page_title: Teahouse
section_title: Other meanings and related words
hierarchical_section_title: Teahouse / Other meanings and related words
caption_attribution_description: Twinings shop at 216 Strand, London. Thomas Twining (1675-1741) founded the House of Twining by purchasing the original "Tom's Coffee House" at the back of the site at the Strand in 1706, where he introduced tea. In 1717, he opened the "Golden Lyon" there as a shop to sell tea and coffee. In 1787 his grandson Richard Twining (1719-1824) built the handsome doorway incorporating his grandfather's "Golden Lyon" symbols with two Chinese figures. Twinings is believed to be the oldest company to have traded continuously at the same site with the same family since its foundation.
context_page_description: A teahouse or tearoom is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment which only serves cream teas. Although the function of a tearoom may vary according to the circumstance or country, teahouses often serve as centers of social interaction, like coffeehouses.
  Some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered establishments of different types, depending on the national tea culture. For example, the British or American tearoom serves afternoon tea with a variety of small cakes.
context_section_description: The term "tea shop" may also refer to a retail shop selling dry tea to take home. Dry tea (first, as loose leaves, and then in teabags) used to be sold at grocers' shops, and now mainly at supermarkets. One of the oldest shops that still specialises in selling tea for consumption at home is Twinings, which has been operating from the same premises in central London since it opened in 1706.
  In the workplace, the term tea room ("break room" in North America) is a room set aside for employees to relax; specifically, to take refreshment during work breaks. Traditionally, a staff member serving hot drinks and snacks at a factory or office was called a tea lady, although this position is now almost defunct.
  Tea is a prominent feature of British culture and society. For centuries, Britain has been one of the world's greatest tea consumers, and now consumes an average per capita of 1.9 kg (4.18 lbs) per year.
caption: Twinings tea shop, established 1706
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