I love studying the Regency period. There was so much happening both in the United Kingdom and across the globe. So, if we have nothing else positive from 2020 (though I would hope there are a few things), I would say the Regency series Bridgerton is at the top of my list. (It is premiering on 25 December on Netflix!) In addition to reading the Bridgerton books (by Julia Quinn), I’m diving back into the period and brushing up. Today, I’m looking at tea in the Regency period, as I expect to see a lot of it in the show…
Tea in Britain
Tea first arrived in Britain in the 1650s, when Dutch merchants introduced it and it was sold in the occasional coffee shop. However, it became popular in Britain when Queen Catherine of Braganza would regularly drink it. It only became more and more popular, and by the Regency period, it dominated drawing rooms everywhere. (Drawing room being short for the withdrawing room, where you would retire after your evening meal.) Because tea was consumed at home rather than in public coffee shops, women could partake in the daily ritual of tea.
Tea in the Regency Period
According to the No 1 Royal Crescent Museum in Bath, tea played an important royal in Regency society.
The trade monopoly held by the English East India Company ensured that tea replaced coffee as the drink of choice and where the upper classes led so the working classes followed… But tea was heavily taxed and therefore expensive, although a flourishing contraband trade maintained supplies.
The fashion for tea drinking required elegant tea equipage.. Visitors frequently called to take a dish’ of tea (cups having no handles, after the Chinese fashion). The silver tea kettle has an integral burner for water hot and the mistress of the house would keep the key to the lockable tea caddy to ensure the servants did not help themselves to the valuable contents. (Exhibition info)
It will be curious to see what role tea plays in Bridgerton, fully set in Regency society!
Will you be watching Bridgerton, for all of its Regency creativity?
Cheers,
The Historian
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