<P> The history of European interactions with tea dates back to the mid-sixteenth century . The earliest mention of tea in European literature was by Giambattista Ramusio, a Venetian explorer, as Chai Catai or "Tea of China" in 1559 . Tea was mentioned several more times in various European countries afterwards, but Jan Hugo van Linschooten, a Dutch navigator, was the first to write a printed reference of tea in 1598 in his Discours of Voyages . However, it was several years later, in 1615, that the earliest known reference to tea by an Englishman took place in a letter exchanged between Mr. R. Wickham, an agent for the British East India Company stationed at Japan to a Mr. Eaton, who was stationed in Macao, China . In this letter, Wickham asked Eaton to send him "a pot of the best sort of chaw," phonetically how one would write chàh, the local (Cantonese) dialect word for tea . Another early reference to tea appears in the writings of trader Samuel Purchas in 1625 . Purchas describes how the Chinese consume tea as "the powder of a certaine herbe called chia of which they put as much as a walnut shell may contain, into a dish of Porcelane, and drink it with hot water ." Though there were a number of early mentions, it was several more years before tea was actually sold in England . Thomas Garway, a tobacconist and coffee house owner, was the first person in England to sell tea as a leaf and beverage at his shop in Exchange Alley in 1657 . Immediately after Garway began selling it, the Sultaness Head Coffee House began selling tea as a beverage and posted the first newspaper advertisement for tea in Mercurius Politicus in 1658 . The announcement proclaimed "That Excellent and by all Physicians approved China drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by other Nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head Cophee House in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London ." While tea slowly became more common in coffeehouses in the years that followed, the first tea shop in London did not open until 1717 and it was not until this time that tea became commonly used . In between tea's earliest mentions in England and its widespread popularity little over a century later, many factors contributed the craze for this previously unknown foreign commodity . </P> <P> The first factor that contributed to the rise in popularity of tea was its reputation as a medical drink . Tea first became labeled as a medical drink in 1641 by Dr. Nikolas Dirx, who wrote under the pseudonym "Nicolas Tulp" and was a celebrated Dutch physician . Tulp praised tea in his book, Observationes Medicae, claiming that "nothing is comparable to this plant" and that those who use it are "exempt from all maladies and reach an extreme old age ." He goes into detail on the specific merits of tea, such as curing "headaches, colds, ophthalmia, catarrh, asthma, sluggishness of the stomach, and intestinal troubles ." It is important to note that Tulp was also a director of the Dutch East India Company, so his praise of tea was likely a marketing tactic . Thomas Garway, the first English shopkeeper to sell tea, published a broadsheet in 1660 titled "An Exact Description of the Growth, Quality, and Vertues of the Leaf TEA" which also praised tea's medical benefits . Garway claims that "the Drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until extreme Old Age," as well as "maketh the body active and lusty," "helpeth the Headache," "taketh away the difficulty of breathing," "strengtheneth the Memory," and "expelleth infection ." There were many more published works on the health benefits of tea, including those by Hartlib in 1657, Bontekoe in 1678, Povey in 1686, and Tryon in the 1690s . Even John Locke, the famous English philosopher, developed a fondness for tea after spending time with Dutch medical men in the 1680s . Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger refer to these men as "virtuosi": scientists, philosophers, and doctors who first took an interest in tea and contributed to its early popularity as a pharmaceutical . But, such as with the case of Tulp, some of these men may have been influenced by Indies companies and merchants who wished to create a market for tea . Nevertheless, there is little doubt that these writings about the so - called health benefits of tea contributed to rise in popularity of tea in England . </P> <P> The proliferation of works on the health benefits of tea happened to come at a time when people in the upper classes of English society began to take an interest in their health, which ties into the second factor that gave rise to tea's popularity . As most historians will say, Princess Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married King Charles II in 1662, introduced tea to the aristocratic class and made it fashionable among the ladies of the court . According to Ellis, Coulton, Maugher, "tea was six to ten times more expensive than coffee" in the 1660s, making it an extremely expensive and luxurious commodity . Tea's association with luxury was perhaps why it became so popular among the elite . Whenever it was consumed in the court, it was "conspicuously on display" so as to show it off . Tea drinking became a central aspect of aristocratic society in England by the 1680s, particularly among women who drank it while gossiping in the home . Catherine of Braganza's introduction of tea to ladies was significant because it made tea an acceptable drink for both sexes, when it easily could have been categorized as a men's drink if it had remained only available in the coffeehouses that only men frequented . Wealthy ladies' desire to show off their luxurious commodities in front of other ladies also increased demand for tea and made it more popular . Another factor that made tea desirable among the elite crowd was the addition of sugar, another luxurious commodity which was already well - established among the upper classes . </P> <P> Though tea was already gaining popularity on its own, the addition of sugar is what allowed tea's popularity to soar, making sugar the third factor that contributed to tea's rise . According to Smith, the English began adding sugar to their tea between 1685 and the early eighteenth century . At this time, sugar was already being used to enhance the flavor of other foods among the elite and had a reputation as an ostentatious luxury . Because both tea and sugar had status implications it made sense to drink them together . Furthermore, sugar imports into England were growing rapidly because the supply of sugar was highly elastic due to the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas . But, as previously mentioned, the elite classes of England were starting to care more about their health and literature on the unhealthiness of sugar was beginning to circulate in the late seventeenth century . Adding sugar to tea, however, was seen as an acceptable way to consume sugar because it suggested that "one had the self - control to consume sugar in a healthy way ." Sugar also masks tea's bitterness, so it simply made tea more desirable because it tasted better . As the supply of both tea and sugar grew during the early eighteenth century, the combination of the two commodities became more universal and increased the popularity and demand for both products . </P>

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