Tea History : Trouble Brewing tea in Britain

Tea became a popular drink in the coffee houses of Britain during the 17 th century, but remained a luxury, partly due to the high taxes imposed upon its import. Such taxation had the natural consequence of encouraging smuggling and the adulteration of the product. Smuggling at its height accounted for perhaps seven million pounds of tea annually – against a legally imported five million. The methods of adulteration included mixing leaves that had already been brewed with the fresh product, and the addition of anything from sheep’s dung to poisonous compounds to preserve the correct tea colour. Such corruption only ended when Pitt the Younger slashed the tax rate from 119% to 12.5%.