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I sent for a cup of tee--a China drink--of which I had never drank before, writes Pepys in his diary of the 25th of September, 1660. It appears, however, that it came into England in 1610; but at ten guineas a pound it could scarcely be expected to make headway. A rather large consignment was, however, received in 1657; this fell into the hands of a thriving London merchant, Mr. Thomas Garway, who established a house for selling the prepared beverage. Another writer states that tea was introduced by the East India Company early in 1571. Though it may not be possible to fix the exact date, one fact is clear, that it was a costly beverage. Not until 1667 did it find its way into Pepys' own house.
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Home, he says,
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Commenting upon this entry, Charles Knight said,
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Mrs. Pepys making her first cup of tea is a subject to be painted. How carefully she metes out the grains of the precious drug which Mr. Pelling, the potticary, has sold her at an enormous price--a crown an ounce at the very least; she has tasted the liquor once before, but then there was sugar in the infusion--a beverage only for the highest. If tea should become fashionable, it will cost in their housekeeping as much as their claret. However, Pepys says the price is coming down, and he produces the handbill of Thomas Garway, in Exchange Alley, which the lady peruses with great satisfaction.
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An exact description of the growth, quality, and virtues of the leaf tea, by Thomas Garway, in Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange in London, tobacconist, and seller and retailer of tea and coffee.
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Tea is generally brought from China, and groweth there upon little shrubs and bushes. The branches whereof are well garnished with white flowers that are yellow within, of the lightness and fashion of sweet-brier, but in smell unlike, bearing thin green leaves about the bigness of scordium, myrtle, or sumack; and is judged to be a kind of sumack. This plant hath been reported to grow wild only, but doth not; for they plant it in the gardens, about four foot distance, and it groweth about four foot high; and of the seeds they maintain and increase their stock. Of this leaf there are divers sorts (though all one shape); some much better than others, the upper leaves excelling the others in fineness, a property almost in all plants; which leaves they gather every day, and drying them in the shade or in iron pans, over a gentle fire, till the humidity be exhausted, then put close up in leaden pots, preserve them for their drink tea, which is used at meals and upon all visits and entertainments in private families, and in the palaces of grandees; and it is averred by a padre of Macao, native of Japan, that the best tea ought to be gathered but by virgins, who are destined for this work. The particular virtues are these; it maketh the body active and lusty; it helpeth the head ache, giddiness and heaviness thereof; it removeth the obstructiveness of the spleen; it is very good against the stone and gravel, cleaning the kidneys and ureters, being drank with virgin's honey, instead of sugar; it taketh away the difficulty of breathing, opening obstructions; it is good against tipitude, distillations, and cleareth the sight; it removeth lassitude and cleanseth and purifieth acrid humours and a hot liver; it is good against crudities, strengthening the weakness of the ventricle, or stomach, causing good appetite and digestion, and particularly for men of corpulent body, and such as are great eaters of flesh; it vanquisheth heavy dreams, easeth the frame and strengtheneth the memory; it overcometh superfluous sleep, and prevents sleepiness in general, a draught of the infusion being taken; so that, without trouble, whole nights may be spent in study without hurt to the body, in that it moderately healeth and bindeth the mouth of the stomach.
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This clever puff had the desired effect; for, according to the Diurnal of Thomas Rugge,
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There were at this time (1659) a Turkish drink, to be souled almost in every street, called coffee, and another kind of drink called tea; and also a drink called chocolate, which was a very hearty drink. It was advertised in the public journals. The _Mercurius Politicus_, of the 30th of September, 1658, sets forth:
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That excellent, and by all physicians approved, China drink, called by the Chineans Teha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the 'Sultaness Head' coffee-house, in Sweeting's Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London. It was sold also at
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Jonathan's coffee-house, in Exchange Alley. In her
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Bold Strike for a Wife Mrs. Centlivre laid one of her scenes at
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Jonathan's. While the business goes on she makes the coffee boys cry,
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Fresh coffee, gentlemen! fresh coffee! Bohea tea, gentlemen! But the most famous house for tea was Garway's, or, as it appears in
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Old and New London,
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Garraway's Coffee-house, which was swept away a few years ago in the
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For two centuries, however, it had been one of the most celebrated coffee-houses in the city. Defoe mentions it as being frequented about noon by people of quality who had business in the city, and
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but it was also the resort of speculators. Here the South Sea Bubblers met, as well as the lovers of good tea. Dean Swift, in his ballad on the South Sea Bubble, calls 'Change Alley
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and describes the wreckers watching for the shipwrecked dead on
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Garraway's Cliffs.
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In 1662, remarks Mr. Montgomery Martin, in a treatise on the 'Past and Present State of the Tea Trade,' published in 1832,
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Charles II. married the Princess Catherine of Portugal, who, it was said, was fond of tea, having been accustomed to it in her own country, hence it became fashionable in England.
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Venus her myrtle, Phoebe has his bays; Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise. The best of Queens and best of herbes we owe, To that bold nation which the way did show To the fair region, where the sun does rise, Whose rich productions we so justly prize. The Muse's friend, tea, does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade, And keeps that palace of the soul serene, Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen.