this newfound drink. Tea became a defining symbol of British identity in a period when all of it came from China and Japan. As the demand grew, it only made sense to grow some of these tea plantations in Britain’s own colonies (such as India). Which was exactly what they did next. By the 19th century, the Empire of Tea had shaped in such a manner that the tea grown in Assam (India) could now be found in the London markets.
It was Britain’s appetite for this Asian leaf that led to the international adoption among its colonies, becoming world’s most popular beverage after water. Through tea, Britain announced and experienced the strangeness of global connectedness, and the gratification of an emerging imperial confidence that flowed reciprocally between the state and the wider populace.
Reference books:
Kalampedia 