All the tea in England

All the tea in England

Tea came to England ten years later than to the continent. The first solid evidence of the sale of tea in England is a newspaper advertisement for the coffeehouse of Thomas Garway in London in 1658. It read: "That excellent and by all physitians approved drink called by the Chineans tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tea is sold at Sultaness Head a cophee house in Sweetings Rents by the Royal Exchange London." Two years later Garway was to issue a lengthy handbill describing its benefits to health and stating that while formerly tea had been so scarce as to sell for six to ten pounds sterling per pound of tea, now Garway was selling it for sixteen to fifty shillings

Coffeehouse had grown up a decade earlier, with the importation of beans from the Middle East. In them men, but not women, of all walks of life could meet for a smoke, companionship, and coffee. At these "penny universities" as they were called the news of the day was exchanged. The walls were covered with handbills, playbills, and broadsheets, and business and political action were discussed. At one time five hundred such coffeehouse existed in London. They were favorite hangouts and even places of work, where many writers, including Dryden, Pope, and Addison and Steele, gathered information for their early news sheets. Jonathan Swift received letters from his beloved Stella at the St. James coffeehouse. The world famous insurance firm, Lloyds of London, is named for the coffeehouse where it started

Thomas Twining, who went on to build a great tea business, in 1717 opened the first such house strictly for tea - to women as well as men - and tea began to overtake coffee as the leading non-alcoholic beverage. Secretary of the Admiralty Samuel Pepys recorded in his famous diary having his first cup of tea in 1660, and in 1667 that a druggist recommended it to his wife for her cold.

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