Legendary Tea January 26 2016

The trade in tea, outside of China, has always been a business like no other. China was the source of the world's tea until well after 1839, when it was first produced in India by the British. During the centuries of the China monopoly, tea was handled by specialty purveyors, and was first set up in London in 1715, with 18 different teas, which were priced and sold by type and quality, straight from the tea chest. Not until 1826 was the first packet tea, (a guaranteed net-weight of blended tea in a container bearing a trademark and a retail price), introduced by the honest English Quaker, John Horniman.