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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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tea
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Indigenous in western China and northeast India, tea was first imported to Europe by the Portuguese and the Dutch. It was brought to England from China in the 1650s by the *East India Company, which for the next two centuries was the world's largest dealer in the commodity. It was at first extremely expensive; a London advertisement of the 1660s offers the best quality tea at £2.50 per lb (£5 per kilo). Originally drunk only in the *coffee houses, it became a normal part of life in fashionable households during the 18C and by the 19C was the nation's main drink.
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In the first half of the 19C two new meals, both called 'tea', were introduced by the richer classes. One was 'afternoon tea', a lady-like affair of tea and cakes at five o'clock. The other, known from the start as 'high tea', was a robust meal including meat or fish, eaten later in the evening on occasions when it was not convenient to sit down to *dinner. The two different meals became separated on a class basis in the 20C. The tea of the middle classes is afternoon tea, while the meal traditionally called tea by the working classes was the old high tea – a cooked meal, eaten on the return home from work.
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