The Perfect Gentleman Issue 1 - March 2016 | Page 29

Gourmet Gentleman
They were the only ones who could
afford such a luxury product.
Favour for the drink in the UK really
blossomed with the marriage of
Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese
Princess and tea fanatic, to King Charles II
in May 1662. The sharp rise in popularity
in the drink instigated the trading of tea
by the hugely powerful East India
Company, which placed its first order in
1664.
Heavy taxation of tea lead to a smuggling
trade that grew to outstrip the official tea
trade at 7 million lbs as opposed to 5
million lbs in legal trade. In addition, tea
was being adulterated by the leaves of
other plants, and also by tea leaves that
had been previously used and then
re-dried, resulting in a poor quality
product. By 1784, the government
realised that the tax was having a
disastrous effect, and the tax rate was
slashed from 119% to 12.5%. The tax on tea
was only finally abolished in 1964.

Tea was originally mass produced in India
by Robert Fortune. Fortune was sent by the
East India Company to China in 1848
(between the first and second opium wars) to
bring the tea plant back to Great Britain.
When the British brought the tea plant to
India, it failed to take, but they later
discovered that there was a local variety
native to the Assam region. Using Chinese
cultivation and planting techniques, the
British managed to establish a tea industry in
India incentivised by offering land to any
European who would cultivate it for export.
Tea Classifications
Tea is traditionally classified based on the
degree or the period of 'fermentation' the
leaves have undergone. There is a
disagreement between China and the other
countries that produce teas as to how each
type of tea is described.
White Tea
White tea is wilted and unoxidised, it is very
mellow, gentle and floral in flavour. The
softest of flavours come from the youngest
most delicate leaves. Leaves used for white
tea can barely even be described as leaves at
all. The are leaf buds and flower petals.
The buds of the tea can have a silvery
appearance, and therefore are sometimes
referred to as Silver Tip. The whiteness of
this tea refers to the absence of man-made
processing.
Green Tea
Green tea is unwilted, and unoxidised, it is
made with the very first, youngest open
leaves on each shoot of the tea bush.

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