Editing Tea (section)

===Worldwide spread===
{{See also|Arabic tea|Korean tea|Tea in Australia|Tea in France}}
[[File:Gorskii 03992u.jpg|thumb|left|Tea-weighing station north of [[Batumi]], [[Russian Empire]], before 1915]]

Tea was first introduced to Western priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which time it was termed ''chá''.<ref name="caff">{{cite book |author1=Bennett Alan Weinberg |author2=Bonnie K. Bealer |title=The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdpL2YCGLVYC&pg=PA63 |year=2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-92722-2 |page=63 |access-date=10 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427034134/https://books.google.com/books?id=YdpL2YCGLVYC&pg=PA63 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The earliest European reference to tea, written as ''chiai'', came from ''Delle navigationi e viaggi'' written by Venetian [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio|Giambattista Ramusio]] in 1545.{{sfn|Mair|Hoh|2009|p=165}} The first recorded shipment of tea by a European nation was in 1607 when the Dutch East India Company moved a cargo of tea from [[Macau|Macao]] to Java, then two years later, the Dutch bought the first assignment of tea which was from [[Hirado, Nagasaki|Hirado]] in Japan to be shipped to Europe.{{sfn|Mair|Hoh|2009|p=106}} Tea became a fashionable drink in [[The Hague]] in the Netherlands, and the Dutch introduced the drink to [[Germany]], [[France]], and across the Atlantic to [[New Amsterdam]] (New York).{{sfn|Mair|Hoh|2009|p=169}}

In 1567, Russian people came in contact with tea when the [[Cossacks|Cossack]] [[Ataman]]s Petrov and Yalyshev visited China.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.apollotea.com/tea-articles/tea-history/15-russian-tea-history |title=Russian Tea History |website=www.apollotea.com |access-date=28 May 2019}}</ref> The Mongolian Khan donated to [[Tsar]] [[Michael of Russia|Michael I]] four [[pood]]s (65–70&nbsp;kg) of tea in 1638.<ref name="T">{{cite book |title=[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Советская энциклопедия |year=1978 |pages=vol. 29, p. 11 }}</ref> According to [[Jeremiah Curtin]],<ref>Jeremiah Curtin, ''A Journey to Southern Siberia'', 1909, chapter one</ref> it was possibly in 1636<ref>Basil Dymytryshyn, ''Russia's Conquest of Siberia: A Documentary Record'', 1985, volume one, document 48 (he was an envoy that year, but the tea may have been given on a later visit to the Khan)</ref> that Vassili Starkov was sent as envoy to the [[Altan Khan of the Khalkha|Altyn Khan]]. He was given 250 pounds of tea as a gift to the tsar. Starkov at first refused, seeing no use for a load of dead leaves, but the Khan insisted. Thus was tea introduced to Russia. In 1679, Russia concluded a treaty on regular tea supplies from China via [[camel train|camel caravan]] in exchange for furs. It is today considered the ''de facto'' national beverage.

[[File:This print of the Raymond Hugh Mckay Commander. The first vessel direct from China to Hull is published commemorative of her arrival on the 14th October 1843 RMG PW7733.jpg|thumb|The ''Raymond'', Hugh Mckay Commander. The first vessel direct from China to [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]] on her arrival on 14 October 1843 with a cargo of tea.]]

The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an [[East India Company]] office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting "the best sort of chaw" in 1615. [[Peter Mundy]], a traveller and merchant who came across tea in [[Fujian]] in 1637, wrote, "''chaa'' – only water with a kind of herb boyled in it".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXYFBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT25 |title=Tea: A Very British Beverage |author=Paul Chrystal |year=2014 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-3360-2 |access-date=5 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928000518/https://books.google.com/books?id=lXYFBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT25&lpg=PT25 |archive-date=28 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''Peter Mundy Merchant Adventurer'', 2011, ed. R.E. Pritchard, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford</ref> Tea was sold in a coffee house in London in 1657, [[Samuel Pepys]] tasted tea in 1660, and [[Catherine of Braganza]] took the tea-drinking habit to the English court when she married [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1662. Tea, however, was not widely consumed in the British Isles until the 18th century and remained expensive until the latter part of that period. English drinkers preferred to add sugar and milk to black tea, and black tea overtook green tea in popularity in the 1720s.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Tea |series=[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]] |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y24y |network=[[BBC Radio 4]] |airdate=29 April 2004 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411023701/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y24y |archive-date=11 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Tea smuggling during the 18th century led to the general public being able to afford and consume tea. The British government removed the tax on tea, thereby eliminating the smuggling trade, by 1785.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tea.co.uk/page.php?id=98#masses |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730000451/http://www.tea.co.uk/page.php?id=98 |archive-date=30 July 2009 |title=A Social History of the Nation's Favourite Drink |work=United Kingdom Tea Council}}</ref> In Britain and Ireland, tea was initially consumed as a luxury item on special occasions, such as religious festivals, wakes, and domestic work gatherings. The price of tea in Europe fell steadily during the 19th century, especially after Indian tea began to arrive in large quantities; by the late 19th century tea had become an everyday beverage for all levels of society.<ref name="Lysaght" /> The popularity of tea played a role in historical events – the [[Tea Act]] of 1773 provoked the [[Boston Tea Party]] that escalated into the [[American Revolution]]. The need to address the issue of British trade deficit because of the trade in tea resulted in the [[Opium Wars]]. The Qing [[Kangxi Emperor]] had banned foreign products from being sold in China, decreeing in 1685 that all goods bought from China must be paid for in silver coin or bullion.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Goldstone|first=Jack A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOu_DQAAQBAJ&q=chinese+european+bullion&pg=PT365|title=Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World: Population Change and State Breakdown in England, France, Turkey, and China, 1600–1850; 25th Anniversary Edition|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-40860-6|language=en}}</ref> Traders from other nations then sought to find another product, in this case opium, to sell to China to earn back the silver they were required to pay for tea and other commodities. The subsequent attempts by the Chinese Government to curtail the trade in opium led to war.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China |last=Lovell |first=Julia|authorlink=Julia Lovell |isbn=978-1-4472-0410-7 |year=2012 |publisher=Picador}}</ref>
[[File:MapTea-1907.jpg|alt=World map of tea exporters and importers, 1907|thumb|World map of tea exporters and importers, 1907]]
Chinese small-leaf-type tea was introduced into India in 1836 by the British in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea.<ref name="Sen" /> In 1841, [[Archibald Campbell (doctor)|Archibald Campbell]] brought seeds of [[Chinese tea]] from the [[Kumaon Kingdom|Kumaun]] region and experimented with planting tea in [[Darjeeling]]. The Alubari [[tea garden]] was opened in 1856, and [[Darjeeling tea]] began to be produced.{{sfn|Mair|Hoh|2009|p=214}} In 1848, [[Robert Fortune]] was sent by the [[East India Company]] on a mission to China to bring the tea plant back to Great Britain. He began his journey in high secrecy as his mission occurred in the lull between the [[First Opium War]] and the [[Second Opium War]].<ref name="Rose">{{cite book |author=Sarah Rose |title=For All the Tea in China |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=1–5, 89, 122, 197 |year=2010 |author-link=Sarah Rose}}</ref> The Chinese tea plants he brought back were introduced to the [[Himalayas]], though most did not survive. The British had discovered that a different variety of tea was endemic to [[Assam]] and the northeast region of India, which was then hybridized with Chinese small-leaf-type tea. Using Chinese planting and cultivation techniques, the British colonial government established a tea industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate it for export.<ref name="Sen" /> Tea was originally consumed only by [[Anglo-Indians]]; however, it became widely popular in India in the 1950s because of a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Board.<ref name="Sen">{{cite book |author=Colleen Taylor Sen|title=Food Culture in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIyV_5wrplMC&pg=PA26 |year=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-32487-1 |page=26 |quote=Ironically, it was the British who introduced tea drinking to India, initially to anglicized Indians. Tea did not become a mass drink there until the 1950s when the India Tea Board, faced with a surplus of low-grade tea, launched an advertising campaign to popularize it in the north, where the drink of choice was milk. |access-date=10 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424065113/https://books.google.com/books?id=YIyV_5wrplMC&pg=PA26 |archive-date=24 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The British introduced tea industry to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1867.<ref name="taylor-AU">{{cite web|url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ceylon-tea.htm|title=TED Case Studies – Ceylon Tea|publisher=American University, Washington, DC|access-date=27 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223084443/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ceylon-tea.htm|archive-date=23 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>