Usually afternoon tea.. its history from palaces to homes

Afternoon tea and tea parties must have become our inherited social traditions and spread in different parts of the world because of their elegance and joy, but where did these inherited customs come from and who were the first peoples to celebrate tea and its tables, far from that On the one hand, tea provides the body with the necessary fluidsOn the other hand, he sometimes finds it a pleasant time to drink it.

Tea is a daily habit that is repeated several times a day, and the most famous hot drink in the world besides coffee, but tea parties were launched from Europe to the world, especially from Britain.

Tea is the second most consumed drink on earth after water, so that it finds fame in many cultures, and in many different social occasions, and it has come to the emergence of so-called tea parties, especially in China and Japan, where it is native, and in which art is shown in showing Modern types of tea and its preparation, and in the Middle East as well, where tea plays a leading role in social gatherings.

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The original home of tea is located in eastern Asia, and Chinese accounts mention that King “Shenoq” was the one who introduced the use of hot tea infusion as a drink to China; After he accidentally discovered the effect of tea leaves in hot water, and from China, tea moved to Japan and India, and then to Turkey, which contributed to its wide spread in the Orient.

The most important producing countries are India, China, Ceylon, Indonesia, and Japan, and the most important importing countries are Britain, the United States of America, Australia and Russia.

In Britain, tea can be described as the most prominent national drink in it, as it began importing it since 1660, and its name in it is not related to that hot drink only, but is related to a snack that the British eat in the afternoon. It is worth noting, according to the latest statistics, that the British drink more than Over 60 billion cups of tea annually, at a rate of 2 kg of tea per person per yearWhich leads to the question of the reason for this great demand for tea in Britain, and what is the historical rooting of this custom?

In the historical investigation of the entry of tea to Britain, we can take note of the British “T-Muse” bulletin on the history of tea in Europe, which says: “Tea entered Europe in the seventeenth century, and France became fond of it, and the French aristocracy began to drink it in abundance, especially since King Louis The sixteenth believed that drinking it would help him overcome gout (blood clot disease in the toes).

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Tea entered France more than 22 years before England, and "Te Meuse" is based on the writings of the French "Madame Seven", which is considered the most important historian of European social history in the seventeenth century, and determined the period of tea entering England with Charles II's marriage to Princess Catherine of Portugal. , 1622 AD, and according to this marriage, Portugal granted England the right to use its ports in its colonies in Africa and Asia, and tea entered England through the new trade routes.

With the return of Charles II with his Portuguese wife to the throne, after they lived in Holland during the period of exile, he began to drink tea in abundance, and at the end of the seventeenth century it became the national drink in England, especially with the accession of Queen Anne to the throne, and it is said that during this period the Duchess complained Seven Bedford "Anna" was made to feel drowsy in the afternoon, at which time it was customary for people to eat only two meals during the day; They had breakfast and dinner, at about eight in the evening, and the solution for the Duchess was to drink a cup of tea and a piece of cake that she secretly eats in her dressing room in the afternoon.

Then the Duchess would invite friends to share her snack in her rooms at Webern Abbey, and it had become a summer tradition, and the Duchess continued to do so when she returned to London, sending cards to friends asking them to drink tea and walk through the fields.

The idea, and the tradition, which became so high, was picked up by the high social classes, that it even moved into their drawing rooms, and then most of the high society kept having a few afternoon snacks.

It is also worth noting that tea in Britain, during the sixteenth century, was sold at a high price; One kilo of it amounted to 22 pounds, equivalent to approximately two thousand pounds today, and in its beginnings it was used for treatment. Its high price, and the increase in smuggling it to Britain, which led, in one way or another, to adulteration of tea with other materials; Such as willow and weevils, and this remained the case until 119, when a law was issued to reduce the tax to 1784%, which stopped smuggling operations and reduced the percentage of fraud in it, until 12, when a law was issued imposing strict penalties on anyone who is proven to be entitled to sell, buy or cheat tea. .

And tea in Britain remained the first undisputed drink after those eras, which led to the dispensation of wine to some extent, and the replacement of tea with it.

The English prefer to drink black tea, Earl Gray, and Chinese jasmine tea, and Japanese green tea has recently spread, and they add sugar, milk or lemon to it, and tea is often drunk at specific times; Like bedtime tea at six in the morning, tea at 11 in the morning, and another late in the day.

Hannah Curran, a British shop owner in the English county of Yorkshire, spoke to “Al Khaleej Online” about her experience with English tea, saying: “Being raised in an English family in Yorkshire, tea has always been an integral part of my life, I remember when I tasted the first sip of tea. At the time, I was five years old, and at seven I always drank tea with my grandmother, and I drank tea all day, and sometimes I also drank at night. Whenever I had a piece of biscuit or chocolate, I would have to drink a lot of tea, which is sometimes harmful to my health. In short, we drink tea here as well as we breathe.”

She added, “I have been drinking the original tea since I was young with some milk added to it, and I remember my father saying; They made teabags sweep all over the place, for he liked to drink the original unbagged tea, and he also said to me; We Britons drink more tea than North Americans and Europeans combined.”

Curran continued: “The popular concept of tea in the UK varies greatly among tea lovers, and I think the same applies to chocolate, coffee and other drinks and foods. The American habits of drinking iced tea, for example, which was previously considered a strange habit.”

Tea has therefore become a part of the daily life of the British people, sipping it in their humble recesses during the working day, and enjoying it at tea parties, dressed in uniforms, of course, jacket and tie for men, in the most luxurious hotels of London; The British are really interested in the daily cup of tea since that period, and it is remarkable that it is a unifying matter among all ages, and in almost various fields of work, and although drinking tea at a certain time of the day is an ancient tradition, it has returned again in various institutions, companies and government departments.