page_title: Tea in the United Kingdom
section_title: Popularity among the middle classes
hierarchical_section_title: Tea in the United Kingdom / History / Eighteenth century: a marker of middle-class upward mobility and patriotism / Popularity among the middle classes
context_page_description: Since the eighteenth century, the United Kingdom has been one of the world's largest tea consumers, with an average annual per capita tea supply of 1.9 kg. The British Empire was instrumental in spreading tea from China to India; British interests controlled tea production in the subcontinent. Tea, which was an upper-class drink in continental Europe, became the infusion of every social class in Britain throughout the course of the eighteenth century and has remained so. Tea is a prominent feature of British culture and society.
  In both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the drinking of tea is so varied that it is difficult to generalise. While it is usually served with milk, it is not uncommon to drink it black or with lemon, with sugar being a popular addition to any of the above. Strong ordinary tea, served in a mug with milk and often sugar, is a popular combination known as builder's tea. Tea is often accompanied with sandwiches, crumpets, scones, cake and/or biscuits, with a popular British custom being dunking the biscuit into the tea.
context_section_description: Because tea began in Britain as a luxury for the super-rich, it had a reputation in the eighteenth century as a high-class commodity. But as prices slowly fell, more people at the middle levels of society had access to it. Accordingly, drinking tea became associated with respectability among upwardly mobile middle-class people. When people drank tea, they were expected to possess certain manners and behave in a particular way. Soon, drinking tea became a domestic ritual among families, colleagues, and friends who were just wealthy enough to afford it, which also increased demand. The association between tea and respectability became so ingrained in both British and Irish culture that it reached a point where it could not go out of fashion. Tea-drinking among these groups was also soon considered patriotic.
  Because the British East India Company had a monopoly over the tea industry in England, tea became more popular than coffee, chocolate, and alcohol. Tea was seen as inherently British and tea-drinking was encouraged by the British government because of the revenue gained from taxing tea. Unlike coffee and chocolate, which came from the colonies of Britain's rivals in various regions of the world, tea was produced in a single massive colony and served as a means of not only profit, but colonial power. Mintz goes so far as to argue that the combination of ritualization and increased production in the British colonies was how tea became inherently British.
  As the British continued to import more and more tea throughout the eighteenth century, tea slowly went from a respectable commodity consumed by the well-mannered classes in domestic rituals to an absolute necessity in the British diet, even among the poor working classes. John Hanway, an eighteenth-century social reformer, observed the widespread consumption of tea by the poor in 1767. He described "a certain lane ... where beggars are often seen ... drinking their tea", as well as "laborers mending their roads drinking their tea" and tea "in the cups of haymakers". Just two centuries after the first appearance of tea in English society as a beverage for aristocrats, tea had become so widely popular and available that those at the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy were consuming it as their beverage of choice. It was at this point that tea became universal among all levels of society. Fernand Braudel asked, "is it true to say the new drink replaced gin in England?"
caption: Jan Josef Horemans the Younger, 'Tea Time' (18th century)
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