How England Stole Tea From China

The English national drink has roots in imperialism and espionage

Photo by Aniketh Kanukurthi on Unsplash

There’s nothing more quintessentially British than a cup of tea. But the British practice of drinking tea has a dark history that begins far from the shores of the British isles. Tea came to Britain through war, subterfuge, and theft; this wholesome beverage is tied up with some of the darkest moments of British imperialism.

For most of history, pretty much all of the tea produced in the world came from China. Even the name of the plant that produces tea leaves — Camellia sinensis — indicates that tea is native to China.The drink shows up in historical sources almost 2,000 years ago, and by the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), tea-drinking was widespread in the Chinese empire.

A Chinese tea plantation. Canton, Kwangtung province, China. Photograph by John Thomson, 1867. (CC 4.0)

Europeans first became aware of tea in the 1600s, when Dutch travelers brought the stuff back to Europe. Tea — along with coffee, part of the caffeine boom of the early modern period — was in great demand in Europe and America. It not only gave drinkers a boost of energy, but made water — which was often swimming with deadly bacteria — safe for consumption. Both the act of boiling water for tea…