Tea and the effects of tea drinking

The tea-plant, Thea Sinensis, botanically speaking a close ally of the Camellia is in its natural state a tree which attains to 20 or 30 feet in height. Under cultivation it remains a shrub from three to six feet high. It grows in all tropical and sub-tropical countries, and roughly it takes the labour of one man a day to produce a pound of tea. The leaves--the only part of the plant used in commerce--vary from two to six inches long, are evergreen, lanceolate and serrated throughout nearly the whole margin; the leaves are stalked and arranged alternately on axis, the flowers somewhat resemble apple blossoms but are smaller.

The shrubs are planted in rows three or four feet apart and look like a field of currant or gooseberry bushes; at the end of the third year the bushes become large enough to allow of the first picking and in the eighth year the plant is cut down, when new shoots spring up from the old roots. In Ceylon and parts of India the first picking is in March and there may be as many as 25 pickings in the season until October; in China the first picking is in April, and in Japan late in April or early May. The early pickings make the finest quality of tea, and the very late leaves are not usually exported at all, but are used by the peasants locally. In preparation for commerce the leaves are subjected to various processes of drying, rolling and roasting, into which it would not be necessary at any length to enter; the essential point to remember is that black tea differs from green in that after a short preliminary rolling and roasting, the leaves are exposed to the air in a soft moist state, when they undergo fermentation with the result it is said that a portion of the tannic acid is converted to sugar. Robert Fortune,[1] an authority on the cultivation of the tea plant thought that the differences of manufacture “fully account for the difference in colour, as well as for the effect produced on some constitutions by green tea, such as nervous irritability, sleeplessness, &c.”

When we come to look into the early origin of the practice of tea-drinking we find that the subject is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There are many legendary stories of the discovery and use of tea by the Chinese, but the only authentic and well-attested accounts were given by two Mahommedans who travelled in India and China in the ninth century. The original manuscript was found in the Comte de Seignelay’s library by Eusebius Renaudot and published in 1733. There is plain internal evidence that the manuscript was written about 1173, for there are observations upon the extent and circumference of the walls and towers of Damascus and other cities in subjection to the Sultan Nuroddin, who is spoken of as living at that time. This prince died in 1173 which fixes the date of the narrative before that time. The account speaks of the Arab merchants having been present in China in the years 851 and 867 respectively. On page 25 occurs the following important passage “The Emperor also reserves to himself the revenues which arise from the salt mines and from a certain Herb which they drink with hot water, and of which great quantities are sold in all the cities, to the amount of great sums. They call it sah and it is a shrub more bushy than the pomegranate tree and of a more taking smell, but it has a kind of bitterness with it. Their way is to boil water, which they pour upon this leaf, and this drink cures all sorts of diseases; whatever sums are lodged in the treasury arise from the Poll-tax, and the duties upon salt, and upon this leaf.”[2]

Tea was therefore much in vogue in China in the 9th century. From China the knowledge was carried to Japan, and there the cultivation was established at the beginning of the 13th century; from that time until the 19th century China and Japan have been the only two tea producing countries. As with all innovations Europe and particularly England was very slow to take to the practice, for tea is hardly mentioned by any of the writers prior to the 16th century.

One of the earliest to allude to the subject was Giovanni Botero[3] in 1596, in his treatise on the causes of the magnificence and greatness of cities; he remarks that “they (the Chinese) have also an herb, out of which they press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink instead of wine, it also preserves their health and frees them from all those ills that the immoderate use of wine doth breed unto us.”

It will be observed that in these early accounts much stress is laid on the beneficial action of tea in preserving health and curing disease, and this was in all probability the first use to which the shrub was applied. Thus one of the Sloane Manuscripts, dated 1686, gives a long list of “qualities and operations,” attributed by the Chinese to the tea plant. It was said to purify the blood and kidneys, cure giddiness and pains in the head, vanquish superfluous sleep and heavy dreams, open obstructions, clear the sight, strengthen the memory, sharpen the wits and quicken the understanding.

About the year 1657, Thomas Garway of the Exchange Alley issued a sheet proclaiming the virtues of tea; the alleged qualities being almost identical with those given in the Sloane Manuscript just mentioned. This was a sort of advertisement of his place of business and he tells us that “many noblemen, physitians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality” sent to town for the “said leaf,” and “daily resort” to his house in Exchange Alley to drink tea. He informs us that prior to 1657 it was only used as a “regalia in high treatments and entertainments,” and for presents for princes and grandees.

Another early reference is from an advertisement in the “Mercurius Politicus” for 1658. “That excellent, and by all physitians approved China drink, called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.”[4]

A further early reference is by Thomas Rugge[5] which may be seen in a manuscript at the British Museum. “About this time the parliment that was forced out the 13th day of October, 59; it was called by all sorts of persons the Rump, because they war soe few in number; and there war also att this time a Turkish drink to be sould, almost in every street called Coffee, and another kind of drink called Tee, and also a drink called Chocolate which was a very harty drink.”

It is rather difficult to reconcile this account of the prevalence of the use of tea as a drink with that of other writers of the period. Thus Pepys writing a year afterwards under date September 25, 1660, says: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.” This clearly points to the novelty of the practice in 1660 for Samuel Pepys was Secretary of the Admiralty, and a public man of keen observation, and it is almost impossible if tea was commonly sold as a drink at this time that he should have been unaware of the fact. Macaulay[6] also mentions that about this time tea “had been handed round to be stared at.” It seems therefore clear that the herb was quite recently introduced in 1660, and it is possible that Rugge under the name of “tee” is referring to hot infusions of other leaves for it is well known that herbs were commonly used for making different sorts of teas as sage tea, &c.[7]

The first official notice of tea is in the Act of Parliament (12 Carolus II., c 23), by which a duty of eightpence was charged on every gallon of coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea made for sale. In 1662 Charles II. married Princess Catherine of Portugal, and the Poet Waller has immortalised tea-drinking by a birthday ode in her honour.

The muse’s friend, tea, does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade, And keeps that palace of the soul serene Fit, on her birthday, to salute the Queen.

Two years later the King was a recipient of the then valuable gift of 2lb. 2oz. of tea from the East India Company.

In Pepys Diary under the date of June 28, 1667, we read “Home and there find my wife making of tea; a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.” Tea, therefore, was just coming into vogue. In 1669 the East India Company received two canisters containing 143¹⁄₂ pounds; the price at this time was sixty shillings a pound. The Company imported 4713 pounds in 1678, but this amount probably glutted the market, for in the six subsequent years the imports were quite inconsiderable. In 1697-99 the imports averaged 20,000, in 1700-08 they reached 80,000 pounds, in 1728 over a million pounds, in 1754 four and a half million, in 1763 six million, and in 1779 nearly ten million pounds.[8] It is not necessary to follow the imports during the whole of the 18th century, speaking generally it was found that excessive duties led to smaller imports, and at the same time to a large increase of smuggling and other irregularities.

Since 1800 there has been an enormous increase of consumption in the United Kingdom, as will be seen from the following figures:--

TABLE A.

Average number of Average Average number of Year-Periods. pounds of Tea annual pounds of Tea consumed consumed per annum. Population. per head per annum. 1801-10 23,717,882 16,794,000 1·41 1811-20 24,753,808 19,316,700 1·28 1821-30 28,612,702 22,433,900 1·27 1831-40 34,441,766 25,257,200 1·36 1841-50 44,286,600 27,566,300 1·61 1851-60 65,160,456 28,172,400 2·31 1861-70 97,775,548 30,027,600 3·26 1871-80 144,462,622 33,055,020 4·37 1881-90 178,130,836 36,178,144 4·92 1891-1900 224,076,800 39,440,316 5·70 1901-03 255,270,472 41,550,773 6·10

Since the beginning of the last century therefore the average consumption per head has increased from 1·4 to 6·1 pounds. In our Australian and New Zealand Colonies the quantity consumed is even much larger than in the United Kingdom as will be seen from the table below:--

TABLE B.

Average number of pounds of Tea consumed per head per annum. New South Wales 8·01 Victoria 7·38 South Australia (except N. Territory) 8·87 South Australia (North Territory) 6·44 Western Australia 10·07 Queensland 7·09 Tasmania 6·62 All Australia 7·81 New Zealand 6·78

The enormous quantity of tea consumed in Great Britain and our Colonies will be better appreciated if comparisons are made with other Countries:--

TABLE C.

Average number of pounds of Tea consumed per head per annum. Russia 0·93 Germany 0·12 Holland 1·48 France 0·06 United States 1·09 Canada 4·64

I should like to say a few words concerning the sources of tea supply to the United Kingdom. Of course until fairly recent times practically all the tea came from China. Early in the last century it was found that the tea plant was indigenous to India. In 1825 the Society of Arts offered their gold medal “to the person who shall grow and prepare the greatest quantity of China tea, of good quality, not being less than 20 pounds weight”[9] in the East Indies and British Colonies. In 1832 Dr. Wallick made a report on the cultivation of tea in India and said “that under a well-directed management the tea plant may at no distant period be made an object of extensive cultivation in the Honourable East India Company’s Dominions.” Several years afterwards in 1839 the Society of Arts Medal was awarded to Mr. C. A. Bruce “for discovering the indigenous tea tracts and successfully cultivating and preparing tea in the British possessions in India.” In 1840 the first Indian Tea Company was formed, in 1853 tea was growing in Cachar, in 1856 in Sylhet, and in 1864 in Darjeeling and other places. Much more recently Ceylon has become prominent in supplying this country with tea. It came about in this way; the coffee plantations were destroyed by disease in 1868 and the planters succeeded in growing cinchona and tea as alternative crops. This experimental growth of tea in Ceylon has now become a flourishing industry.