The Origins of Tea Drinking in England
General Discussion
Another interesting point of tea-drinking in Dutch and British culture is that while it was initiated by the elites the modern interpretation of tea-drinking is in fact a middling class origin. Tea-drinking, like coffee, was a sign of respectability among the English bourgeoisie beginning in the seventeenth century. Eventually, coffee-houses - as tea was considered a "feminine" drink - would become a sign of the growing class of male intellects in Britain. Political parties, businesses (such as Lloyd's), and other public affairs would come from a partaking of coffee. Tea, however, would be the female bourgeois alternative to salon culture. Tea-taking, which would gradually be preferred at home, not only encompassed all members of the family but highlighted the importance of women as managers of the private-domestic sphere.