Oh Tea! The famous British hot brew, in fact a cultural and rooted tradition for any Brit.
But did you know that British didn’t loved tea so much (many of them calling it: “That old socks water!“) and it was made famous by a Portuguese?
Queen Catherine of Braganza (Catarina de Braganca), consort of Charles II, made the tea famous and fashionable.
Portugal has a trading route with China directly, and portuguese were already using tea for many things. The real fact is in the whole world, the word CHA (tea) is used only by Chinese and Portuguese (in India the name is Chaay), because of that trading route. So Portuguese and Mandarin are the only 2 languages in the world calling it.
Queen Catherine always had her tea at 5pm, and it started to be a fashionable thing among the King’s subjects to take tea at 5pm.
After that, Britain started to love so much tea, and with all the connection they had with their Indian colonies, that started to trade from India and Ceylon.
In Britain you drink Tea with milk – it’s a cultural thing, and many of them can’t understand how other people can drink it without milk – But most of the countries drink tea without milk. I drink mine without milk and sugar. I like the herbal flavour stronger, and many say that the concept of adding sugar to tea comes from Russians.
With or without milk, with or without sugar, in a cup, a mug or glass, hot or cold, herbal or fruity, let’s enjoy the 2nd day of Autumn with a cuppa!
Ale x
