How tea triggered the greatest theft in history | GARY COSBY JR.
I married a Yankee.
That’s what started me drinking hot tea. Being an Alabama boy by birth, the only way I had consumed tea was Southern style: iced and sweet. My wife opened me to an entirely new way of drinking tea and that eventually led me to purchase Colonial Bohea, a tea that was an American favorite during our colonial years.
That’s when tea became politically significant in American history. Perhaps you remember the Boston Tea Party? Yes, well, much of what was cast into Boston Harbor was the Bohea variety. If you have never had Bohea tea, it is a wonderful tea with a smoky flavor that is a bit like sipping a campfire. I mean that in the best possible way. I simply can’t think of how better to describe the flavor. I usually take it without any sweetener or milk. Even honey, my favorite additive to tea, kind of ruins the flavor, so I take it black.
By the way, everyone seems to have their own “best” way to prepare tea. My wife puts milk in her tea, which is gross to me. I’ve tried it. I don’t like it. My way is to add a little honey to my black tea, and the stronger the tea the better. I also like to take my tea straight with no sweetener, especially after that first cup of the day. Honey is great but it does carry calories. But each to his own. I believe the British way involves milk and a great debate over when to add the milk. Sugar, of course, is a matter of personal taste: One lump or two?
My daughter, when she drinks tea, puts so much sugar in her cup it amazes me. I’m thinking the kid will put herself into sugar shock, but she doesn’t drink much tea, so I suppose she will be fine. Myself, I’m a two to three cups a day tea drinker.
But the story of the Colonial Bohea tea in my cup this morning wasn’t the beginning of tea’s political significance. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that tea was the object of what is perhaps the greatest act of industrial espionage in the history of the world. You can read the entire story, and it is fascinating, in the book, “For All the Tea In China,” written by Sarah Rose.
To give you a thumbnail sketch, the British were very fond of tea. That’s quite an understatement. They had an unquenchable thirst for the hot beverage but had no tea plants of their own. Tea came from China, literally all the tea came from China. The British tried to cultivate their own variety of tea in India, but it was too strong, too bitter for them.
By the way, if you pick up Assam tea from your grocery store or tea shop, that is the variety the British cultivated themselves. I actually like it, but I do like a strong cup. With the unsatisfactory results of the Assam experiment, the Brits decided upon a more radical course of action.
China had an ancient tea tradition and culture long before the British discovered it. The cultivation, harvest, preparation, and the meticulous serving of tea in China was almost a religion. Tea ceremonies still carry great cultural significance and those were created and perfected in China. Perhaps even more importantly, tea was the major economic export from China, bringing in great wealth to the Chinese people.
The British, wishing to grow their own tea rather than obtain it in trade, dispatched an emissary to China, ostensibly to study tea. He toured all the tea growing areas of China and learned the secrets of growing, tending, and harvesting each variety of tea plant. He also managed to obtain samples of each plant, that’s the industrial espionage part of the story, and left China with a trove of tea.
China was understandably protective of the tea trade and would never have permitted this act had anyone in authority known of it, but the agent’s travels were surreptitious and had not become known beyond each location he visited. This was ages before easy long-distance communication or even serious border controls.
The agent returned to India where the British already held sway and the planting and cultivation of Chinese tea plants began. Eventually, the British succeeded in quite literally stealing all the tea in China and undermining the Chinese tea trade to such an extent that an equivalent act today would spark a war.
There are a couple of ways to looking at that simple cup of tea I am drinking as I write this column. I could just ignore all its history and sip my tea in blissful ignorance. I could also savor the history, allow it to enhance the flavor of my tea and my morning, perhaps even adding a tinge of Boston Harbor to my cup. I think the second option is the one I choose. After all, I like a cup of history in the mornings.
Gary Cosby Jr. is the photo editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How tea triggered the greatest theft in history | GARY COSBY JR.
