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A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in the world (2017)

93 points| Tomte | 6 years ago |kottke.org | reply

76 comments

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[+] themagician|6 years ago|reply
I prefer the greentext history:

> Tea is the coolest thing in human history.

> Grows in China, only really exported to Japan.

> 1500s, some dues bring it to Europe.

> Britain goes fucking nuts for it.

> Start naval empire for the sole purposes of buying tea.

> Britain buys all the tea in China for all it’s silver bullion, utterly bankrupting itself.

> Britain gets China addicted to opium to balance debt. Ha.

> China gets pissed, colossal war ensues.

> Meanwhile Brits decide they want sugar in their tea, basically kick start the slave trade in earnest.

> Stick sugar plantations all over Americas.

> Kill half of the people in Africa just to grow that sweet, sweet sugar.

> Blitz through India, be like, “Grow tea or everyone dies.”

> okay.jpg

> China’s fucked, broke from opium wars, monopoly on tea gone,

> Africa’s fucked, millions dead, millions in chains halfway around the world.

> The Americas rolling in wealth because of slavery and plantations.

> Everyone and their mum now drinks tea, Brtis make mad bank.

> Wake up to drink sweet brew every morning, imagine the untold amount of violence that went into that cup.

[+] umvi|6 years ago|reply
> Wake up to drink sweet brew every morning, imagine the untold amount of violence that went into that cup

I feel like there was a missed opportunity to transition to Boston Tea Party and American Revolution

[+] ashelmire|6 years ago|reply
Another perspective on this is as western malfeasance in economic and actual warfare in the east, which we are now starting to pay for as China ignores our IP and denies us the ability to compete in their market.
[+] qrbLPHiKpiux|6 years ago|reply
This post looks like copy pasta from /pol

Lol

[+] Synaesthesia|6 years ago|reply
One of the interesting facts I read about was the invention of chai tea (spiced tea) for the Indian market. Which was invented by the British as a way to convince the Indians to drink tea.

Traditionally Indians had drunk spiced coffee, not tea and it took a long time to force them off of it!

[+] thaumasiotes|6 years ago|reply
> the invention of chai tea (spiced tea)

For the record, "chai" is just the word for tea; spices are not implied. It does not seem to have been introduced by the British, who knew it as "cha" very early and "tea" for most of their tea-relevant history; the "chai" form comes from Persia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#Etymology

But the British did give it a promotional campaign, during which they fought against the native tendency to add spices:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#History

[+] vinay427|6 years ago|reply
Well, it didn't work closer to the places where coffee is grown in India. ;)

Coffee is still the default choice in those parts in most cases, though it's a rather different form usually made with Robusta beans (as well as Arabica) and chicory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_filter_coffee

[+] vram22|6 years ago|reply
As others have said here, the name of regular tea (without spices, etc.) in India is not "chai tea" but just "chai" (in Hindi). "Chai tea" would be like saying "tea tea" (although in two different languages (Hindi and English) in the same two-word phrase), so is redundant. I've had American friends and colleagues who made the same mistake.

From Google Translate (and listen to the sounds via the speaker button - when available):

Hindi:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

Marathi:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

Tamil (but I've never heard anyone call it that, may be the formal name, I've always heard it called "tea" (as in English) in Tamil:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

Gujarati:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

Malayalam:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

and so on ...

[+] accurrent|6 years ago|reply
Depending on which part of India you are from tea preparation can vary. For instance in Bengal, Darjeeling Tea and its variants are not spiced. One thing this video does is give a two sided view of tea history talking about China and England as the two main countries of interest. Tea itself would have been known in the middle east much earlier than when the British brought it over. Although the cultivation outside China probably was a largely British push.
[+] syockit|6 years ago|reply
Sometimes I wonder how the Chinese felt about the blatant IP theft by the British ages ago. I however am grateful for the fact that tea became more accessible due to that. We wouldn't have Assam and Darjeeling otherwise.
[+] thaumasiotes|6 years ago|reply
They didn't approve; tea was a state secret. But they were probably even more upset about the theft of silkworms centuries before.
[+] NotPaidToPost|6 years ago|reply
I think they felt more strongly about being forced to accept opium on penalty of being bombed.

The thing is that they remember all those things while people in the West are oblivious to them.

[+] im3w1l|6 years ago|reply
The west had herbal "teas" long before tea. So from my understanding the only new thing was which plant they used.
[+] vixen99|6 years ago|reply
Possibly how the English feel about extensive IP theft following the industrial revolution.
[+] diminish|6 years ago|reply
It's still Water, mineral water, tea and your occasional local favorite beverage against Cola & co.
[+] smcl|6 years ago|reply
Coffee too, surely