Everyone loves a cuppa, and today is the perfect day to enjoy one, it’s National Tea Day! Tea has been our drink of choice for the past 2 centuries, our love is so deep that we collectively drink more than 60 billion cups a year!
Tea comes in so many varieties, whether it’s a cup of classic Yorkshire tea, an earl grey or perhaps something more adventurous like herbal or green tea, there’s something for every occasion!
With such a wide variea-tea (haha) of teas that can either jumpstart the day or help you relax to sleep it’s no wonder the whole country loves it!
Although tea can be found in all corners of the world, the UK has made it clear that nobody celebrates tea better than we do.
It’s surprising then that it took thousand of years after its discovery in China to make its way over to the UK at all. According to legend, in 2732 B.C. Emperor Shen Nung discovered tea when leaves from a wild tree blew into his pot of boiling water. He was immediately interested in the pleasant scent of the resulting brew, and drank some.
It is impossible to know whether there is any truth in this story. But tea drinking certainly became established in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the west.
From there tea became popular all over Asia, in Japan, Korea, India and more countries. In the early 1600s, Dutch traders started bringing it to Europe in large quantities. It first arrived in Britain in the 1650s, when it was served as a novelty in London’s coffee houses.
It’s then thought that tea was then popularised in England by the wife of King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, who’s favourite drink was tea. There’s more to the story but that’s how tea made its way here and it’s safe to say it’s not going anywhere anytime soon!