Why do British people love tea? (from Here For The History)
6/19/202633 min
Where exactly does the British love affair with tea begin? It all starts with a Portuguese princess…
In this first episode of Here For The History, Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson explore the origin story of the British love of tea. Starting with the first appearance of tea in England in the 1600s and its popularisation in the English royal court, the story takes a dark turn as the British East India Company seeks to break China’s monopoly on tea production leading to the Opium Wars and corporate espionage.
Here For The History is a new BBC Sounds podcast where every week historians Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson will shed light on the stereotypes, social norms, traditions and beliefs that fill our everyday life. From Britain’s stiff upper-lip, to Scottish tartan, the podcast will reveal the surprising roots of the customs and everyday objects that surround us.
If you enjoy this episode, you can listen and subscribe to Here For The History on BBC Sounds. If you’re outside the UK, you can listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Key sources for this episode: A Social History of Tea - Jane Pettigrew A journey to the tea countries of China - Robert Fortune Dinner with Dickens - Penn Vogler
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsBen Henderson· Host0:00
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Speaker 20:03
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Speaker 30:39
[upbeat music] Roll out.
Speaker 40:41
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Alice Loxton· Host1:08
[upbeat music] Hello, You're Dead to Me listeners. I'm Alice Loxton.
Ben Henderson· Host1:15
And I'm Ben Henderson.
Alice Loxton· Host1:16
We're big fans of You're Dead to Me, so we're really looking forward to the new series, which is just around the corner.
Ben Henderson· Host1:21
But before it arrives, we're delighted to be able to pop into this feed and tell you about our new history podcast, which I hope you'll like too.
Alice Loxton· Host1:29
It's called