The famed English East India Company formally introduced tea to Great Britain in the 1600s. In due course, tea’s popularity and increased consumption swept across England, and by 1700 tea was available in over 500 London tea houses.

The development of Afternoon Tea or High Tea didn’t develop until roughly the mid 19^th Century, and has been a much-loved tradition in England for over 150 years. In the USA, Tea Time is the fastest growing segment of a robust tea market that has tripled in the last 16 years to over six billion dollars annually.

It’s always Tea Time at Bigelow Tea!

”High Tea” is often a misnomer. Some people may refer to “afternoon tea” as “high tea” as it sounds so regal!  But in Great Britain high tea (also: “meat tea”) is dinner. American hotels and tea rooms have developed a hybrid of the High Tea tradition, calling it…

• Afternoon Tea
• Light Tea
• Low Tea
• Full Tea
• High Tea

Warming and flavorful tea is the constant, regardless of the name. Some of the finest Tea Rooms serve afternoon tea 365 days a year, and offer excellent menu options too. Afternoon Tea is as popular as ever and you can find many versions with special themes, like “A Victorian Christmas”, or “A Jane Austen Tea”, or “A Nutcracker Suite Tea” featuring varying levels of service and participation. And not to forget Presidential Teas and Celebrity Teas!

To help with your tea time search there are several Tea Societies — such as the Victorian Tea Society — that regularly propagates the tradition of tea time. However you finally enjoy your tea time – in full regalia with formal setting and time honored ritual, or casually on the back deck with a mug, it’s always high time for tea time.

Just as archaeologists divide history into different periods based on the use of different materials — the stone age, the iron age, etc — you can also look at history as periods dominated by six different beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, cola, and tea. All have been the defining drink during a pivotal historical period. And so it was in the American Colonies that the history of tea was key to their relationship with Great Britain, factoring into social, political and financial issues, even the development of fine art.

The practice of tea drinking arrived with colonists from both England and the Netherlands, and Dutchman Peter Stuyvesant is said to have introduced the first tea to the settlement of New Amsterdam (later re-named “New York”). Colonial settlers were confirmed tea drinkers, and in fact, Ruth Campbell Bigelow created the landmark Bigelow Tea Blend Constant Comment based on what she had learned of the practice in Colonial Times.

When tea was fully established as Britain’s national drink, maintaining the lucrative Tea trade helped drive British foreign policy. Tea production and commerce was a big part of the Empire, and ironically it contributed to the independence of the United States. Tea importation and taxation policy became an argument for independence as the British government imposed a series of taxes and restrictions on tea. Outraged Colonists took to smuggling tea and resisting the British taxes. When Parliament finally passed the Tea Act in 1773, creating a monopoly on all tea imported to the Americas, the Colonists were driven to the boiling point, and responded with the famous Boston Tea Party. A terrible waste of tea, true, but an important flashpoint in the ultimate independence of the colonies from Great Britain.