How has tea shaped

British history?

A Tea etiquette GROUP WORK

Group A

Culture Tip
The Boston tea party
was an incident that took
place in Boston in 1773.
American colonists who
were protesting a tax on tea,
threw overboard 342 chests
of tea that had been
imported by the British East
India Company.

Ê Tea etiquette

GROUP WORK
Group B
1 Present your document (source, topic, goal).

2 Explain how tea is presented (decorum, historical references).

3 Show how important tea is for British people. Give examples.

4 Exchange your findings with a classmate.

5 Phonology
P honology break
Listen to the beginning of the first video (from 0’18 to 0’54),
paying particular attention to the pronunciation of the /t/
consonant in the following words: take, it, tea, strainer, stir.
What do you notice?
Listen to and repeat the following words. Focus on the
pronunciation of the letters in bold: crease, loose leaf,
dissolve, sandwich, pastry.

6 Pairwork: React together to the tik tok video.

Explain why it is shocking to Britons.
Ê Americans making hot tea

2
B A social drink?

The British drink more than 60 billion cups of tea

a year – so what is it about this humble brew that
refreshes them so?
Whether they take their tea with milk, sugar, lemon
5 or just plain, it’s clear that the British have a fondness
for its flavour. There’s something about that firm
bitterness that sparks devotion: the British consume
60 billion cups per year, according to the Tea and
Infusions Organisation. That’s more than 900 cups a
10 year for every man, woman and child in Great Britain
– though we no doubt all know someone who likes
many more than that. Ê Kirin advertisment
Tea has become entrenched in the British way of life,
from the humble tea break to the afternoon tea to be water to make tea, for instance, made it less likely to
15 enjoyed – in a jacket and tie, of course, gentlemen – give you a stomach bug).
at the very swankiest of London hotels. [...] A food scientist I once corresponded with pointed out
Anthropologist Kate Fox writes in her book Watching something that seems to apply here. “In my opinion,
the English that there are several clear messages sent 45 food choices are driven by one’s environment –
whenever a Brit makes a cuppa. She observes that the context,” he wrote. You like what you like not
20 the strongest brews of black tea – with the largest necessarily because of any intrinsic quality, though
doses of these molecules – are typically drunk by the obviously one can develop a taste for almost anything.
working class. The brew gets progressively weaker as A food or drink’s real importance in your life may be
one goes up the social ladder. 50 because of everything the surrounds it – the culture
Milk and sweetener have their own codes. “Taking of it.
25 sugar in your tea is regarded by many as an infallible Fox observes that in truth, alongside its chemical
lower-class indicator: even one spoonful is a bit properties, tea is an infallible social space-filler.
suspect (unless you were born before about 1955); After having detailed the cultural meanings behind
more than one and you are lower-middle at best; 55 different methods of tea preparation, Fox writes,
more than two and you are definitely working class,” “Tea-making is the perfect displacement activity:
30 she writes. Other rules involve when and how milk whenever the English feel awkward or uncomfortable
is added, if any. Making a point of drinking smoky in a social situation (that is, almost all the time), they
Lapsang Souchong with no sugar or milk can be a make tea.”
sign of class anxiety in the middle class, Fox suggests: 60 It’s also interesting to note that some of the molecules
it’s as far as possible as one can get from sweet, strong, involved in the flavour of teas likely evolved as
35 milky mugs of the no-nonsense ‘ builder’s tea’. defenses against being eaten by birds, insects and
As for why the British drink an infusion of imported other creatures. That is somewhat ironic, given how
dried leaves at all, there are historical reasons aplenty vigorously we humans seek it out – and how many
for why tea came to wash up on Britain’s shores. And 65 social meanings we’ve attached to it.
one could come up with any number of rationales for
40 why the current state of affairs was inevitable (boiling ÊVeronique Greenwood, BBC, June 2006

1 Look at the illustration. Explain the difference between high tea and
low tea and comment on the message of this ad. Culture Tip
Builder’s tea
2 Match the social classes with the type of tea they drink. Explain what it Expression used to describe
reveals about Britain. a cup of tea often brewed in
a mug instead of a tea pot
3 Explain the ‘culture of tea’ and what it symbolises. and generally made with
cheap tea and often very
4 Y ou are a consultant of the advertising department at Unilever. Discuss strong with usually two or
more spoons of sugar. It is
with your manager what should appear on a new ad for black tea to called builder’s tea as it is
appeal to young people. Student A you are the consultant / Student B traditionally favoured by
you are the manager. construction workers.

3
C Are young Brits falling out of love with the cuppa?

Traditional cups of tea are falling out of vogue with 35 dairy amid concerns about the industry’s impact on
young people in the UK, according to PG Tips and the environment.
Lipton owner Unilever.
“Dairy alternatives don’t go as well in cups of tea. The
The consumer goods giant has said that Generation texture of soy milk and almond milk are complete-
5 Z and millennial consumers much prefer herbal teas ly different, so it changes the cup of tea, making it
and coffees instead. As a result, the firm is struggling 40 thicker or more watery,” Ms Mcmonagle adds. “In
to grow its black tea brands in western markets like coffee, I find it’s not as noticeable.”
the UK and the US. But why have young people’s
Plus, a renewed demand for afternoon tea has led
tastes changed so much?
to people serving their own version at home, using
10 Unilever’s chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly expensive teas purchased from upmarket tea shops
says that although young people do drink tea, it tends 45 and independent brands.
to be “quite high-end, expensive products”. “I drink
Ms Mcmonagle also says that the rise of Instagram
five or six cups of builder’s tea a day, but unfortunate-
means that beverages need to make a big impact so
ly we are dying at a faster rate than generation Z and
that people want to take a photo of them.
15 millennials are consuming it,” he told investors. (...)
“People are more likely to post a photo of their iced
Nadia Sinel, 20, is a big fan of green tea and bubble 50 latte or Unicorn Frappuccino – a viral drink made
tea. “Black teas are too strong and in some cases quite
popular by Starbucks in the US - and share it with
bitter, and then you have to put a lot of sugar or hon-
their friends, than a standard cup of tea.”
ey in to sweeten it,” freelance songwriter Nadia Sinel,
20 20, tells the BBC. “I prefer green tea as it’s more of a The UK has also seen an explosion of demand for
light floral taste and there’s less caffeine.” bubble tea in 2019, with new shops popping up in
55 several UK cities. [...] Bubble tea is now so popular
Ms Sinel thinks young people like to drink green tea
it can be found all over London. Biju focuses instead
because of its health benefits and the fact “it tastes
on using a range of freshly-brewed loose leaf black,
nicer”, and other popular drinks include bubble tea –
green and herbal teas, fresh milk, as well as vegan
25 a beverage that originated in Taiwan in the late 1990s
milks and a variety of toppings. [...]
- and a lemonade drink from the US called Calypso.
60 Given all the new teas available on the market,
Fran Mcmonagle, 28, a lifestyle blogger living in
a resurgence of the traditional cuppa is unlikely,
London, agrees that the traditional builder’s brew is
believes Ms Mcmonagle.
not so popular with millennials any more either. “It’s
30 not as ingrained in our culture anymore. I feel that “The builder’s brew is quite old school, it’s not nec-
we’ve become more of a nation of coffee drinkers,” essarily a brand that anyone associates with being
she says. 65 modern anymore,” she says.
Another reason for the fall in demand is that many Ê Mary-Ann Russon, BBC News, 18 October 2019
younger people are trying to reduce their intake of

1 Read the title and the first paragraph. Explain 3 Identify the elements (people, ideology)
what Unilever worries about and what is at stake. responsible for the new trend and explain how
this can be linked to British culture.
2 List what is now fashionable and why.
4 You are an influencer. Write a tweet to
promote a new black tea you have just tasted
and really enjoyed.

Word Spot
Nouns Adjectives Verbs colonise
builder’s tea trendy rule over abuse of so
brew cultural trade with be deprived of sth
beverage shocking spy on
protest Expressions
debunk: show to be make an impact on
false a win win situation
4
 Tea at all costs

A For all the tea in China

There was a time when Maps of the world were

redrawn in the names of plants, when two empires,
Britain and China, went to war over two Flowers: the
poppy and the camellia.
5 The poppy, Papaver somniferum, was processed into
opium, a narcotic used widely throughout the Orient
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The drug
was grown and manufactured in India, a subconti-
nent of princely states united under the banner of
10 Great Britain in 1757. Opium was marketed, solely
and exclusively, under the aegis of England’s empire
in India by the Honourable East India Company.
The camellia, Camellia sinensis, is also known as tea.
Ê Tea War: The Adventures of Robert Fortune, 2016
The empire of China had a near complete monop-
15 oly on tea, as it was the only country to grow, pick,
process, cook, and in all other ways manufacture, wards. (Notably, the sale of opium was also forbidden
wholesale, and export “the liquid jade”. 45 by Queen Victoria within the British Isles. She, how-
ever, was largely obeyed.) Opium sales increased
For nearly two hundred years the East India
quickly and steadily; there was a fivefold growth in
Company sold opium to China and bought tea with
volume in the years 1822-37 alone. Finally, in 1839 ,
20 the proceeds. China, in turn, bought opium from
the leading Chinese court official in the trading port
British traders out of India and paid for the drug with 50 of Canton, rankled by the profligacy of the foreign-
the silver profits from tea.
ers and the pestilence of opium addiction among his
The opium-for-tea exchange was not merely prof- own people, held the entire foreign encampment hos-
itable to England but had become an indispensable tage, ransoming the three hundred Britons for their
25 element of the economy. Nearly £1 in every £10 ster- opium, then worth $6 million (about $145 million
ling collected by the government came from taxes on 55 in today’s dollars). When the opium was surrendered
the import and sale of tea – about a pound per person and the hostages released, the mandarin ordered five
per year. Tea taxes funded railways, roads, and civil hundred Chinese coolies to foul nearly three million
service salaries, among the many other necessities of pounds of the drug with salt and lime and then wash
30 an emergent industrial nation. Opium was equally the mixture out into the Pearl River. In response,
significant to the British economy, for it financed the 60 young Victoria sent Britain’s navy to war to keep the
management of India – the shining jewel in Queen lucrative opium-for-tea arrangement alive.
Victoria’s imperial crown. […]
In battle, Britain trounced China, whose rough wood-
The triangular trade in botanical products was the en sailing junks were no match for Her Majesty’s
35 engine that powered a world economy, and the wheels steam-powered modern navy. As part of the peace
of empire turned on the growth, processing, and sale 65 treaty, England won concessions from the Chinese
of plant life: poppies from India and camellias from that after a century of diplomatic entreaty no one
China, with a cut from each for Great Britain. had thought possible: the island of Hong Kong plus
the session of five new treaty of trading ports on the
By the middle of the nineteenth century the British-
mainland.
40 Chinese relationship was a tragically unhappy. The
Exalted and Celestial Emperor in Peking had “offi- Ê Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: How England
Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History,
cially” banned the sale of opium in China in 1729, but
Penguin, 2010
it continued to be smuggled in for generations after-

5
1 Explain the trade relationship between China 3 Watch the trailer and describe the strategy used
and Britain. by Britain to keep selling tea.

2 Show it was not a win/win situation. 4 Indicate the consequences of this “tea war” on
global trade and history at large. Link these past
events to the present situation.

B The sun never sets on the British Empire

Ê British Empire, 1920

1 Explain the famous saying: “The sun never sets on the British Empire.”
2 Imagine how tea trade could have been instrumental in mapping this Empire.
3 You are a historian. Use the map to illustrate how Britain used its colonies for
tea trade.

6
 C Modern tea trade

Ê The indépendant, March 2018 Ê Kenyans say colonial UK stole land for tea, october 2019.

1 Look at the infographics and compare 4 Grammar

Grammar break
the different countries from which the UK Explain why the past perfect is often used in
imports black tea. Use the map to explain why the text.
Kenya was chosen as leading country for tea Complete the following sentence: The past
importation. perfect is used in English to describe an action
or an event which occurred or was completed
... another event in the past.
2 Watch the video. Show how both countries are
Put the verb in brackets into a more suitable
still linked today.
form, simple past or past perfect: Before
the first Opium War … (break out), Britain …
3 Explain what Kenyans call on the UN for. (become) a nation of tea drinkers, and the
demand for Chinese tea … (rise) dramatically.

5 You work for the UN. Prepare a plea to defend

one of these Kenyan tea workers.

7
 Your task

Tea India
ColonialKenya
China Brew Cuppa
Spy Imports
Tradition
You represent the UK at the yearly World Tea Conference in the
USA. Explain the importance of the UK in the history of tea trade.

1 Find more information on the World Tea Conference on

https://www.worldteaexpo.com/

2 Browse the net and list key elements in the history of tea trade.
3 Prepare key figures and strong arguments to make your point.
4 Think of rhetorical questions to make your speech livelier.
5 Check your pronunciation on online dictionaries.

8
 Languagnege
challe

Parler d’histoire : prétérit simple et pluperfect

• Quand on relate des événements historiques, 1 À partir de la chronologie suivante, écrivez

le temps à utiliser est le prétérit simple (V + -ed) : un texte. Utilisez le prétérit et le pluperfect, ainsi que
il s’agit du temps employé pour évoquer des des compléments circonstanciels de temps introduits
événements révolus, en rupture avec le moment par after ou before.
présent, de la manière la plus objective possible. a. 1657: Tea is sold for the first time as a health beverage
• On utilise également parfois le pluperfect formé in London at Garway’s Coffee House.
avec l’auxiliaire had et le participe passé du verbe b. 1662: Catherine Braganza, a Portuguese princess,
(had + V-EN). Il s’agit d’un équivalent du plus-que- marries King Charles II. Her taste for tea causes a fad at
parfait. the royal court and spreads to the wealthy classes.
• Le pluperfect indique qu’un événement est antérieur c. 1669: The English East India Company monopolizes
à un autre événement passé, lui au prétérit : British tea imports.
The Emperor had banned the sale of opium in China in d. 1680: The Duchess of York introduces tea to Scotland.
1729, but it continued to be smuggled in for generations e. 1717: Thomas Twining opens the Golden Lyon in
afterwards. London, the first tea shop in England.
• On trouve parfois le pluperfect dans
des propositions de temps introduites par after.
2 Mettez le verbe entre parenthèses
au prétérit simple ou au pluperfect. Attention aux
Il est également souvent utilisé, dans un contexte
verbes irréguliers !
passé, avec des adverbes qui expriment
une antériorité ou qui permettent de faire un bilan a. When she … (arrive) home, her husband … (already /
(just, already, (never) before)… prepare) tea and her daughter … (just / set) the table.
b. In 2016, my husband … (break) the tea set that my
He went to the drawing room where tea had already
mother … (buy) in China a few years before.
been served.
c. Throughout the 18th century, tea … (grow) in
Britain started to harvest its own tea in India after
popularity in all segments of society, so that, by the
Robert Fortune had stolen the secret of tea production
early 19th century, it … (become) Britain’s national drink.
from China.

L’aspiration de \p\, \t\ et \k\ en début de mot

• Les consonnes /p/, /t/ et /k/ sont prononcées avec 1 Écoutez les mots suivants et répétez-les.
une aspiration quand elles apparaissent en début Soyez particulièrement attentif.ve à la prononciation
de mot : park, tea, coffee… des consonnes en gras (aspirées ou non aspirées).
• Il n’y a pas d’aspiration si la consonne est précédée
tea pot • taste • tax • people • treaty • trade • culture •
d’une autre consonne (stop, space, scare) ou si elle
cup • power • country • pound sterling
apparaît en fin de mot (it, rock, soap).