English Breakfast

Today the habit of tea drinking is inexorably linked to the British despite the fact that the British were fairly late on the tea scene in historical terms. Ironically the first mention of tea in English literature is a translation of a Dutchman's travels to the east. Tea was first brought to England via Holland on Dutch ships. Since tea was becoming an "in" beverage the British government became quite incensed that a tiny nation such as the Netherlands would control the shipment of tea to the UK. In 1651 the British government passed the Navigation Acts which forbade the importation of any products on non-British ships. Traders and Dutchmen, being resourceful continued the trade in the usual manner but for one little wrinkle - The tea was transshipped in Holland onto British ships!

Afternoon tea was the invention of Anna, wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford. At that time custom dictated only two planned meals per day: a hearty breakfast and a late evening dinner. Anna in a effort to ease the "sinking feeling" began instructing her servants to prepare tea and cakes in the late afternoon. Thus began a fashionable habit which still exists today.

Breakfast teas are hardy, robust blends that take milk well. The origins of the first breakfast tea, English breakfast is a bit obscure.  One story has it that a tea purveyor named Drysdale came up with a blend he labeled as “Breakfast” in the mid-1800s, to make it clear that the tea was meant to be paired with the morning meal, perhaps. At any rate, the concept of a “breakfast” blend caught on, and spawned additional variants. Another story starts off in 1843 in New York City of all places. Richard Davies enveloped a blend of tea in a fancy foil exterior, and named it English Breakfast tea. It became so popular that other inquisitive retailers wrote to London asking where to get it, but no Englishman ever heard of it. Eventually the mixture was sent to China where it was duplicated. Davies attempted to expand but got swindled and died broke

Ingredients: Black tea from Sri Lanka, Kenya, India