Jane Pettigrew

A Social History of Tea: Tea's Influence on Commerce, Culture & Community Jane Pettigrew 2nd Expanded Edition

British writer and tea historian Jane Pettigrew has joined forces with American tea writer Bruce Richardson to chronicle the colorful story of tea s influence on British and American culture, commerce and community spanning nearly four centuries. These two leading tea professionals have seen first-hand the current tea renaissance sweeping modern culture and have written over two dozen books on the subject of tea.

For nearly four centuries, tea has occupied a remarkable position in British and American society. From tea s earliest introduction into London society in the mid-1600s, tea was an exotic commodity, commanding the highest prices while enjoyed only by a fortunate few. Ladies first drank tea at home, while the men enjoyed the beverage alongside coffee and chocolate in coffee houses. As the custom of drinking tea came to dictate the daily schedules of upper class families in London and Philadelphia, international traders scurried to keep up with the demand for sugar, furniture, silver, porcelains and fabrics to fill drawing rooms on both sides of the Atlantic. Profits from the East India Company s monopoly on tea trade with China subsidized Parliament and sparked a revolution in Boston in 1773.

In the nineteenth century, tea rooms began to open, enabling respectable women to eat out unaccompanied - a truly liberating experience. Writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll found teatime to be the perfect tool for setting a scene within their novels. And clipper ships were launched to bring tea ever-quicker from China and the new British tea gardens established in India.

The twentieth century saw tea drinkers tango their way across the dance floors of fine hotels as fashion designers introduced new tea gowns every season. By the 1920s, a tea room craze spread across America, allowing women to become business owners and entrepreneurs. But the mechanization of tea and teabags nearly drained tea of its romance after World War II.

Fortunately, tea made a comeback as a new century began and the world s most-popular beverage is enjoying a much-deserved renaissance as tea bars, tea shops and tea rooms spring up throughout Great Britain and the United States. Tea has reclaimed its reputation as an important ingredient leading to good health and a balanced lifestyle. As tea drinking becomes a ritual for many, tea has returned to its ancient Asian roots as a cup of humanity.