Posted on

A Nation of Tea-Drinkers

Richard Collins’ ‘The Tea Party’ (c.1727), Courtesy of Goldsmiths’ Hall

A great post on www.spitalfieldslife.com, written by Markman Ellis.

“Britain has been celebrated as ‘a tea-drinking nation’ since at least the late eighteenth century and a nice cup of tea remains one of life’s most comforting rituals. Tea-drinking has associations with hearth and home, and is emblematic of wider British ideas of both polite society and humble domesticity. How did this little leaf, a migrant from half-way round the world, come to such prominence in Britain?”