Black tea

Black tea became very popular to the British gentry in the seventeenth Century. This was when Tea became widely known and built itself initially into an upper class act of snobbery! Tea at this time was only grown in China and was a closely guarded secret of the Chinese Emperors of the time. Tea was bought and shipped from China to the rest of the world, Japan, Formosa, India, America and Europe in a variety of ships of different nationalities. Dutch and Spanish ships competed with the massive fleets of the British Empire to carry tea to where it was most needed. For the most part companies like the Dutch East Indian Company whom first imported Tea to Europe and The British East India Company controlled most of the market for themselves.

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