'A HISTORY OF...'//PRIMARY TEA PHOTOGRAPHY//OUGD504-SUMMER

These are some photographs I took in a tea shop in covent garden, of different tea leaves etc.

'A HISTORY OF...'//TELEGRAPH FACTS//OUGD504-SUMMER

THE TELEGRAPH: QUITE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TEA
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/7594234/QI-Quite-Interesting-facts-about-tea.html

A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind the BBC quiz show. This week: QI on tea.

If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. JAPANESE PROVERB

Tree

Tea is an infusion of the dried leaves, flowers and buds of the Camellia sinensis plant. It originated in south?east Asia on the borders of northern Burma and southern China. It now grows in 52 countries. The world's oldest cultivated tea tree is more than 3,200 years old and is found in Yunnan province in south-west China. After water, tea is the most often drunk drink in the world. The best quality tea grows up high. When tea plants are harvested only the top two inches are picked: these are called flushes. During the growing season a new flush grows every seven to 10 days.

Chic

The English fashion for tea drinking began in the early 18th century, driven by the British East India Company which had established a monopoly over its import in 1686. This lasted until 1834. No European then had any idea how tea was grown, dried or blended. They simply imported it from China. Tea (until Victorian times the English upper classes pronounced it "tay" and even spelt it "the") was drunk at the table over civilised conversation and needed lots of paraphernalia to drink it, like porcelain teacups and teapots and special spoons. When Addison and Steele's daily Spectator was launched in 1711 they advised that it should be considered "part of the tea-equipage"

India

Most Indians hadn't tasted tea before the mid-19th century. The British East India Company started commercial tea production in the 1820s, planting a Chinese variety high in the hills of Darjeeling. At the same time, Major Robert Bruce found tea plants growing wild in the Assam region of north-east India. It was found to be a separate variety of Camellia sinensis and made a particularly dark, rich tea. India is now the world's second largest tea producer after China, and the home market consumes two-thirds of the annual crop. All areas other than Darjeeling now grow the Assam variety.

Earl Grey

Because tea was such a valuable commodity, demand regularly outstripped supply and adulteration was widespread. Twigs, sawdust and iron filings were commonly added; in 1770 one village near London was quoted as producing more than 20 tons of adulterated material a year for supply to tea merchants. Their recipe was ash leaves boiled with sheep dung (for colour). In some cases the adulterants were added for flavour as well as bulk.

Earl Grey tea is flavoured with the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit. It was named after the second Earl Grey, British Prime Minister 1830-34. Jacksons of Piccadilly claim Lord Grey handed them his recipe, based on an old Chinese version. This is unlikely, as he never visited China and bergamots don't grow there. It is more likely the Earl Grey blend developed out of necessity, to spin out one of the regular shortages in supply from China.

Paraphernalia

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham kept a teapot called Dickey as a pet. A cult in Malaysia worships a giant teapot, as it symbolises "the healing purity of water". The world's
oldest operating petrol station, in Zillah, Washington State, is shaped like a teapot.

There are about a quintillion atoms in a teaspoon of sugar (that's 1 followed by 30 zeros). Alternatively, you could use the teaspoon to hold 2,000 carrot seeds. If the empty space were removed from the constituent atoms, the entire population of the planet could be compressed into the same space as a sugar cube (but it would weigh 10 billion tons).

'A HISTORY OF...'//SURVEYS//OUGD504-SUMMER

These are some tea surveys I found on the UK Tea Council website:

This survey is still ongoing:

'A HISTORY OF...'//TEA HISTORY//OUGD504-SUMMER

TEA HISTORY:
CHINESE CULTURAL BELIEF:
http://www.chcp.org/tea.html

Tea is among the world’s oldest and most revered beverages. It is today’s most popular beverage in the world, next to water. Tea drinking has long been an important aspect of Chinese culture. A Chinese saying identifies the seven basic daily necessities as fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. According to Chinese legend, tea was invented accidentally by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 B.C. Emperor Shen Nong was a scholar and herbalist, as well as a creative scientist and patron of the arts. Among other things, the emperor believed that drinking boiled water contributed to good health. By his decree, his subjects and servants had to boil their water before drinking it as a hygiene precaution. On one summer day while he was visiting a distant region, he and his entourage stopped to rest. The servants began to boil water for the skilled ruler and his subjects to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby camellia bush fell into the boiling water. The emperor was interested in the new liquid because it had a pleasing aroma in this new brew interested the emperor, so he drank the infusion and discovered that it was very refreshing and had a delightful flavor. He declared that tea gives vigor to the body, thus. That was when tea was invented, but it was considered as a medicinal beverage. It was around 300 A.D. when, tea became a daily drink.

It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties when tea showed some significance in Chinese tradition. During the mid-Tang Dynasty (780 A.D.), a scholar named Lu Yu published the first definitive book, Cha Ching or The Tea Classic, on tea after he spent over twenty years studying the subject. This documentation included his knowledge of planting, processing, tasting, and brewing tea. His research helped to elevate tea drinking to a high status throughout China. This was when the art of tea drinking was born.

Later, a Song Dynasty emperor helped the spread of tea consumption further by indulging in this wonderful custom. He enjoyed tea drinking so much, that he bestowed tea as gifts only to those who were worthy. During this same time, tea was the inspiration of many books, poems, songs, and paintings. This not only popularized tea, it also elevated tea’s value which drew tea-growers to the capital.

Between the Yuan and Qing Dynasties, the technology of tea production continuously advanced to become more simplified and to improve the methods of enhancing tea flavor. During this period, tea houses and other tea-drinking establishments were opening up all over China. By 900 A.D., tea drinking spread from China to Japan where the Japanese Tea Ceremony or Chanoyu, was created. In Japan, tea was elevated to an art form which requires years of dedicated studying. Unlike the Japanese people, the Chinese people tend to view tea drinking as a form of enjoyment: to have after a meal or to serve when guests visit.

Tea was introduced to Europe in the 1600s; it was introduced to England in 1669. At that time, the drink was enjoyed only by the aristocracy because a pound of tea cost an average British laborer the equivalent of nine months in wages. The British began to import tea in larger qualities to satisfy the rapidly expanding market. Tea became Britain’s most important item of trade from China. All classes were able to drink tea as the tea trade increased and became less of a luxury. Now, tea is low in price and readily available.

The word “tea” was derived from ancient Chinese dialects. Such words as “Tchai,” “"Cha,” and “Tay” were used to describe the tea leaf as well as the beverage. The tea plant’s scientific name is Camellia sinensis (which is from the The aceae family of the Theales order), and it is indigenous to China and parts of India. The tea plant is an evergreen shrub that develops fragrant white, five-petaled flowers, and; it is related to the magnolia. Tea is made from young leaves and leaf buds from the tea tree. Two main varieties are cultivated: C. sinensis sinensis, a Chinese plant with small leaves, and C. sinensis assamica, an Indian plant with large leaves. Hybrids of these two varieties are also cultivated. What we call “herbal tea” is technically not tea because it does not come from the tea plant but consists a mixture of flowers, fruit, herbs or spices from other plants.

Today, there are more than 1,500 types of teas to choose from because over 25 countries cultivate tea as a plantation crop. China is one of the main producers of tea, and tea remains China’s national drink.

By L. K. Yee

TEA HISTORY- UK TEA COUNCIL 

http://www.tea.co.uk/history-of-tea

A BRIEF HISTORY

THE BIRTH OF TEA IN CHINA

Tea is often thought of as being a quintessentially British drink, and we have been drinking it for over 350 years. But in fact the history of tea goes much further back.

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. Containers for tea have been found in tombs dating from the Han dynasty(206 BC - 220 AD) but it was under the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD), that tea became firmly established as the national drink of China. It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch'a Ching, or Tea Classic. It was shortly after this that tea was first introduced to Japan, by Japanese Buddhist monks who had travelled to China to study. Tea drinking has become a vital part of Japanese culture, as seen in the development of the Tea Ceremony, which may be rooted in the rituals described in the Ch'a Ching.

The story of tea begins in China. According to legend, in 2737 BC, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Shen Nung, a renowned herbalist, decided to try the infusion that his servant had accidentally created. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, and the resulting drink was what we now call tea.

THE GROWTH OF TEA IN EUROPE

So at this stage in the history of tea, Europe was rather lagging behind. In the latter half of the sixteenth century there are the first brief mentions of tea as a drink among Europeans. These are mostly from Portuguese who were living in the East as traders and missionaries. But although some of these individuals may have brought back samples of tea to their native country, it was not the Portuguese who were the first to ship back tea as a commercial import. This was done by the Dutch, who in the last years of the sixteenth century began to encroach on Portuguese trading routes in the East. By the turn of the century they had established a trading post on the island of Java, and it was via Java that in 1606 the first consignment of tea was shipped from China to Holland. Tea soon became a fashionable drink among the Dutch, and from there spread to other countries in continental western Europe, but because of its high price it remained a drink for the wealthy.

THE ROOTS OF TEA IN BRITAIN:Britain, always a little suspicious of continental trends, had yet to become the nation of tea drinkers that it is today.Since 1600, the British East India Company had a monopoly on importing goods from outside Europe, and it is likely that sailors on these ships brought tea home as gifts. But the first dated reference to tea in this country is from an advert in a London newspaper, Mercurius Politicus, from September 1658.   It announced that 'China Drink, called by the Chinese, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alias Tee' was on sale at a coffee house in Sweeting's Rents in the City. The first coffee house had been established in London in 1652, and the terms of this advert suggest that tea was still somewhat unfamiliar to most readers, so it is fair to assume that the drink was still something of a curiosity. It was the marriage of Charles II to Catherine of Braganza that would prove to be a turning point in the history of tea in Britain. She was a Portuguese princess, and a tea addict, and it was her love of the drink that established tea as a fashionable beverage first at court, and then among the wealthy classes as a whole. Capitalising on this, the East India Company began to import tea into Britain, its first order being placed in 1664 - for 100lbs of China tea to be shipped from Java.

TEA SMUGGLING AND TAXATION:

The British took to tea with an enthusiasm that continues to the present day. It became a popular drink in coffee houses, which were as much locations for the transaction of business as they were for relaxation or pleasure. They were though the preserve of middle- and upper-class men; women drank tea in their own homes, and as yet tea was still too expensive to be widespread among the working classes. In part, its high price was due to a punitive system of taxation. The first tax on tea in the leaf, introduced in 1689, was so high at 25p in the pound that it almost stopped sales. It was reduced to 5p in the pound in 1692, and from then until as recently as 1964, when tea duties were finally abolished, politicians were forever tinkering with the exact rate and method of the taxation of tea.

One unforeseen consequence of the taxation of tea was the growth of methods to avoid taxation -smuggling and adulteration. By the eighteenth century many Britons wanted to drink tea but could not afford the high prices, and their enthusiasm for the drink was matched by the enthusiasm of criminal gangs to smuggle it in.Their methods could be brutal, but they were supported by the millions of British tea drinkers who would not have otherwise been able to afford their favourite beverage. What began as a small time illegal trade, selling a few pounds of tea to personal contacts, developed by the late eighteenth century into an astonishing organised crime network, perhaps importing as much as 7 million lbs annually, compared to a legal import of 5 million lbs! Worse for the drinkers was that taxation also encouraged the adulteration of tea, particularly of smuggled tea which was not quality controlled through customs and excise. Leaves from other plants, or leaves which had already been brewed and then dried, were added to tea leaves. Sometimes the resulting colour was not convincing enough, so anything from sheep's dung to poisonous copper carbonate was added to make it look more like tea.

By 1784, the government realised that enough was enough, and that heavy taxation was creating more problems than it was worth. The new Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, slashed the tax from 119 per cent to 12.5 per cent. Suddenly legal tea was affordable, and smuggling stopped virtually overnight.

TEA AND HEALTH:

As well as the great debate in the eighteenth century about the taxation of tea, there was an equally furious argument about whether tea drinking was good or bad for the health. Leaps forward in medical and scientific research mean that we now know that drinking four cups of tea a day may help maintain your health, but such information was not available to tea drinkers 250 years ago. Wealthy philanthropists in particular worried that excessive tea drinking among the working classes would lead to weakness and melancholy. Typically, they were not concerned with the continuing popularity of tea among the wealthy classes, for whom 'strength to labour' was of rather less importance! The debate rumbled on into the nineteenth century, but was really put to an end in the middle of that century, when a new generation of wealthy philanthropists realised the value of tea drinking to the temperance movement. In their enthusiasm to have the working classes go teetotal, tea was regularly offered at temperance meetings as a substitute for alcohol.

TEA TRADING AND CONSUMPTION:

Another great impetus to tea drinking resulted from the end of the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China, in 1834. Before that date, China was the country of origin of the vast majority of the tea imported to Britain, but the end of the its monopoly stimulated the East India Company to consider growing tea in China. India had always been the centre of the Company's operations, where it also played a leading role in the government. This led to the increased cultivation of tea in India, beginning in Assam. There were a few false starts, including the destruction by cattle of one of the earliest tea nurseries, but by 1839 there was sufficient cultivation of tea of 'marketable quality' for the first auction of Assam tea in Britain. In 1858 the British government took over direct control of India from the East India Company, but the new administration was equally keen to promote the tea industry and cultivation increased and spread to regions beyond Assam. It was a great success, production was expanded, and by 1888 British tea imports from India were for the first time greater than those from China.

The end of the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China also had another result, which was more dramatic though less important in the long term: it ushered in the era of the tea clippers. While the Company had had the monopoly on trade, there was no rush to bring the tea from China to Britain, but after 1834 the tea trade became a virtual free for all. Individual merchants and sea captains with their own ships raced to bring home the tea and make the most money, using fast new clippers which had sleek lines, tall masts and huge sails. In particular there was competition between British and American merchants, leading to the famous clipper races of the 1860s. The race began in China where the clippers would leave the Canton River, race down the China Sea, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, up the Atlantic, past the Azores and into the English Channel. The clippers would then be towed up the River Thames by tugs and the race would be won by the first ship to hurl ashore its cargo at the docks. But these races soon came to an end with the opening of the Suez canal, which made the trade routes to China viable for steamships for the first time.

In 1851, when virtually all tea in Britain had come from China, annual consumption per head was less than 2lbs. Bt 1901, fuelled by cheaper imports from India and Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), another British colony, this had rocketed to over 6lbs per head. Tea had become firmly established as part of the British way of life. This was officially recognised during the First World War, when the government took over the importation of tea to Britain in order to ensure that this essential morale-boosting beverage continued to be available at an affordable price. The government took control again during the Second World War, and tea was rationed from 1940 until 1952. 1952 also saw the re-establishment of the London Tea Auction, a regular auction that had been taking place since 1706. The auction was at the centre of the world's tea industry, but improved worldwide communications and the growth of auctions in tea producing nations meant that it gradually declined in importance during the latter half of the twentieth century. The final London Tea Auction was held on 29 June 1998.

MODERN TEA DRINKING:

But as the tea auction declined, an essential element of modern tea-drinking took off - the tea bag. Tea bags were invented in America in the early twentieth century, but sales only really took off in Britain in the 1970s. Nowadays it would be hard for many tea-drinkers to imagine life without them. Such is the British enthusiasm for tea that even after the dismantling of the Empire, British companies continue to play a leading role in the world's tea trade and British brands dominate the world market. With recent scientific research indicating that tea drinking may have direct health benefits, it is assured that for centuries to come there will be a place at the centre of British life for a nice cup of tea.

'A HISTORY OF...'//PRIMARY RESEARCH//OUGD504-SUMMER

TETLEY'S:
The most helpful response I got was from Tetley's, I received this in the post, I read and underlined bits of interesting and useful information:

'A HISTORY OF...'//PRIMARY RESEARCH//OUGD504-SUMMER

PRIMARY RESEARCH:
I got in contact with a few Tea companies and websites that I thought would be useful in helping me to further my knowledge and research, these were some of the responses:
TWININGS:
Dear Twinings, I am a Graphic Design BA student studying at Leeds College of Art going into my second year. For my first graded module we have been told to research, in depth, a chosen area of our interest, then using the gathered information create a body of graphic design work. I've decided to look into Tea/Tea Culture and being one of the UK most popular manufacturers was wondering if you could give me any information on your history/ statistics/ surveys/ production/ photographs/ memorabilia etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated and would be a massive help to my research. I was also wondering if there was any museum or place I could visit to get direct information? Thank you for your time, yours sincerely 
Kathryn Brooks
This is what I received:

I also contacted Ringtons, PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea but got no response.  I found the UK Tea Council website very helpful so contacted them for further information:

 

'A HISTORY OF...'//TEA FACTS,STATS,FIGURES//OUGD504-SUMMER

TEA FACTS:
http://www.tea.co.uk/teafacts

• Tea breaks are a tradition that have been with us for approximately 200 years.
• 80% of office workers now claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way.
• By the middle of the 18th Century tea had replaced ale and gin as the drink of the masses and had become Britain's most popular beverage.
• Tea contains half the amount of caffeine found in coffee.
• The number of recommended cups of tea to drink each day is 4, this gives you optimal benefit.
• Tea was created more than 5000 years ago in China.
• Tea is a natural source of fluoride that can help protect against tooth decay and gum disease
• The first book about tea was written by Lu Yu in 800 A.D
• Tea firstly appeared in Europe thanks to Portuguese Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz in 1560.
• Tea has potential health maintainence benefits in cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention.
• 96% of all cups of tea drunk daily in the UK are brewed from tea bags.
• Apart from tourism, tea is the biggest industrial activity in India.
• 98% of people take their tea with milk, but only 30% take sugar in tea.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Q: ARE WE NOW A COFFEE DRINKING NATION?

A: No, the number of cups of coffee drunk each day is estimated at 70 million.

Q: WHO IS THE LARGEST PER CAPITA TEA DRINKING NATION?

A: Republic of Ireland followed by Britain.

Q: WHO IS THE LARGEST PRODUCER OF TEA IN THE WORLD?

A: China with 1,359,000 tonnes, India is second with 979,000 tonnes (2009 production).

Q: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF BRITISH TEA IS CONSUMED FROM A TEA BAG?

A: 96%

Q: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF TEA IS TAKEN WITH MILK?

A: 98%

Q: HOW MANY CUPS OF TEA DO THE BRITISH DRINK A DAY?

A: 165 million cups daily or 60.2 billion per year.

Q: DO GREEN AND BLACK TEA COME FROM DIFFERENT PLANTS?

A: No, they both come from the same plant known by its botanical name Camellia sinensis.

Q: DOES TEA CONTAIN THE SAME LEVEL OF CAFFEINE AS COFFEE?

A: No, at least half the level of coffee.

Q: HOW MANY VARIETIES OF TEA ARE THERE?

A: Tea Council estimates about 1,500 varieties of Camellia sinensis.

Q: WHY DOES TEA REFRESH YOU IN HOT WEATHER?

A: It simply raises the body temperature momentarily, you perspire and the perspiration on your skin creates a cooling effect.

TYPHOO TEA FACTS:

In the UK we consume about 130,000 tonnes of tea a year of which at least 95% is in teabags.

One hectare of tea is planted out with approximately 12,000 tea bushes. Depending on its location these bushes can produce up to 3,000kgs of black tea in a year.

One bush produces 250grams of black tea a year, which is equal to one pack of Typhoo 80s.

Each bush will take about five days to produce enough tea for a Typhoo tea bag.

To produce our 2.9 billion tea bags we sell annually, we need approximately 40 million tea bushes or over 3300 hectares of tea.

Ty.phoo was the first brand to be sold pre-packaged rather than loose over the counter. At the time, it was believed to have medicinal qualities and was sold through chemists' shops.

The slogan on the first label read 'Ty.phoo, the tea that doctors recommend.'

The beverage's curative qualities were ascribed to the purity of Ty.phoo's 'leaf-edge' tea, compared to more ordinary varieties.

During World War 1, when the Government bought up and rationed tea stocks, Ty.phoo inserted circulars into packs urging customers to complain. The 'tea controller', deluged with letters, finally relented and Ty.phoo was made freely available.

Cold tea is good for taking the sting out of sunburn.

Brunettes can add shine to their hair by rinsing it in cold tea.

TEN TEA FACTS

http://www.foodeu.com/articles/Top+Ten+Tea+Facts.aspx

Tea has been around for centuries and is the second most-consumed beverage in the world, after water, with literally thousands of varieties in existance. Nowadays we seem to be finding more reasons to drink tea every day, whether it be black, white, green, herbal, Chinese or any other type. The anti-oxidising and cleansing abilities of the tea leaf make for a healthy choice, so say the scientists, but what else is tea good for?
Here are 10 facts that you might not have previously known about tea.

1. The origins of tea:
Legend has it that tea originated well over 5000 years ago in ancient China. The innovative and science-curious emporer Shen Nung insisted that for hygeine purposes, all water in the palace must be boiled. When he was out visiting his kingdom one day, him and his men stopped to boil water to drink and it was said that leaves from a nearby bush fell into the water. Apparently the brew that resulted was so refreshing, the emporer ordered samples of the bush to be brought back to the palace for analysis. Afterwards, word got out and this new phenomenon became fashionable.

2. From the Camellia bush:
Both black and green teas are made from the Camellia sinensis bush and have similar quantities of antioxidants and caffeine.

3. Antioxidant:
Tea contains catechins, a type of antioxidant which has been found to reduce people's risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Catechins can also be found in cocoa and dark chocolate.

Santosh Katiyar, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that the antioxidant also known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate can protect the skin from harmful UV rays.

4. Vitamins and minerals:
When combined with milk, tea can offer an array of vitamins and minerals including calcium, vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2, Thiamin B1, manganese for bone growth and repair, and potassium, important for neuron and brain function.

5. Puffy eyes and sunburn:
Teabags can be used to reduce the swelling of puffy eyes. Lie on your back and place a moist teabag over both eyes and leave on for around 20 minutes, this leaves your eyes feeling fresher, brighter, and looking revitalised. Also, a wet teabag can be used to soothe burns and sunburn. By either placing the teabag straight onto the burn or pouring tea into cool bathwater, it has been known to take away the burn's sting and help the skin heal faster.

6. Tea reduces risk of heart attacks:
Research conducted in the Netherlands suggests that tea can help people avoid heart attacks, especially women. Johanna M Geleijnse, PhD from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam led a study which followed 4807 Dutch adults over the age of 55 who had no heart problems in their previous medical history.
After 5 years it was found that the volunteers who drank 375ml of black tea per day had a 43% reduction in the risk of having a heart attack and a 70% reduced risk of having a fatal attack.
Johanna commented on the team's findings: "We observed a strong inverse relation between tea intake and incident myocardial infarction(heart attack), and the relation was stronger in women than in men. Our findings suggest a protective effect of tea and flavonoid intakes against MI."

7. Odour absorbant:
It has been found that tea can work as an odour absorbant, removing bad smells especially from your skin. Pouring a cup over your hands is said to work wonders for all kinds of bad odours!

8. Warts and all:
Tea can be used to treat warts as the tannin present in tea is acidic. This element makes tea as effective at removing warts as creams and ointments. Leaving a moist teabag on the wart for 15 minutes, 3 times per day, will cause the wart to shrink and disappear.

9. Caffeine:
The caffeine content of tea is approximately half of the amount that you'd find in a cup of brewed coffee. Whereas coffee provides around 100mg per 190ml cup, tea provides just 50mg, leaving you without the caffeine "drop" so familiar to coffee drinkers.

10. Oral Health:
A report issued by the UK Tea Council in 2006 stated that the fluoride content of tea makes it a potent defender of oral health. Fluoride binds to the tooth enamel, slowing down the tooth decay process and preventing cavities. Also, the instance of tannins in tea inhibits the growth of certain plaque-forming bacteria.

http://www.beveragestandardsassociation.co.uk/Tea-Facts

• The British have been drinking tea for nearly 400 years
• Tea breaks are traditions that have been with us for approximately 200 years. Initially when workers commenced their day at around 5 or 6am, employers allowed a break in the morning when food and tea were served. Some employers repeated the break in the afternoon as well
• Tea costs approximately 3p per cup to make. Coffee costs 6.5p
• Tea outsells coffee by 2 to 1
• There are 26 tea-growing nations. The principal ones are India,China, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia
• Over 50% of our tea comes from East Africa – Kenya, Malawi,Zimbabwe
• The UK imports and consumes 140 thousand tonnes of tea per year
• The UK drinks 165 million cups per day - 62 billion cups per year
• There are estimated to be about 1,500 different varieties of tea
• In a recent study, 80% of staff claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way
• The UK tea market is worth circa £700 million annually
• Average consumption is circa 3 cups per day (10 years old and over)
• 70% of population (over 10yrs) drank tea yesterday
• 95% of tea is consumed in tea bags
• 86% of tea is consumed at home, 14% out of home
• 93% of tea consumed is a blend – 7% speciality tea. Earl Grey 50% of speciality market
• Over 25% of milk consumed in UK is taken with tea
• 98% of people take milk with tea
• 45% of people take sugar with their tea

http://www.worldteaexpo.com/index.php/facts-a-stats

After water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world.

Tea comes from the leaves of a tree called Camellia sinensis. Although the tree can grow over 30 feet tall it is often cut short like a bush so that the leaves can be plucked easily when harvesting.

Tea is grown in 36 countries around the world. The most famous tea producing countries are India, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Japan and Taiwan. Lesser known areas include Argentina, Bangladesh, Uganda, Malawi, Turkey, Iran, and Brazil. India is the world's largest producer and consumer of tea. 

Most tea falls into one of three categories: Black, Oolong and Green. Other categories include White and Yellow.

A single pound of specialty tea will yield about 180 cups of brewed tea.

Tea was accidentally discovered around 2737 B.C. by Chinese Emperor Shen-Nun who was sitting beneath a tree waiting for his water to boil when tea leaves fell into his pot.

The United States is the birthplace of Iced Tea. Today over 80% of tea consumed in the U.S. is still sold as an iced drink.

Tea A-Z: 26 interesting facts about tea - From where the tea bag was invented to the natural mosquito repellent found in it's leaves

BY FDL ON DECEMBER 03, 2011

Astrotea. You can use tea leaves to read the future. Just leave a small amount of tea in the bottom of the cup along with some tea leaves, and after stirring the remains three times, the pattern you’re left with will tell you what’s in store. In Asia, readers of tea leaves are just as respected as astrologers.

Bags. Tea bags were invented in America in the early 1800s, and were initially used to hold samples of teas brought from India. Today, 96% of all cups of tea served around the world were made using teabags.

Camellia sinensis. There are many different kinds of tea, but they are all derived from just one plant: Camellia sinensis. The color and variety of the tea (green, black, white, oolong) depends, however, on the way the leaves are treated.

Darjeeling. It’s called the champagne of tea: a black tea, it is grown in the eponymous area of Indian Bengal. One of the world’s most highly-prized tea varieties, teas are often falsely sold as coming from this area: for every 400 tons of tea sold under this name every year, only 100 tons actually comes from Darjeeling. 

Elevenses. At 11 o’clock in the morning, to stay alert, in England it’s common to take a break with a cup of tea and some cakes: Elevenses. Before dinner, however, you can take ‘high tea’: a kind of reinforced snack.

Food. You can’t have a cup without something to go with it: from cookies and English cucumber sandwiches to seafood accompanied by green tea in Japan, by way of spicy Indian meat dishes, and all-chocolate desserts from Assam.

Gin. Mix gin and cold tea, flavor with little lemon rind, and you’ll get a great summer cocktail. In the mid 1700s, in Great Britain, tea replaced gin as the drink of the masses, and became the nation’s favorite beverage.

Hot or cold. Perfect when drunk steaming hot, tea is also one of the most thirst-quenching summer drinks when drunk cold, perhaps with ice, and possibly some lemon, lime or leaves of mint to add flavor.

India. After tourism, the cultivation of tea is India’s second largest industry. And India tea is the variety most commonly drunk the world over, despite the fact that it originally came from China. 

Joan Cusack. «Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Me?» is one of cinema’s best-known quotes. It’s the famously cheeky line uttered by Joan Cusack to Harrison Ford in the classic film Working Girl.

Kettle. You won’t find a kitchen in England without one: the kettle, used to boil the water for tea, can be either electric or heated up on the hob. 

Loose tea. Loose tea is, for connoisseurs, the best way to taste tea: the quality of the tea leaves, which are often whole, and not broken up as in tea bags, is often higher, and retains more of their original flavor.

Mosquitoes. Tea leaves are a natural means of keeping mosquitoes away. All you have to do is use slightly damp leaves to add the scent of tea to the areas you want to keep insect-free.

Not just for drinking. Here are five good reasons for not giving up tea, even if you don’t drink it - it helps to heal shaving cuts, eliminates bad odors when added to a foot bath, can be used to marinade meat, is a great fertilizer for roses, and is also good for cleaning floors.

Oolong. Oolong tea, a Chinese and Taiwanese tea with a fruity aroma, is also often called Dragon’s Tea: these tea leaves, when put in teapot, often start to look like a dragon. The world’s most expensive tea is an oolong tea: it’s called Tieguanyin, and its leaves cost up to $3,000 per kilo.

Party. The Tea Party is the American political movement which calls for less state intervention in key areas like the economy and healthcare. Its name harks back to the Boston Tea Party, an act of protest carried out in the 1700s when Americans rebelled against the British government, destroying cases of tea which had arrived from India.

Quotes. «Women are like tea bags. They do not know how strong they are until they get into hot water.» - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Ritz Carlton of Hong Kong. This is where the world’s most expensive afternoon tea is drunk – you can spend up to $8,888 dollars here. You can taste the world’s best teas, finger food, fantastic cakes and enjoy the best view of the city.

Samovar. In Russia, the water for tea is boiled using a samovar. They were initially heated using coal, but these days usually run on electricity. They’re traditional, common household items found in Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Theanine. The stimulant found in tea leaves is theanine, an antioxidant whose equivalent in coffee is caffeine. Tea, however, contains less caffeine than coffee: around half the amount.

UK. The London Tea Auction was an institution which lasted for 300 years. Tea was sold using the ‘by the candle’ system: bidding for lots went on until an inch of a candle had burnt away.

Vitamins. Tea is a natural antioxidant, and rich in vitamins: it contains vitamins B2, B1 and B6. Tea, however, is also rich in potassium, manganese, folic acid and calcium.

Water. Experts have always advised on the best kind of water for making tea. In early Chinese texts we can find suggestions that the best water should be taken from rivers and lakes.

X-rated. Amongst the many thousands of qualities that tea can boast, it has relaxing effects that can help improve your sex life. In particular,Ashwagandha tea is regarded as a stimulant to virility.

Yin Zhen or Silver Needle. This is the most highly prized of white teas. It comes from China, and takes its name from the leaves used to make it, which are harvested when they’re young and still unfurled, and look like needles.

Zillah. The world’s oldest gas pump is still going strong, and can be found in Zillah, in Washington State. It’s known as the Teapot Dome Service Station, as it happens to look like a teapot.

USA TEA FACTS

http://www.teausa.com/index.cfm/14655/tea-fact-sheet

Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water, and can be found in almost 80% of all U.S. households. It is the only beverage commonly served hot or iced, anytime, anywhere, for any occasion. On any given day, over 154 million Americans are drinking tea.

Annual Consumption:         (U.S.)

In 2010, Americans consumed well over 65 billion servings of tea, or over 3.00 billion gallons. About 80% of all tea consumed was Black Tea, 19.5% was Green Tea, and a small remaining amount was Oolong and White Tea.

Daily Consumption:  (U.S.)	On any given day, about one half of the American population drinks tea. On a regional basis, the South and Northeast have the greatest concentration of tea drinkers.
Iced Tea Consumption:	Approximately 85% of tea consumed in America is iced.
Ready-To-Drink Iced Teas:	Over the last ten years, Ready-To-Drink Tea has grown by more than 15 times. In 2010, Ready-To-Drink sales were conservatively estimated at $3.30 billion.
Tea Bags, Loose Tea & Iced Tea Mixes:	In 2010, over 65% of the tea brewed in the United States was prepared using tea bags. Ready-to-Drink and iced tea mix comprises about one fourth of all tea prepared in the U.S., with instant and loose tea accounting for the balance. Instant tea is declining and loose tea is gaining in popularity, especially in Specialty Tea and coffee outlets.

Current Sales:	2010 was the 19th consecutive year that consumer purchases of tea increased. Retail supermarket sales alone surpassed the $2.15 billion dollar mark. Away-from-home consumption has been increasing by at least 10% annually over the last decade.
Anticipated Sales: (U.S.)	The industry anticipates strong, continuous growth over the next five years. This growth will come from all segments driven by convenience, interest in the healthy properties of tea, and by the continued discovery of Specialty Tea.

Varieties:	Black, Green, Oolong and White teas all come from the same plant, a warm-weather evergreen named Camellia sinensis. Differences among the four types of tea result from the various degrees of processing and the level of oxidization. Black tea is oxidized for up to 4 hours and Oolong teas are oxidized for 2-3 hours. As a result, the tea leaves undergo natural chemical reactions, which result in taste and color changes, and allow for distinguishing characteristics. Green & White teas are not oxidized after processing and they most closely resemble the look and chemical composition of the fresh tea leaf. Oolong tea is midway between Black and Green teas in strength and color.
Grown In:	Much of the world’s tea is grown in mountainous areas 3,000 – 7,000 feet above sea level, situated between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn in mineral-rich soil. Leading tea-producing countries include Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.
History:	Tea is nearly 5,000 years old. It was discovered in 2737 BC by Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung, known as the “Divine Healer,” when as legend goes, some tea leaves accidentally blew into the Emperor’s pot of boiling water. In the 1600’s, tea became highly popular through out Europe and the American colonies. Tea played a dramatic part in the establishment of the United States of America. In 1767 the British Government put a tax on the tea used by American colonists. Protesting this “taxation without representation,” the colonists decided to stop buying tea and refused to allow tea ships to be unloaded. One December night in 1723, men dressed as Native Americans boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and threw more than 300 chests of tea into the sea. This now famous Boston Tea Party, in protest of the British tea tax, was said to be one of the acts leading to the Revolutionary War. Anna, Duchess of Bedford, is credited with creating Afternoon Teain 1840, when she began taking tea with a light snack around 4:00 p.m. to ward off “that sinking feeling.” High Tea originated with the rural and working class British, who would return to their homes at about 6:00 p.m.for a meal of potted meats, fish, cheese, salads, sweets, and a pot of strong tea. The U.S. played an important role in the history of tea, inventing the tea bag and iced tea, both in 1904. Recently, the U.S. has led the rest of the world in marketing convenient Ready-To-Drink forms of tea in bottles.
Environmental Qualities:	Tea is an all-natural and environmentally sound product from a renewable source. The tea plant is naturally resistant to most insects; oxidation of the tea leaf is a natural process; and many tea packers use recycled paper for packaging.
Health Qualities:	Tea is a refreshing beverage that contains no sodium, fat, carbonation, or sugar. It is virtually calorie-free. Tea helps maintain proper fluid balance and may contribute to overall good health. Tea contains flavonoids, naturally occurring compounds that are believed to have antioxidant properties.  Antioxidants work to neutralize free radicals, which scientists believe, over time, damage elements in the body, such as genetic material and lipids, and contribute to chronic disease. Every day, new findings from the international scientific community lend credibility to tea’s healthy properties.  Recent research has explored the potential health attributes of tea through studies in humans, animal models and through in vitro laboratory research.  For the most part, studies conducted on green and black tea, which are both from the Camellia sinensis plant, have yielded similar results.  Recent research suggests that tea and tea flavonoids may play important roles in various areas of health and may operate through a number of different mechanisms still being explored.  As research continues, here are some exciting recent findings: Heart Health: The current body of research suggests that drinking tea can offer significant heart health benefits ranging from reducing heart attack risk to lowering Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, or “bad” cholesterol, with benefits seen with just one cup and upwards of six cups a day.  A Harvard study found that those who drank a cup or more of black tea per day had a 44% reduced risk of heart attack.[i] In a large population based study, adults who drank just over two cups of green tea per day reduced their risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 22-23%.[ii] Additionally, a US Department of Agriculture study found that participants who drank five cups of black tea per day along with a diet moderately low in fat and cholesterol reduced their LDL cholesterol by about 11% after three weeks.[iii] Certain Cancers: Benefits to gastrointestinal health reaped by tea-drinking seem to be cumulative and dependent upon the amount of tea consumed per day as well as the number of tea-drinking years. One study found that women who consumed the equivalent of 2.5 cups of tea per day had a 60% reduction in rectal cancer risk, compared with women who drank less than 1.2 cups of tea daily.[iv]  An additional study found tea drinkers to have an approximate 42% reduced risk of colon cancer compared to non-tea drinkers.  Men who drank more than 1.5 cups of tea per day were found to have a 70% lower colon cancer risk.[v] One study showed that participants who drank iced black tea and citrus peel had a 42% reduced risk of skin cancer[vi] and hot black tea consumption was associated with a significantly lower risk of the most common form of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma.[vii] Neurological Decline: A recently published long-term study of nearly 30,000 adults found that drinking three or more cups of tea per day was associated with a 69% reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.[viii] According to research presented at the 2007 Scientific Symposium on Tea and Health, theanine, an amino acid that is for the most part uniquely found in tea (green and black), may help prevent age-related memory decline. This human-based data is supported by recent animal studies utilizing theanine.[ix] Another recent animal study shows that green tea may have protective effects against Alzheimer’s disease.[x]
Caffeine Content:	Tea is naturally low in caffeine. A cup of Black Tea, for example, contains about 40 milligrams of caffeine.
Cost Per Serving:	Prepared in the home, tea costs about three cents per serving, cup or glass. Tea continues to remain one of the most economical beverages available.