Tea – the second most popular beverage in the world after water

/Le Ngoc- VOV/

Today, tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world, with a global market that exceeds that of all its closest competitors combined. Here’s the little-known history of tea – the second most popular beverage after water.

After water, tea is the most popular beverage globally – more popular than coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol combined. 84% of Britons enjoy a daily cup of tea, with many drinking an average of three to four cups daily. The world tea processing industry has reached 200 billion USD in sales and is expected to increase by 50% by 2025.

Tea is an essential part of many cultures and has mythical origins. For example, a legend is that Buddha woke up after falling asleep during meditation. Angered by his undisciplined behavior, he cut off his eyelids and threw them to the ground. These eyelids later evolved into tea plants to help future meditators stay awake.

Tea was crucial to many people, but it was essential to the British and their empire, so much so that it dominated the entire foreign policy of the once-proud kingdom of the Sun. “never dive” from their domain. Tea also inspired one of the most astonishing stories of 19th-century espionage.

Tea of the elite and the ordinary people

Since the 9th century, China’s Tang Dynasty popularized tea throughout the region. By the 16th century, European powers first traded and then colonized different East Asian countries, places where the lives of ordinary people were indispensable for tea. Tea was firmly established when the Portuguese became the first Europeans to sample it (in 1557), followed by the Dutch, who were the first to ship a shipment of tea to Europe.

England came to the tea party in the 17th century. In his 1660 diary, Samuel Pepys mentions “a cup of tea (a Chinese beverage) which I have never had before”. Only after King Charles II’s Portuguese Queen popularized it in court did tea become a fashionable drink. After the British started using it, the tea trade became a huge business.

However, because tea was monopolized by the East India Company and the government taxed it at 120%, smugglers opened secret channels to get it to poorer consumers. Finally, in 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt wisely chose to popularize tea. He reduced the tax on this multi-functional leaf to only 12.5% to eliminate the black market. Since then, tea has become a popular drink – marketed as a refreshing and delicious drink.

Little known details

Tea became so crucial to the British that it caused wars throughout the Empire. Most famously, when the British imposed a 3 cents per pound tax on all tea that the East India Company exported to America, it destroyed entire tea ships. The “Boston Tea Party” was the American colonies’ first significant act of defiance and eventually led to countermeasures from the London government. These also sparked the American War of Independence.

Less well-known is how Britain twice went to war with China over tea. At that time, tea was only grown and exported from China to British India and then within the British Empire. This, in turn, led to a massive trade imbalance, where a largely self-sufficient China only wanted British silver in exchange for its famously delicious tea leaves. This type of economic policy, called mercantilism, drove England genuinely crazy.

In retaliation, Britain planted opium poppies all over China, and only this type of plant. When China (quite understandably) objected to this, Britain sent in gunboats. The “opium wars” that followed were one-sided, and when China sued, demanding peace, they received compensation of $20 million and had to cede Hong Kong to Britain (territory). This was only returned in 1997).

Tea intelligence

However, these wars have not resolved China’s trade deficit. Efforts to grow tea in British India produced only low-quality, tasteless products, while the British wanted the good stuff. So they went to a Scottish botanist named Robert Fortune with a straightforward mission:

– Cross the border into China.

– Mingle with Chinese tea farmers.

– Steal both experience and specialties.

It is a native tea variety.

Fortune was eager to accept the assignment, even though he couldn’t speak a word of Chinese and had hardly ever left his native England. Not being the father of the legendary spy 007, he shaved his hair, braided a Chinese-style braid, and then began his adventure. And it was quite an adventure – robbers attacked him, pirates shot his ship, and he had to “taste” fevers, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

Despite all this, Fortune learned Chinese, traveled around Suzhou and the surrounding tea lands, and integrated into remote farming communities. When the tea farmers were skeptical of Fortune’s appearance, he was so tall because he tricked them by claiming that he was a critical state official – everyone was tall.

A particular type of Indian tea

During his three-year mission, Fortune secretly delivered several shipments of tea plants to the British as “bonsai art” (previously a closely kept secret). Eventually, the British started growing their tea plants using Chinese farming techniques in colonial India.

Not long after, an Indian tea variety, almost indistinguishable from the (stolen) Chinese variety, began to dominate the market, especially in China’s huge and growing empire—older brother. Within twenty years of Fortune’s remarkable mission, the East India Company had over fifty tea contractors worldwide.

Today, China produces more than India (in second place) and more than the top ten countries combined. In total, 40% of the world’s tea originates from China. But it was British tea – along with Robert Fortune’s surprising and unlikely mission – that fueled the vast global market. Without this overconfident Scottish plant lover, the world’s love of tea might have been very different.