Higher Living Organic Tea

It simply doesn't work without tea. At least not in the UK. Apart from East Frisia, the tea consumption in Europe is nowhere else as high as on the British Isles. The British tea culture originated in the 17th century. In 1657, a man named Thomas Garway started to serve tea for the first time publicly in his ”coffee house“. 100 years later the hot drink from dried tea leaves already belonged to the favorite drinks of the citizens of Great Britain. This was especially annoying for owners of pubs and tavernas, who sold less beer and liquor because of this. To save the sales of the innkeepers, King Charles II. prohibited to serve tea in private houses. In contrast to his wife Katharina, the daughter of the King of Portugal, the monarch was not big fan of the new trend drink. The biography of Charles II. states that he rejected the request for a cup of tea of his wife with the answer. ”In England one does not drink tea. Don't you want a beer?“. Thus, to get a cup of tea, you had to go to a ”coffee house“. For their operation a special license was required, because tea leaves were an import article with high taxes. In this way the government tried to also earn some money with the tea consumption. In the middle of the 18th century the tea tax rose to an incredible 119%. These conditions made a whole new trade flourish everywhere along the coast: the tea smuggling.

Ships from Holland or Scandinavia brought the tea under the cover of darkness to the British coast. The smugglers then went out with rowboats and took the precious freight. Afterwards they hid it in caves below the cliffs. Many of these smugglers' nests were only accessible at low water level and were completely unknown to the authorities. Over time, these caves were extended further. Partly, the underground corridors even led to the next village. And that had a reason: because of the high demand, the tea smuggling thrived and sometimes whole villages where involved. In order to increase the profit, the smugglers' tea was cut with licorice, blackthorn or willow leaves. Even used tea leaves were dried and mixed with fresh ones. It was not until 1784 that the Prime Minister William Pitt reduced the tea tax rate to 12.5%. Thus, the smuggling came to a halt immediately. However, English tea lovers still were annoyed by cut tea until the commencement of strikter food laws in the 19th century.

If the British are asked today which tea they prefer, mostly the answer is simply: tea. Thereby mostly a black tea blend is meant which includes tea leaves from Sri Lanka (Ceylon), India (Assam) and Africa, which is also marketed as ”English Breakfast“ tea. Depending on the social class, this tea is drunk with more or less milk and sugar. The working class drinks the so called ”builder's tea“ with a dash of whole milk and at least two pieces of sugar. The tea, which is poured in the porcelaine of the nobility is generally not, or hardly sweetened. And in the upper class of course one only offers tea for ”tea time“ which was prepared with loose tea leaves in the pot. Four out of five Britons are much more pragmatic and use tea bags. Those who want to prepare authentic English style tea, heat water in an electric water boiler. It is then poured over the tea bag into the favorite mug. The longer one leaves the tea to infuse, the stronger it becomes (for ”builder's tea“ it should be at least 5 minutes). Finally, the infusion is refined with milk and sugar.

Black tea lovers are just right with the British supplier Higher Living Tea. Among the high-quality organic tea creations you can, of course, also find the two classics English Breakfast and Earl Grey. Green tea lovers should try the green tea chai with warming cinnamon and cardamom. Especially fruity are the varieties Higher Living Very Berry with hibiscus, acai berries and blueberries or Higher Living Lemon & Ginger with lemon peel and ginger pieces. Selected fine spices show their taste in the varieties Chamomile & Vanilla, Sweet Chai and Cinnamon. The herbal blend Sweet Dreams with lavender and lime blossoms promises sweat dreams. The creative organic teas of Higher Living can be sweetend with honey or cane sugar and refined with milk or vegetable drinks according to taste. With Higher Living you can enjoy your ”tea time“ in a very British way.