\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 Although the first official imports of tea reached London in 1657, it was not until the East India Company started sh
ipping tea back to England as a commodity in 1668 that fashionable people began to adopt the new beverage. Twenty-one pounds of that original consignment of 134 pounds of best Java tea were presented to the Queen, and with a royal patron the custom was
bound to catch on. \ATXnt901 Tea began to pour into England\ATXnt0 in regular and increasing amounts, and as it trickled down through the various levels of society, the accoutrements necessary for its preparation also began to multiply: wooden tea cadd
ies or chests in which the precious leaves were stored under lock and key, fine porcelain or silver cups, bowls, saucers and pots, cheaper wares in pewter for impecunious imbibers. Tea was to transform social and trading habits. Import duties were so h
igh at 119 percent that a great deal of tea drunk in England was smuggled into the country. When duties were lowered to 12 percent in 1784, within the space of a year the amount that entered for home consumption rose from 4,962,000 to 16,307,000 pounds.
Tea merchants such as the house of Twinings were established, and specialised grocers were proud to cater to the needs of the wealthier London families. As tea filtered down to the working classes, however, it gained a number of critics. One radical
politician and journalist calculated that daily tea-breaks were wasting the nation 30 working days per capita a year. Moreover, the beverage was considered by many to be pernicious to health. At the bottom end of the social ladder this was probably tru
e. The sort of tea usually drunk by the working classes had little to do with the green leaves imported from the East. Instead it was often a vile concoction of hedgerow sweepings and copper filings put together by unscrupulous backroom purveyors and d
ealers. No wonder the wretched drinkers found their health declining as they sipped their way through indigence.\par
