Press Oficer Rick Purnell writes ….

Tea – a cultural obsession of British society being intertwined with our history, including wars and nationhood. There are basically 6 types of tea produced from the newest finest ‘tips’ down to the floor dust, so Teignmouth Mens Probus Club were informed in a most interesting talk by our June speaker, Jeremy Wilson, a renowned Camelia expert and 2024 RHS Chelsea Gold Medal Winner.

Tea is brewed from the processed leaf of a flowering shrub (Camelia Sinensis) originating from China believed to be some 5000 years ago with earliest example recovered from a royal burial going back to 150 B.C.  The word ‘Tea’ is a derivative of the Chinese Chi, Cha or Tay. Legend has it that the beverage (medicinal or social) came by accident when leaves dropped from a tree into some hot water.

Tea spread to Asia (India/Ceylon) and all over the world including tea estates in England (Tregothnan Cornwall). The earliest record in England was in the 1550’s, by monks returning with samples from the Far East.  Interest in England came from the capture of Spanish Trading Galleons laden with oriental spices by such seafarers as Sir Walter Raleigh who in 1592, captured a Portuguese ship holding tons of pepper, nutmeg, exotic spices, including tea and tapestries the value of which was equivalent to 50% of the British Treasury of the day. This stimulated Queen Elizabeth I to further endeavours to enrich our nation. This lead to the formation of the East India Company in 1601 who later employed an army of some 200,000 men (twice the size of the British Armed Forces of the day) to defend our ‘Trade and Commerce’ interests with tea being an important element.  The first ‘advert’ for Tea was recorded in Samuel Pepys diaries of 1658. Tea drinking was popularised in the London Coffee Houses with the first recorded specific tea shipment in 1667.

China was the largest trading nation who demanded payment in silver and such was the trade that by 1835, Britain was running out of silver. This led to the trading of Opium from India and selling it to China to trade back silver and the ensuing ‘Opium Wars’ of ill repute. Tea also featured in the loss of the American Colonies and ‘the Boston Tea Party’.

Taxation also played a part and at one stage, 70% of tea imports was contraband. In the Victorian era, tea was so valuable special lockable tea caddies were used. Tea also was a major player in WWII with over 35 million tons of tea reserved for the War Effort (more tea than all the munitions used by weight).

The teas business is vast with the world harvest totalling some 6.5 million tons, most picked by hand averaging per worker, 30kg per day which produces 5 kg of finishes product. Some have estimated that more than 2 billion people per day are engaged in ‘tea’.

Most of our tea now comes from Kenya with some 5 million employed in the teas business.

Our national taste for tea is not diminishing.

To read more go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea

The vote of thanks was given by Secretary John Polley who was familiar with Sri Lanka’s teas.