Tea in England
The early beginnings of tea in England are obscure. The East India Company, under their charter granted by Elizabeth I to the Directors, had the monopoly of importing goods from outside Europe and recorded ships reaching Britain in 1637. However, no record of tea dealings with Chinese merchants appears until 1644. Sailors bringing back packets of tea from the Far East as gifts, led to its introduction into London's coffee houses.
Tea gains popularity in England
The merchant Thomas Garway was among the first to trade tea in Britain. He offered it in dry and liquid form at his coffee house in Exchange Alley, in the City of London, holding his first public sale in 1657.
In 1660, Garway issued a broadsheet selling tea for sale at £6 and £10 per pound. Garway claimed tea was "wholesome, preserving perfect health until extreme old age, good for clearing the sight," able to cure "gripping of the guts, cold, dropsies, scurveys" and claiming that "it could make the body active and lusty."
The first tea advertisement – announcing the sale of "China Tcha, Tay or Tee" – appeared on 30 September 1658, in the newspaper Mercurius Politicus, booked by the owner of The Sultaness Head Coffee House. Tea rapidly gained popularity in these establishments and by 1700 was on sale at more than 500 coffee houses in London. Tavern keepers were dismayed as the coffee house vogue swept into being, as was the government by the decline in revenues from hard liquor sales.
By the middle of the 18th century, however, tea had replaced ale and gin as the drink of the masses and had become England's most popular beverage.
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Tea
Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford, is reputed to have originated the idea of afternoon tea.
The invention of the tea bag is said to have resulted from the small silk sample bags used by Thomas Sullivan.