"Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual."

- Thomas De Quincey

TEA FACTS

  • The UK imports around 160 tonnes of tea per year, consuming 165 million cups per day - that's 62 billion cups per year (United Kingdom Tea Council).
  • During WW2, extra rations of tea were distributed to those in the armed forces and in vital jobs on the domestic front.
  • In the late 18th Century tea meetings were held across Britain in an attempt to lure alcohol drinkers into the soothing habit of drinking tea. There is some evidence that the term 'teetotal' is derived from this time.
  • The phrase "storm in a teacup" has its origins in a Latin expression "excitare fluctus in simpulo" which means "raise a tempest in a ladle".

TEA LINKS

http://www.tea.co.uk Official website of United Kingdom Tea Council.

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com Quirky site about a couple's quest for the best tea and biscuits in the world.

http://www.teaappreciationsociety.org A small collective of British designers who love tea.

http://tearoundapp.com/ iPhone app settles thirst-based arguments by deciding who makes the tea.

http://www.blendsforfriends.com/ Custom-made tea by our very own Master Tea Blender Alex Probyn.

BREW TUBE

NOTTING HILL:

When William Thatcher (Hugh Grant) opens his blue door to find thousands of paparazzi, mayhem ensues. As the scene escalates and Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) gets overwhelmingly frantic, quintessentially British Thatcher says, "Now stop. I beg you - calm down. Have a cup of tea."

ALICE IN WONDERLAND:

Let us not forget the most famous tea party in literary history, that of the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In Chapter VII the Hatter explains to Alice that he is condemned to a life of perpetual tea drinking as a result of the Queen of Hearts sentencing him to death for "murdering time". He says to Alice, "...and ever since...it's always tea time".