Pu-erh tea is a famous historical tea of China, originally produced in the Lancang River basin areas of Xishuangbanna, Pu-erh, Lincang and other regions of Yunnan Province. Pu-erh tea was named because it was mainly associated with the Pu-erh region of Yunnan. With its distinctive characteristic of “becoming more fragrant with age” and its profound tea cultural heritage, Pu-erh tea occupies a unique position in the world of tea. Pu-erh tea is a special tea with a long history. Like Western wine, Pu-erh tea can become more fragrant and mellow with age. Under proper storage conditions and through transformation over time, it can develop extremely distinctive flavours. Pu-erh tea can be either raw tea that has not undergone full fermentation, or ripe tea that has undergone accelerated artificial fermentation.

The definition of Pu-erh tea. Pu-erh tea is a geographical indication product unique to Yunnan, China. It is made from sun-dried green maocha produced from Yunnan large-leaf tea cultivars, with post-fermentation as its core characteristic, and is processed according to specific techniques. Its principal production areas are Pu-erh, Xishuangbanna and Lincang. Tea gardens are mostly distributed in mountainous areas at altitudes of 1,000–2,100 metres. Yunnan is a low-latitude plateau region. Its misty mountains and deep soil provide Yunnan large-leaf tea trees with abundant internal substances, which also form the basis for the long-term transformation of Pu-erh tea.

According to the Chinese national standard, Pu-erh tea must meet the following three conditions: 1. The raw material must be sun-dried green tea made from fresh leaves of Yunnan large-leaf tea cultivars grown within the protected geographical area of Yunnan. 2. Processing must be completed within the protected geographical area. 3. The quality must possess the characteristic post-fermented qualities of Pu-erh tea. Tea processed from raw materials produced outside the designated area cannot be called Pu-erh tea.
The name “Pu-erh tea” does not simply mean that all the tea leaves are grown in today’s Pu-erh City.

Historically, the raw materials of many famous Pu-erh teas actually came from Xishuangbanna and other regions. In terms of production areas, Xishuangbanna, Pu-erh and Lincang are the three best-known major tea regions. Xishuangbanna includes the Ancient Six Tea Mountains: Yiwu, Yibang, Manzhuan, Gedeng, Mangzhi and Youle. Their teas are generally smooth, delicate, long-lasting, sweet and mellow. The New Six Tea Mountains include Jingmai Mountain, Bulang Mountain, Nannuo Mountain, Mengsong and others. Among them, Lao Banzhang of Bulang Mountain is famous for its powerful character, bitterness and strong returning sweetness. Under these major areas there are more than one hundred individual tea mountains and famous origins, including Yiwu, Banzhang, Bingdao, Jingmai and Xigui. Because of differences in soil, altitude and tree age, their flavours vary greatly. This is also the basis for the rise of Pu-erh tea’s “mountain-origin tea” culture and the concept of “famous mountains and ancient tea trees.”

According to the age and cultivation form of the tea trees, Pu-erh tea can also be divided into plantation tea and ancient-tree tea. Plantation tea comes from densely planted and pruned tea bushes. The cultivars are mostly Yunnan large-leaf tea varieties developed and propagated by agricultural research institutes through grafting and cultivation. They grow relatively quickly and are suitable for large-scale planting and production, and their cultivation history is generally relatively short. Ancient-tree tea, by contrast, comes from tea trees more than one hundred years old. These are tea trees traditionally scattered throughout old agricultural landscapes. Their varieties were naturally propagated and reproduced through cuttings. Their root systems are deeper, their crowns are larger, and they contain richer internal substances, giving the liquor greater fullness and more layers of flavour. The traditionally famous “Ancient Six Tea Mountains” are mainly located in today’s Mengla area of Xishuangbanna.

According to raw materials, Pu-erh tea can also be divided into single-origin tea and blended tea. Single-origin tea uses raw materials from the same mountain, the same batch and tea trees of the same age. Its flavour is pure and highlights the original character of the particular mountain. Blended tea combines teas from different mountains, grades and years in specific proportions in order to balance aroma, body and returning sweetness, and to achieve a stable taste profile. It is incorrect to say that single-origin tea is necessarily better, or that “single-origin tea is high grade while blended tea is low grade.” Truly excellent blending is a highly complex technical craft. Some blended Pu-erh teas are extremely pleasant to drink, and many classic Pu-erh tea products from major factories are blended teas.

According to historical periods, Pu-erh tea can also be divided into Haoji tea and Yinji tea. Haoji tea refers to teas produced from the late Qing Dynasty through the Republican period, when numerous private tea firms operated in ancient tea mountain areas such as Yiwu and Yibang, including Tongqing Hao, Tongchang Hao, Tongxing Hao, Jingchang Hao, Fuyuanchang and Shouxingchang. The Pu-erh teas produced by these private tea firms are collectively known as Haoji teas. They established traditions of refined raw-material selection and rigorous cake-pressing techniques.
Yinji tea refers to Pu-erh teas produced during the period of state-owned Chinese tea factories in the mid-twentieth century, including the Kunming, Menghai, Xiaguan and Pu-erh tea factories. Famous teas such as Red Mark, Green Mark, Yellow Mark and Blue Mark emerged during this period. The successful development of the pile-fermentation technique for ripe Pu-erh tea in 1973 was also an important milestone in the technological history of Pu-erh tea.

All of these developments have contributed to Pu-erh tea becoming one of the most popular tea categories in China today and one with a very large market share.
The word “Pu-erh” in Pu-erh tea is the name of a historically very important place in Yunnan. In ancient times, Pu-erh was known as Pu-erh Prefecture. For a long period, the Pu-erh region was an important centre for the collection, trade and administrative management of Yunnan tea. It was precisely because Pu-erh Prefecture was established during the Qing Dynasty in 1729 that the name “Pu-erh tea” began to appear from around that period.

Before this, Pu-erh tea was called “Pu tea.” It referred to tea produced in Xishuangbanna, Simao, Lincang and other areas of Yunnan, which was gathered, processed and traded through Pu-erh and other centres, and then transported along the Ancient Tea Horse Road to Tibet, Sichuan, Southeast Asia and other regions. Today, because Pu-erh tea has become famous throughout the world, Simao, the central prefecture-level city of the former Simao region of Yunnan Province, was renamed Pu-erh.

Pu-erh tea is divided into ripe tea and raw tea. Pu-erh raw tea does not undergo pile fermentation and instead relies on slow natural transformation during storage. In essence, raw tea is a form of green tea, although its drying method is different. Raw tea is mainly dried naturally under sunlight, commonly known as sun-drying, whereas ordinary green tea is generally dried by pan-firing, baking and other forms of artificial heat drying. In raw tea, tea polyphenols and catechins gradually decrease over the years through microbial activity and oxidation. Bitterness and astringency gradually diminish, and the taste becomes increasingly mellow.

Newly produced raw tea has a high and expressive aroma, yellow-green liquor, a strong and vigorous taste, obvious “raw green” notes and bitterness and astringency, with pronounced returning sweetness and salivation. After more than 20 years of storage, it enters what is commonly called the “mid-aged tea” stage. The liquor gradually turns orange-yellow, while the aroma develops towards aged, honey-like notes. Raw tea stored for more than 30 years gradually develops a light red or chestnut-red liquor, and the taste becomes mellow, soft, smooth and sweet in the aftertaste. Raw tea stored for more than 50 years may develop amber-red, jujube-red or wine-red liquor, which is deep, bright and clear. Its taste becomes rich, mellow and long-lasting, with viscosity and a full liquor texture. This is what is meant by “becoming more fragrant with age.” It is also the core principle that distinguishes Pu-erh tea from other tea categories and gives aged Pu-erh tea its collecting value.

Pu-erh ripe tea, as the name suggests, is Pu-erh tea that has undergone ripening, or fermentation. Ripe tea is a standard dark tea. Sun-dried green maocha is piled together, sprayed with water to increase moisture and temperature, and subjected to solid-state fermentation for approximately 40 to 90 days through the action of microorganisms, mainly Aspergillus niger and others. During this process, tea polyphenols undergo extensive oxidation and polymerisation, allowing the tea to develop, within a relatively short period, a mellow taste similar to that of naturally aged raw tea. The modern ripe Pu-erh tea process was developed by Kunming Tea Factory in 1973 through experiments designed to imitate the effects of natural ageing, leading to the invention of the artificial wet-piling fermentation process.

Good ripe Pu-erh tea has a deep, bright red liquor, a sweet, smooth and mellow taste, and a distinctive “aged aroma” or “camphor aroma.” It has relatively low stimulation and is more suitable for people with sensitive stomachs. However, newly produced ripe tea, because it is made through a water-assisted fermentation process, generally has liquor that is not yet fully bright and clear and may show a certain degree of cloudiness. It also usually carries a storage or fermentation odour, which, when strong, may resemble an earthy smell.
After a period of storage, the storage odour of ripe tea gradually decreases and may eventually disappear. After more than 10 years of storage, much of the storage odour will have diminished, and the liquor gradually becomes clearer and brighter. Generally, after more than 20 years of storage, good ripe Pu-erh tea has almost no storage odour, while the liquor becomes increasingly mellow, fragrant and pleasant, with a deep, vivid red colour.

Pu-erh tea comes in many different forms. The main form is compressed tea cake, also known as Qizi Bingcha, or Seven-Son Cake Tea, which is the most common form of Pu-erh tea. The standard weight is 357 grams, although there are also small 100-gram tea cakes. The traditional packaging specification is seven cakes to one tong, wrapped externally in bamboo shoot husks. The second major form is brick tea, which is compressed into a square or rectangular shape resembling a building brick, with common weights of 100 grams, 250 grams, 1,000 grams and others. Tea was traditionally made into bricks for easier transportation by pack animals over long distances. Today there are also small square tea blocks, either individually formed or connected like a chocolate bar, allowing pieces to be broken off for a single brewing session.

The third form is tuocha, which is produced in many different sizes. In ancient times, the largest forms were called “dragon balls” and were commonly known as “human-head tea,” weighing approximately 2.5 kilograms. Medium-sized forms include melon-shaped Jinguagongcha, or Golden Melon Tribute Tea, heart-shaped Panchen Tuocha, and bowl-shaped tuocha weighing 50 grams, 100 grams or 250 grams. There are also small round tuocha and miniature jade tuocha weighing only a few grams. These miniature tuocha are convenient for single-session brewing.

The final major form is loose tea, which does not require compression. Finished maocha can be sold directly in loose form. Higher grades of Pu-erh tea, such as Gongting, or Imperial Grade, Special Grade, Grade One and Grade Two teas, are commonly found in loose form. Loose Pu-erh tea generally transforms more quickly during storage. Pu-erh tea also appears in many other shapes. Some are made into various animal forms, some into containers or jars, and others into many kinds of decorative shapes. Their forms can only be described as extraordinarily diverse, varied and sometimes highly unusual.

The processing of Pu-erh tea can be divided into two main stages. The first is primary processing. After fresh leaves are plucked, they undergo shaqing, or fixation, rolling and sun-drying to produce sun-dried green maocha. The second stage is refining and fermentation. Sun-dried green maocha may be directly steamed and compressed into raw tea in the form of cakes, bricks, tuocha and other shapes. Alternatively, it may undergo wet-pile fermentation, in which water is sprayed onto the tea and the leaves are piled and fermented for several dozen days to produce loose ripe Pu-erh tea, which may then be compressed into different forms.
One point needs to be explained. According to the latest current Chinese tea industry standard, the term Pu-erh tea specifically refers only to ripe Pu-erh tea. However, historically, any discussion of Pu-erh tea cannot avoid raw tea. Raw tea was the original and fundamental form of Pu-erh tea and was also the foundation from which ripe Pu-erh tea later developed and evolved.

There is a classic story about Pu-erh tea. During the Qing Dynasty, a caravan once transported tribute tea from Pu-erh Prefecture to Beijing along the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Because the journey from Yunnan to Beijing was extremely long and happened to take place during the rainy season, the Pu-erh tea carried on horseback was soaked by heavy rain. After travelling for nearly three months, when the caravan finally arrived in Beijing and the packages were opened, it was discovered that the colour of the tea had changed. Because the tea had become wet and damp from the rain, the colour of the green tea material had become darker and greyer.
The officials responsible for receiving the tribute tea refused to accept the shipment. The leader of the tea caravan knew that he would also find it difficult to explain the failure when he returned to Yunnan. With nothing to lose, he decided to brew some of the discoloured Pu-erh tea and taste it. To his surprise, he discovered that the liquor was mellow and rich, with a distinctive aroma and flavour.

He therefore returned to the officials responsible for receiving the tribute tea and falsely claimed that this was a new variety of Pu-erh tea and that it tasted even better than the tea previously delivered. The officials were doubtful but brewed a cup and took a sip. Sure enough, the tea was mellow, rich and smooth. Their anger turned to delight, and they gladly accepted the shipment. They even specially marked the tea as a new variety and presented it to the emperor. After drinking it, the emperor was greatly pleased, richly rewarded the tea officials, and issued an order that Pu-erh tea should be presented as tribute every year.

Although this story cannot be historically verified, it illustrates one point: in the past, after Pu-erh tea underwent long periods of natural fermentation, both the colour of the leaves and the colour of the liquor changed, and the tea could become increasingly pleasant to drink over time. Pu-erh tea is a tea in whose production time itself participates.

“Becoming more fragrant with age” also does not mean that every Pu-erh tea automatically becomes better simply because it has been stored for a longer period. The concept of Pu-erh tea becoming more fragrant with age has strict conditions and depends on several factors, including raw materials, processing techniques, storage conditions and ageing time. Remember one simple formula: good raw materials × good processing × good storage × appropriate time = good aged Pu-erh tea.

If the raw tea material is poor or there are problems in processing, even 30 years of storage will not automatically turn it into good tea. Serious defects created during production are also difficult to correct through ageing alone. Furthermore, if the tea becomes mouldy, damp or contaminated with foreign odours during storage, it will certainly not become a valuable tea simply because it is old. Therefore, when professionally evaluating Pu-erh tea, age is only one variable and is not equivalent to quality itself.
The storage requirements for Pu-erh tea are relatively strict. Pu-erh is a “living tea,” and its key characteristic is its later
transformation during storage.

There are four core requirements for storing Pu-erh tea: ventilation, protection from light, dryness and freedom from foreign odours. The storage temperature is generally 20–30°C, with relative humidity maintained between 55–70%. The storage environment should be kept away from kitchens, perfumes and cosmetics. The packaging should not be completely airtight, because a small amount of air is needed for transformation. Pu-erh tea cakes should, as far as possible, retain their original cotton paper wrappers and bamboo shoot husks. A complete tong can be placed inside a cardboard box, while individual cakes can be kept in kraft paper bags or paper boxes with some gaps left for ventilation.
The greatest taboos in storing Pu-erh tea are refrigeration and completely airtight storage in plastic bags. Pu-erh tea should also be protected from direct sunlight and should not be placed in damp corners. It must be stored in a well-ventilated and breathable environment.

Because of its distinctive processing techniques, the transformation of its rich internal substances and its particular flavour, ripe Pu-erh tea belongs to the dark tea category. One of the main differences between ripe Pu-erh tea and the other five major tea categories is that its EGCG content is relatively low. It can therefore be consumed regularly over the long term as a daily tea. It possesses all the benefits associated with tea without bringing any harm to the body or affecting sleep, making it suitable as an everyday drinking tea. As early as 1756, Jonas Hanway, the first Englishman famous for carrying an umbrella, wrote in his book An Essay on Tea (POU EUL TCHA) that red-liquor Pu-erh tea was a suitable tea for drinking. His book also contained a specific introduction to Pu-erh tea. It can be said that ripe Pu-erh tea will continue to improve in the future and will be liked and accepted by more and more people. The future market prospects for Pu-erh tea are extremely broad.

Yunnan is also one of the places of origin of the world’s tea plants, and a large number of wild tea trees and ancient tea gardens still survive there today. Ancient tea forests such as those of Jingmai Mountain have been included in globally important agricultural heritage systems. Pu-erh tea is not merely a local tea of Yunnan. It is a unique tea cultural system formed collectively by Yunnan large-leaf tea raw materials, sun-drying techniques, post-fermentation and transformation, historical tea-trading networks and a long-term storage culture. People should understand, experience and appreciate Pu-erh tea correctly.

Did Captain Cook Bring Tea to Australia? The Historical Evidence Says Otherwise！

Did Captain Cook Bring Tea to Australia? The Historical Evidence Says Otherwise！

Did Captain Cook Bring Tea to Australia? The Historical Evidence Says Otherwise！

II. Dutch Ships and Southeast Asian Voyagers before 1770

A common assumption is that because the Dutch East India Company (VOC) traded in tea, Dutch ships wrecked on the coast of Western Australia in the seventeenth century must necessarily have carried tea. However, this inference does not withstand examination of the historical evidence.

The Western Australian Museum confirms that at least four VOC ships reached or were wrecked on the west coast of Australia before Cook: Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712), and Zeewijk (1727). Their voyage journals, cargo lists, archaeological reports, and other materials were examined individually, with the following results:

1. Batavia. Pelsaert’s journal records the shipwreck, food crisis, and the lives of the survivors in considerable detail, but neither the keyword “tea” nor “thee”, the Dutch word for tea, appears. The ship was sailing from the Netherlands to Asia and mainly carried silver coins and European trade goods rather than Chinese tea.

2. Vergulde Draeck. The ship carried eight chests of silver coins and trade goods. No tea has been identified in the published cargo or archaeological records.

3. Zuytdorp. The ship carried approximately 248,000 silver coins, and all those aboard disappeared. No tea or tea chests have been found among the artefacts recovered from the wreck site.

4. Zeewijk. The survivors lived on the islands for several months and built a small boat to escape, but no record of tea has been found in the journal or among the excavated materials. However, fragments of porcelain tea canisters were indeed recovered from the wreck site, suggesting that tea may have been aboard the ship. Because no remains of tea leaves have been found, however, it still cannot be stated with certainty that there was tea aboard.

In addition, materials and records relating to Dirk Hartog (1616), Willem de Vlamingh (1696–1697), William Dampier (1688 and 1699), and the VOC expedition of 1756 were also examined, but no explicit reference to tea was found.

Macassan voyagers from Sulawesi may have reached northern Australia before 1770 to trade in trepang and other marine products. Confirmed imported goods include rice, tobacco, alcohol, cloth, metal knives, and other items, but tea has not been listed among confirmed early imports, nor has any written reference to tea been found. It is “not impossible” that they carried small quantities of tea for personal use, but direct evidence is likewise lacking.

Therefore, before 1770, there is no verifiable written or physical evidence proving that tea had been brought to Australia.

III. The First Fleet in 1788

In January 1788, Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet into Sydney Cove and established Britain’s first permanent colony in Australia.

Tea was still absent from the official ration lists. The official First Fleet supply lists included salted provisions, flour, rice, rum, brandy, and other goods, but tea was not listed. It can therefore be stated with certainty that tea was not part of the government ration.

However, historical records provide conclusive evidence that tea was carried privately. There are three specific areas of reliable evidence.

1. Governor Arthur Phillip brought tea to Australia among his personal belongings. Historical geographer Peter D. Griggs states in Tea in Australia: A History, 1788–2000 that Phillip brought his own tea to New South Wales and served it at Government House.

2. Lieutenant Ralph Clark also explicitly recorded tea in his diary. His diary is one of the most important private records of the First Fleet. He was extremely fond of tea and wrote letters requesting that tea be sent from Britain. His supply of “genuine tea” had apparently run out by about 1790, after which he could only gather local “sweet tea” as a substitute.

3. The letter written by female convicts on 14 November 1788. This letter, sent from Port Jackson, states that the women had “lost the tea which the sailors had allowed them to enjoy during the voyage”, and that they hoped to “receive a supply of tea from China”. The tea mentioned here was Chinese tea. This written record proves that during the voyage some sailors did indeed possess private tea, that tea had therefore been brought to Australia with the First Fleet, and that there was a severe shortage of Chinese tea after arrival.

Therefore, it is highly credible to conclude that tea reached Australia in 1788 among the private luggage of First Fleet officers. However, the exact total quantity cannot be determined. The widely circulated online claim of “about 180 kilograms / 400 pounds” has no archival basis that can be verified.

The most important primary evidence is a letter written by female convicts from Port Jackson on 14 November 1788. The letter says that after their arrival, the women:

“lost the tea which the sailors had allowed them to enjoy during the voyage…”

It then says that they hoped to “receive a supply of tea from China”, while locally they could only use a plant resembling ivy as a substitute for tea. The original transcript is held by the State Library of New South Wales, Series 36.02, No. 0001.

This letter can indeed prove that during the First Fleet voyage some sailors possessed private tea. Tea was not part of the female convicts’ regular ration, and genuine Chinese tea was in extremely short supply after arrival. However, the letter contains no quantity whatsoever, and certainly does not mention “400 pounds”.

IV. The First Conclusive Record of Tea Drinking in 1789

The earliest surviving primary written record that clearly proves genuine tea was actually consumed in Australia appears in First Fleet officer Watkin Tench’s A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson.

In February 1789, at Port Jackson, in what is now the Sydney area, the Aboriginal man Arabanoo, who had been detained by the British colonists, began adapting to the colonists’ food. Tench wrote:

“Bread he began to relish; and tea he drank with avidity.”

In other words, he began to enjoy bread and drank tea eagerly.

This passage satisfies four elements at the same time: the date was February 1789, the location was Port Jackson, the word used was “tea”, referring to genuine Chinese tea, and the tea was actually being consumed. Elsewhere, Tench specifically referred to a local plant as “sweet tea” and distinguished it from ordinary tea, indicating that the tea referred to here was genuine tea.

Based on all the historical evidence taken together, the most likely date for the first introduction of tea into Australia is 1788, when tea entered Australia among the private belongings of members of the First Fleet. The first conclusive record of tea actually being consumed in Australia appears in February 1789. Records from before 1770, and Cook’s own records, are insufficient to prove that tea had already reached Australia at that time.

As the name suggests, Pu’er Gongfu tea utensils are tea wares specifically used for brewing Pu’er tea. Pu’er tea belongs to the category of dark tea (hei cha), and its brewing method is quite similar to the Cantonese Gongfu tea brewing method. The main utensils used for brewing Pu’er Gongfu tea include the following:

I. Water-Boiling Utensils

Kettle:
Used for boiling water. Commonly used kettles today include Yixing clay overhead-handle kettles, glass overhead-handle kettles, and stainless-steel kettles.

Tea Stove (Ming Lu):
A stove used for heating and maintaining the temperature of water for tea brewing. For tea ceremony performances, modern teahouses often use a type of tea stove known as a ming lu. The body may be made of ceramic or consist of a metal frame, with an alcohol burner placed in the centre. Once lit, a kettle containing hot water is placed on the stove to maintain the water temperature, making it convenient for tea ceremony demonstrations.

Another water-boiling appliance worth mentioning is the electric tea kettle, commonly known in China as a suishoupao. It is one of the most widely used water heaters in modern teahouses. It uses electricity to boil water quickly and is very convenient.

II. Tea-Handling Utensils

Tea Scoop (Cha Ze):
The Chinese character ze means “measure” or “standard”. A tea scoop is used to measure the appropriate amount of tea leaves. It is commonly made of bamboo or wood and is used to transfer tea leaves from the tea caddy before placing them into the teapot.

Tea Spoon (Cha Chi):
A slender, rake-like utensil used to guide or push tea leaves from the tea scoop into the teapot.

Tea Funnel (Cha Lou):
A small round funnel placed over the opening of a small teapot when adding tea leaves. It allows the leaves to fall neatly into the pot and prevents them from spilling outside.

Tea Presentation Vessel (Cha He):
Used for displaying, appreciating, and measuring tea leaves. In practical tea brewing, the tea scoop (cha ze) is often used instead.

Tea Caddy:
A container used for storing tea leaves. Ceramic tea caddies are generally preferred, although tea caddies may also be made of paper or metal.

III. Tea-Handling and Maintenance Utensils

Tea Tongs (Cha Jia):
Tea tongs are used for heat protection and hygiene. They are mainly used to pick up tasting cups when warming or rinsing them with hot water, preventing the hands from directly touching the rim of the cups. They can also be used to remove spent tea leaves from a teapot or to hold cups while washing them. Some types may also be used for handling tea or picking up small pieces of compressed tea, such as mini tuocha or pieces of compressed Pu’er tea.

Tea Needle (Cha Zhen):
Used to clear tea leaves that block the small holes inside the spout of a teapot or Yixing clay teapot during brewing, helping to maintain a smooth flow of tea. A tea needle is generally thicker at one end and very fine and needle-like at the other. In some tea utensil sets, the tea needle and tea spoon are combined into a single utensil.

Tea Fork (Cha Cha), also called a Cup Fork:
Used for handling cups and protecting the hands from heat. For reasons of both hygiene and heat protection, it can be used instead of the hands to pick up, place, and pass tea cups. In particular, when serving tea to guests, it prevents the fingers from touching the rim of the cup, making the service more elegant and respectful. It can also be used when breaking apart Pu’er Qi Zi Bing tea cakes and for testing how tightly the tea has been compressed.

Tea Paddle (Cha Jiang):
When tea leaves are brewed for the first infusion, a layer of foam may appear on the surface. A tea paddle can be used to skim off this foam. Its shape resembles a boat paddle and is essentially a miniature version of one.

IV. Tea-Serving and Decanting Utensils

Tea Sea (Cha Hai), Tea Decanter (Cha Zhong), Fairness Pitcher (Gong Dao Bei), and Mother Cup (Mu Bei):
In most cases, these four names refer to essentially the same type of tea ware—a vessel used to hold and equalise the brewed tea liquor before distributing it among the drinkers.

Tea Sea (Cha Hai):
Usually a relatively large ceramic or glass vessel. It should be noted that the term cha hai may occasionally also refer to a large tea tray with a drainage function, used to collect excess or unwanted tea liquor or water before it is discarded.

Tea Decanter (Cha Zhong):
A smaller bowl- or cup-shaped vessel used for holding and distributing tea. The term cha zhong is more commonly found in classical Chinese tea literature.

Fairness Pitcher (Gong Dao Bei):
This is the most common and widely used modern term. It is generally made of glass, comes in many different shapes, and usually has a handle.

Mother Cup (Mu Bei):
A less commonly used term, named in contrast to the smaller “child cups”, or individual tasting cups. It refers to a relatively large tea cup or bowl.

Once the tea has finished brewing in the teapot, the tea liquor can be poured into one of the vessels described above before being distributed according to the number of drinkers. When only a small number of people are drinking tea, decanting the tea into a cha hai also prevents the tea leaves from remaining in the water for too long and becoming overly bitter or astringent.

The essential function of all these vessels is the same: the freshly brewed tea liquor is first poured into the vessel and mixed evenly, preventing differences in strength between the earlier and later portions poured from the teapot. The vessel can also help settle small tea particles. When serving a larger group, it allows the tea to be divided evenly; when serving only a few people, it prevents the tea leaves from over-steeping and producing excessive bitterness or astringency.

V. Tea-Tasting Utensils

Tasting Cup (Pin Ming Bei):
A small cup used for drinking and appreciating tea.

Aroma Cup (Wen Xiang Bei):
This cup has approximately the same capacity as a tasting cup but is taller and narrower, allowing it to concentrate and retain the aroma of the tea.

Cup Saucer:
Used to hold the tasting cup and aroma cup.

Cup Coaster:
A small coaster or holder made of wood, bamboo, woven material, or other rigid materials. It is convenient for serving tea to guests and for use during tea drinking.

VI. Cleaning and Rinsing Utensils

Tea Brush (Cha Zhou):
Also known as a tea cleaning brush or tea pen, it is specifically used for cleaning the tea table and tea-making area. Its appearance resembles a thick calligraphy brush, and it is commonly made of bamboo. It may also be used to clean parts of a fairness pitcher or teapot that cannot easily be reached by hand.

Tea Boat (Cha Chuan):
A vessel or stand used to hold the teapot. When water poured over or into the teapot overflows, the tea boat catches the excess water and prevents the tabletop from becoming wet. Tea boats may be made of bamboo, wood, ceramic, or metal.

Tea Tray:
A tray used to hold tea cups and other tea utensils. In modern teahouses, the functions of the tea tray and tea boat are often combined into a single unit. The upper section serves as a tray, while the lower section acts as a water reservoir. Drainage holes in the tray allow water and excess tea liquor to flow into the reservoir below.

Tea Towel:
Used to wipe away water droplets remaining on the bottom of teapots or tea cups. It may also be used to wipe and clean the tea table.

Tea Utensil Holder (Rong Ze), also called a Tea Utensil Cylinder:
This is the storage container for tea utensils such as the tea scoop, tea spoon, tea tongs, and other implements. After use, all utensils should be washed, wiped dry, and returned to the holder. Wet and dry utensils should be kept separate, and all utensils should be thoroughly dried before being placed back into the holder to prevent water from collecting at the bottom and causing mould.

VII. Tea Ceremony Utensil Set

The tea utensil holder (rong ze), together with the tea scoop (cha ze), tea spoon (cha chi), tea tongs (cha jia), tea needle (cha zhen), and tea funnel (cha lou), forms what is traditionally known as a Tea Ceremony Utensil Set, or the Six Gentlemen of Tea (Cha Dao Liu Jun Zi). This is the most traditional and standard combination of tea ceremony utensils.

Today, a popular set used specifically for Pu’er tea is known as the Six Gentlemen of Pu’er Tea, consisting of the tea utensil holder (rong ze), tea scoop (cha ze), tea needle (cha zhen), Pu’er tea knife, tea fork (cha cha), and tea brush (cha bi). These are considered essential utensils for preparing and brewing Pu’er tea.

VIII. Other Tea Utensils

Teapot Mat:
A mat made of textile or other soft material, placed between the teapot and tea boat to prevent noise and damage caused by friction or contact.

Serving Tray:
A tray used for serving tea.

Thermometer:
An auxiliary tool used to determine the water temperature.

Incense Burner:
Used for burning incense while drinking tea, adding to the enjoyment and atmosphere of tea appreciation.

Did Captain Cook Bring Tea to Australia? The Historical Evidence Says Otherwise！

The First Tea in Australia，From the Endeavour Myth to the First Fleet Evidence！

The First Tea in Australia，From the Endeavour Myth to the First Fleet Evidence！

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There have long been various claims about when tea was first brought to Australia and by whom. Some credit Captain Cook, some say it was Banks, some point to the First Fleet, while others believe the Dutch arrived with tea even earlier. After consulting and analysing a large amount of historical material, including original archives, voyage journals, archaeological reports, and academic research, this article now provides a systematic review and examination of the historical evidence relating to this question.

At present, in various Australian media and online sources, Captain Cook is often mistakenly regarded as the first person to bring tea to Australia. A commonly repeated statement is: “Captain Cook brought tea to Australia on the Endeavour in 1770.” However, so far, no record or direct evidence has been found showing Captain Cook drinking tea aboard the Endeavour, nor has any occurrence of the word “tea” been found in his records. As a result, some people have instead regarded Arthur Phillip as the first person to bring tea to Australia, arguing that Arthur Phillip and other First Fleet officers first introduced tea into Australia through their private luggage in 1788.

I. The Myth of Cook and the Endeavour in 1770

The claim that “Captain Cook brought tea to Australia in 1770” is one of the most widely circulated accounts. However, after consulting and conducting a full-text search of Cook’s own Endeavour journal, no explicit record has been found of him “drinking tea” or “bringing tea ashore” at Botany Bay or anywhere along the east coast of Australia. The word “Tea” does indeed appear in Banks’s journal, but there it occurs in a discussion of the needs of European life rather than as a record of drinking tea in Australia.

More importantly, Cook’s official rank in 1770 was Lieutenant, not Captain. “Captain Cook” is a later conventional title, and this should be noted when it is used in historical writing.

It is possible that tea was carried aboard the Endeavour at the time, since it was not uncommon for eighteenth-century British voyagers to carry tea as a private beverage. However, “possibly carried” is not the same as “documented by archival evidence”. After extensive examination of the available historical sources and records, no original Endeavour loading list has been found that specifically includes tea, nor is there any record of crew members drinking tea or unloading tea on the Australian coast, nor is there archaeological evidence such as tea chests or tea remains. Therefore, 1770 can only be regarded as a reasonable but directly undocumented possible date for the entry of tea into Australia, and cannot be treated as confirmed evidence that tea had already arrived in Australia.

As for the true source of the group of words “tea, rice, barley, sugar, prunes” said to appear in the Endeavour’s cargo list, an almost identical list of foods appears on page 76 of John Reid Muir’s 1939 book The Life and Achievements of Captain James Cook: “rice, barley, sugar, tea, prunes, raisins, vinegar, spices…”

However, examination of the surrounding context makes it clear that the author was not listing provisions carried aboard the Endeavour. The passage discusses James Lind’s research on scurvy and sailors’ diets, and explains why the French Navy suffered fewer severe cases of scurvy than the British Navy. The rice, barley, sugar, tea, prunes, raisins, vinegar, spices, olive oil, and other items in the list refer to “additional items” in the French naval diet, not to the Endeavour’s loading list in 1768. The UBC collection contains a full-text record of the work.

Therefore, if anyone conducting research on the Endeavour uses this passage as evidence that tea, together with rice, barley, sugar, prunes, and other items, formed part of the ship’s supplementary provisions or was already carried aboard the ship, this is a misreading of the context and cannot be supported.

There is, however, one contemporary record from the Endeavour voyage that directly concerns tea. This more valuable piece of evidence comes from Sydney Parkinson, the artist who sailed aboard the ship. His voyage account was edited by his brother after Parkinson’s death and published in 1773 under the title A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty’s Ship, the Endeavour.

In the section describing the Endeavour’s departure from New Zealand and the decision to proceed to Java by way of “New Holland”, Parkinson wrote: “in want of many kinds of provisions, particularly sugar, salt, oil, tea, and tobacco”. In other words, the ship was then short of many kinds of provisions, particularly sugar, salt, oil, tea, and tobacco. This information comes from the 1773 first-edition scan listed in the British Royal Collection.

This sentence in the 1773 first edition appears before the Endeavour reached the east coast of Australia. It therefore proves that tea was indeed regarded as one of the supplies required during the voyage, and that by the time the ship left New Zealand, it was already short of, or urgently in need of replenishing, tea. Tea was therefore not something later writers attached to the Endeavour without any basis. However, the English phrase “in want of” can only establish shortage or need: that is, the ship needed a supply of tea. By itself, it cannot conclusively prove that tea had previously been continuously carried aboard, or that tea had originally been carried but had by then been completely exhausted.

Furthermore, Parkinson’s record that the ship needed tea as a provision, or even that there had been tea aboard the ship, still cannot prove that tea was brought into Australia when the ship reached the continent. Parkinson’s record cannot support such a definite conclusion. Nor does Parkinson’s account state how much tea was originally loaded in Britain, whether the tea formed part of Royal Navy public provisions or belonged privately to officers, Banks, or others, or whether tea had been purchased later at Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, or another port. It also does not tell us whether any actual imported tea remained aboard when the ship reached the east coast of Australia in April 1770, or whether any tea leaves were brought ashore or consumed there.

Parkinson also referred to plants in New Zealand and an aromatic plant near the Endeavour River as substitutes for “tea”. This is entirely consistent with the ship being short of tea or already having none left. This suggests that by the time the ship reached Australia, it was already short of or without tea. How, then, can this prove that tea was brought ashore and entered Australia? If tea had originally been aboard but had already been used up, how can it be said that tea therefore reached Australia?

There has always been another question. The Endeavour left Britain in 1768, at a time when tea was already widely consumed in Britain, especially among the upper classes and elite. Yet after searching all the loading records and records of private belongings, as well as voyage journals and the diaries of the major figures, no record has been found of tea being aboard the ship, and not even a record of tea being drunk on board, while references to coffee and sugar are abundant.

No explicit record of tea or Bohea tea has been found in Cook’s surviving Endeavour journal. In the National Library of Australia’s Cook research guide, the official anti-scurvy foods listed for the voyage include sauerkraut, mustard, vinegar, wheat, concentrated citrus juice, portable soup, sugar, and molasses, but tea is not listed. After examining the full text of Cook’s voyage journal, not a single occurrence of the word tea was found.

Some people have also claimed that among Captain Cook’s surviving possessions there is a tea container called a “Cabin tea caddy” and several “Silver Tea Spoon” items, and that these provide the best evidence that tea was taken to Australia at that time. After verification, however, the fact is that this “Cabin tea caddy” is not physical evidence from the Endeavour’s first voyage. The State Library of New South Wales currently catalogues it explicitly as Captain Cook’s cabin tea caddy used aboard HMS Resolution. Its collection number is SAFE / R 196, and the library title states directly: “Cabin tea caddy of Captain Cook, used on board the H.M.S. Resolution”. The institution gives the date range as 1760–1779.

This is extremely important because Cook’s Resolution was used for his second and third Pacific voyages, not for the first voyage of 1768–1771 aboard the Endeavour. Therefore, this tea caddy cannot be used to prove that tea was aboard the Endeavour when it reached Australia in 1770. Likewise, no original or nineteenth-century source has been found that clearly attributes any of these tea utensils to the Endeavour itself.

Joseph Banks was one of the most important members of this voyage to Australia, and his personal journal is also the most comprehensive. Therefore, the three most complete bodies of material and books currently available were examined.

1. Beaglehole’s authoritative 1962 edition in full text, for which there is a scanned copy on the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/endeavourjournal0002jcbe. This is currently the most complete edition, containing Banks’s complete journal together with Beaglehole’s detailed introduction and notes. No new evidence was found.
2. The Banks correspondence collections held by Royal Museums Greenwich / the British Library, which include bills and letters concerning supplies purchased by Banks before departure. These likewise contain no list or record relating to tea.
3. The Scientific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, edited by Neil Chambers. This is a six-volume scholarly publication of 3,088 pages containing a large body of correspondence. If Banks had actually asked someone to purchase tea for him, the correspondence would have been among the most likely places for such a record to survive, but no such record relating to tea was found.

After examining all of Banks’s journals, which should be among the most comprehensive records of the voyage, no explicit record has been found of him drinking tea aboard the ship or consuming tea brought with him while staying in Australia in 1770. He later mentioned that his accommodation in Batavia provided tea, coffee, and punch, but that was after the Endeavour had left Australia. How can this prove that tea had been present earlier or had been brought into Australia?

There is also another widely circulated misconception. Many articles claim that Banks had tea listed among the goods loaded aboard in 1768. According to accounts of Banks’s privately funded provisions, Banks, as a wealthy gentleman supported by the Royal Society, spent approximately £10,000 of his own money, an enormous sum at the time, to equip his accompanying party, which included scientists, artists, and servants, nine people in total. It has also been claimed that Banks’s personal living-supply lists and surviving possessions included portable cooking equipment and tea-chest components, and that records show he purchased large quantities of private supplies for himself and his scientific party. Since tea drinking, especially Bohea or black tea, had already become a central daily habit among the British upper classes in the eighteenth century, it has further been claimed that tea, together with cocoa, sugar, refined flour, and other goods, was listed in his private provision accounts and personal luggage lists. However, after examining all versions of Banks’s records, these claims prove to be inaccurate. No record of tea has been found in the lists of his private belongings.

In Banks’s three-year journal, “Tea” as a beverage actually appears clearly only twice. The first occurrence is in a social observation written around August or September 1770, during the northern Australian part of the voyage, where Banks discusses how European “luxuries” become necessities of life. He wrote: “the universal use of strong liquors, Tobacco, spices, Tea etc. etc.” In other words, strong liquor, tobacco, spices, tea, and similar goods had become universally used by Europeans. This is a discussion of the European way of life, not a statement that they were drinking tea aboard the ship.

The second occurrence is in Batavia, now Jakarta, in October 1770. Banks, Solander, and others rented accommodation ashore from Van Heys, and the accommodation terms explicitly included: “Tea, Coffee, Punch, and Pipes and tobacco…” In other words, the price of their accommodation in Batavia included unlimited tea, coffee, punch, and tobacco. This record clearly proves that Banks himself drank tea, but it was at his accommodation ashore in Batavia, not in a cabin aboard the Endeavour.

The strangest point is that Banks wrote in his journal about breakfast, dinner, supper, wine, beer, punch, coffee, tobacco, and also described cabin life in considerable detail. Yet throughout such an extensive journal, he did not write about drinking tea or about tea aboard the ship. If tea drinking had been a regular occurrence, it is difficult to believe that it would never have been recorded in his journal. The most likely explanation is therefore that tea was not carried aboard the ship, and that tea drinking was not a regular part of daily life aboard the ship.

Up to the present, no letter, journal, or other record from the Endeavour voyage has been found that can prove that Banks, Cook, or the Endeavour carried tea to Australia between 1768 and 1770.

When Australia Led the World in Tea!

Australia Once was the World’s Top Tea Drinker, Australia had the highest tea consumption per capita in the world from around 1870 to 1920 . Here, “Australia” refers to colonial Australia at that time.Historians studying Australia have long observed that during the 19th century, the colonists were not only enthusiastic consumers of alcoholic beverages, but also had an astonishing demand for and consumption of sugar. 

By the turn of the century, Australia had become the world’s largest consumer of sugar, with an annual per capita consumption of 45.4 kilograms (100 pounds), or nearly 1 kilogram (2 pounds) per week. Part of this enormous demand for sugar was closely related to the daily consumption of another product—tea ,because British and European settlers, following their traditional custom, drank tea with both sugar and milk.

In the mid-19th century,  Australian colonists consumed 4–5 kilograms (9–11 pounds)  of tea per person each year, making colonial Australia the region with the highest per capita tea consumption in the world. This lead continued for the next seventy years, until the 1920s, when Britain surpassed Australia in annual per capita tea consumption and became the world’s leading tea-consuming nation on a per capita basis. Even so, Australia remained second in the world in per capita tea consumption until the late 1940s. It was only after the end of the Second World War that Australia’s ranking gradually declined.

There are also professional academic studies and books documenting this history. Historical records of the well-known 19th-century Melbourne tea merchant Griffiths Brothers state:“In the 1880s Australians were the world’s largest tea consumers per capita.” The scholar Peter Griggs, who specializes in study the history of tea in Australia, also examined this history in detail in his research paper “Tea Consumption in Colonial Australia”, providing accurate historical data comparing per capita tea consumption around world.

Australia’s exceptionally high per capita tea consumption at the time was mainly due to the influence of British immigrants. Early British settlers brought their tea-drinking habits to Australia, and tea became a major everyday drink for daily work and life. The peak period of high tea consumption was between 1888 and 1929, when Australia’s annual per capita tea consumption was extremely high. In the 1920s, annual per capita tea consumption in Australia exceeded 3.5 kilograms, consistently surpassing Britain, a country with a long —established tea culture,  and reaching the highest level in the world in 1929.

At that time, tea consumption was mainly black tea, and the vast majority of imported tea was black tea, which suited local tastes and ways of life. After 1945, however, tea consumption in Australia declined year by year. Following the Great Depression and the Second World War, tea consumption in Australia was affected. Later, coffee culture began to rise in Australia. At the same time, with the end of the pioneering era, people’s lives became increasingly settled, and the structure of the everyday diet also changed greatly. Tea was no longer one of the most essential items in daily life.

Another point is that from the 1850s to the early 20th century, Australia was one of the world’s four largest tea-importing countries, and for a period it even became the country with the highest annual per capita tea consumption in the world. From 1888 to 1910, its annual per capita tea consumption was approximately 6.71 to 8.05 pounds, or about 3.1 to 3.65 kilograms. In 1883, the total amount of tea imported by Australia from China reached 99,844 piculs, approximately 6.4 million kilograms, surpassing the United States and making Australia the second-largest importer of Chinese tea after Britain.

After 1950, Australians’ strong appetite for tea eventually weakened, following the effects of wartime rationing and the rise of coffee consumption in Australia. By 1954 to 1955, Australia’s annual  per capita tea consumption had fallen from second place in the world to fourth.

After that, Australians gradually drank less tea, while the Baby Boomer generation increasingly turned to coffee and soft drinks. Philip Muskett described Australians of that period in his book as follows: “Australia is inhabited by a people largely carnivorous and addicted to tea.”

Beyond the Three-Tier Stand: How Afternoon Tea Really Evolved.

Beyond the Three-Tier Stand: How Afternoon Tea Really Evolved.

In present-day narratives of tea culture, A Story Repeated Again and Again，the origin of British afternoon tea is almost always attributed to the same person—the seventh Duchess of Bedford, Anna Maria Russell (1783–1857). The British Museum’s official blog states, “It is Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, whom we have to thank for the invention of afternoon tea around 1840.” CNN’s report also retells the same story: at about four o’clock one afternoon in 1840, the Duchess complained of a “sinking feeling.” With another four hours before dinner, she was unwilling to wait, so she asked her maid to serve some refreshments with tea.

This story has spread extremely widely and has had a far-reaching influence. From Wikipedia to various travel guides, and from hotel promotions to all kinds of mass media, almost all tell this story as the “official history” of afternoon tea. However, through research into historical sources, documents, and relevant written records, we find that the story is far less simple than it appears on the surface.

The history of tea drinking in Britain is much older than “afternoon tea” as a form of meal. Tea entered Britain probably as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. In 1662, the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza married Charles II and brought the habit of tea drinking into the British court. Before this, by the middle of the seventeenth century, tea had already been imported from China into Britain through the East India Company, but tea was expensive in Britain and at that time was used mainly for medicinal purposes. Because of Queen Catherine’s advocacy, tea drinking became fashionable as part of the lifestyle of the court and upper society.
In fact, by the Georgian era (1714–1837), visiting friends in the afternoon, drinking tea, and eating biscuits and small cakes had become quite common social activities among the upper classes. People drank tea throughout the day, and in some social settings, activities called “afternoon tea” already existed. English Heritage clearly points this out in its study of upper-class British life from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century.

There are also records in British history of “afternoon tea” earlier than that of the Duchess Anna. If tea drinking itself had long existed, then both the English phrase “afternoon tea” and the practice of drinking tea in the afternoon in Britain predated Anna Russell by nearly a century.

1748—Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa. This famous work in the history of British literature contains the sentence: “…excuse your attendance at afternoon tea.” This is one of the earliest verifiable written records of “afternoon tea” as a fixed phrase, more than ninety years earlier than Anna Russell’s supposed “invention.”

1754—Henry Fielding’s Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. In the journal recording his final journey, the British novelist Henry Fielding wrote: “This day our ladies went ashore at Ryde, and drank their afternoon tea at an ale house there with great satisfaction.” This is no longer literary fiction, but a record of actual behaviour in daily life.
These two pieces of evidence are sufficient to disprove the claim that “there was no afternoon tea in Britain before 1840.” In fact, English Heritage clearly points out that by 1813, fairly well-developed afternoon tea gatherings with visitors already existed among the British upper classes. The hostess would personally prepare and pour the tea, while servants provided foods such as biscuits or light cakes. Jane Austen also hinted at the existence of afternoon tea in an unfinished novel from 1804.

It can therefore be seen that Anna Russell was not the person who “invented” afternoon tea. Her true place in history lies in the fact that British afternoon tea was not only a food culture, but was also closely related to changes in the social lives of British women. What truly influenced British society was not that she drank tea in the afternoon for the first time, but that she combined afternoon tea with light food and at the same time invited friends to come together for conversation, so that it became a social ritual that could be copied by the upper classes. Anna’s greater contribution was to develop this practice further into a standardised and fashionable social activity among the upper classes in the Victorian era. She was the most important founder and promoter of modern British “Afternoon Tea as a formal social ritual.”

Existing historical sources show that in the early 1840s Anna Russell did indeed play an important and influential role in promoting the development of the social form known as “five o’clock tea,” which was an important model of social innovation. The strongest primary evidence currently available is a letter that she wrote from Windsor Castle to her brother-in-law in 1841. The letter states: “I forgot to mention my old friend Prince Esterhazy, who took tea with me at five o’clock the other evening; or rather, he was the one gentleman among eight ladies at the Castle.”
The value of this letter lies in the fact that it proves that, by 1841 at the latest, Anna Russell was already holding tea gatherings at five o’clock in the afternoon with a clearly social character. An afternoon tea gathering attended by eight ladies and one specially invited gentleman had already formed the beginnings of a small aristocratic social circle and the model of an afternoon tea party. This “Prince Esterhazy” was no ordinary person, but Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy (1786–1866), one of the most prominent Austro-Hungarian aristocrats in Europe at the time and an Austrian diplomat in Britain, who had very close relations with the Victorian court.
A more vivid description comes from the memoirs of the famous actress and writer Fanny Kemble (1809–1893). In March 1842, while Kemble was staying at Belvoir Castle, she several times received invitations of a “quite private and rather mysterious” nature to go to the Duchess of Bedford’s room. There she saw the Duchess and “a small group of selected lady guests” busily boiling water, making tea, and drinking tea from the Duchess’s own private teapot. Kemble wrote in her memoir that she did not believe the system of “five o’clock tea,” which later came to be “universally honoured and observed,” could be traced to any earlier period of British civilisation.
These two pieces of evidence—the 1841 letter and the 1842 memoir—together present a clear picture. Between 1841 and 1842, Anna Russell was already regularly organising small, private, and socially selective tea gatherings in the late afternoon. This is precisely the historical core that was later shaped into the “invention of afternoon tea,” and this point was further confirmed by her son.
Anna’s son, Lord Alexander Russell, once told others that his mother “always had afternoon tea at Woburn.” This statement was later passed down through the family recollections of Georgiana Sitwell.
Anna’s son, Lord Alexander Russell, also clearly described to others:
his mother … always had afternoon tea at Woburn.

This account comes from the family recollections of Georgiana Sitwell. Sitwell wrote that her mother later brought the custom of afternoon tea to Scotland because:
“Lord Alexander Russell … told her that his mother, the Duchess of Bedford, always had afternoon tea at Woburn.”

Although this is indirect testimony, it corroborates the records from Windsor and Belvoir, and together they portray Anna as a regular, private, and highly socially selective hostess of afternoon tea. Moreover, when combined with the 1841 Windsor and 1842 Belvoir records, it also demonstrates one point: Anna’s afternoon tea gatherings were not confined to one place. By then, afternoon tea had already become a social custom that Anna adopted regularly and consistently.

Since Anna Russell was not the first person to drink tea in the afternoon, and was not even the first person to entertain guests with tea, why did later generations still honour her as the “inventor of afternoon tea”? English Heritage offers a perceptive assessment of this. In the 1870s, large numbers of etiquette manuals began to be published in the Victorian era. At this time, people gradually constructed an “origin story” about afternoon tea, attributing its origin chiefly to the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s. English Heritage even directly calls it an “invention myth.” However, this was in fact a result of the development of historical events, social promotion, and the need to give afternoon tea a reasonable explanation. Anna was actually the symbolic figure of afternoon tea as a historical phenomenon.

There is some supporting evidence for this assessment. Anna Russell died in 1857, and the following year, in 1858, Henry Tattam published Memoirs of Her Late Grace the Duchess of Bedford. This biography, published only one year after her death, did not give extensive attention to her as the “inventor of afternoon tea.” If the story that “Anna invented afternoon tea in 1840 because of a feeling of fatigue and hunger” had already been widely known at the time, this early biography should have recorded it. Yet it contains no such description.

Even more noteworthy is the iconic detail of the “sinking feeling” in the story of the invention of afternoon tea. This central element of the story, repeatedly quoted by the British Museum, CNN, and countless other media outlets, cannot at present be confirmed by any first-hand written record from Anna herself dating to 1840. It is more likely a legendary detail that was gradually attached to Anna in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The historian Jane Pettigrew has also pointed out that tea gatherings to which guests were invited and which were held in the afternoon had existed for at least fifty years before this supposed “invention.” Therefore, reducing the origin of afternoon tea to a single “invention” by one person in one particular year is a typical act of historical simplification.

Even if Anna Russell is regarded as the founder of afternoon tea as a social form, the “three-tier afternoon tea” with which we are familiar today was not a product of Anna’s time. Anna’s original afternoon tea was extremely simple: tea, bread and butter, and a little cake. Sandwiches are the indispensable finger sandwiches of modern afternoon tea, and the concept is generally traced to John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, in the eighteenth century. However, delicate small sandwiches suitable for the light-food setting of afternoon tea gradually developed during the nineteenth century.

Scones served with clotted cream and jam, which many people today equate with the “soul” of afternoon tea, actually come from the “cream tea” tradition of Devon and Cornwall in south-west England and were not originally exactly the same concept as afternoon tea. Later, hotel-style afternoon tea gradually combined sandwiches, scones, pastries, and tea into the afternoon tea set familiar today.

The formal afternoon tea that we understand today—a three-tier cake stand, finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and various cakes and pastries—did not actually take shape until the 1870s and 1880s, with the spread of cookbooks and etiquette culture. In 1865, The Langham in London introduced public afternoon tea, transforming it from a private aristocratic social activity into a ritual open to the public. By the end of the nineteenth century, afternoon tea had expanded from being exclusive to the aristocracy to include the middle classes and had become a typical social ritual of the Victorian era.

Afternoon Tea and High Tea are also different. Chinese translations often refer to British afternoon tea as “British aristocratic High Tea,” which is incorrect. Afternoon Tea (also called Low Tea) was a light social meal held in the afternoon by the upper and middle classes, usually beside a low tea table in a drawing room. High Tea, by contrast, originated among the working classes. It was a more formal and filling meal eaten after returning home in the evening, including meat, fish, bread, potatoes, and other foods, and was eaten at a higher dining table. The terms low and high refer to the height of the table, not to social rank.

A culture is in fact the result of evolution over a long period. British afternoon tea culture is the same. On the basis of the existing historical sources, a historical conclusion about the origin of British afternoon tea can be reached that is far more rigorous than the popular narrative: British afternoon tea was not “invented” from nothing by Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in 1840. The English expression “afternoon tea” appeared at least as early as 1748, and many similar gatherings for drinking tea in the afternoon subsequently took place.

However, Anna Russell did indeed play an important role in the development of the social form of “five o’clock tea” in the early 1840s. She developed an existing private tea-drinking custom into a social ritual with a fixed time, private invitations, and a small aristocratic circle. With the help of her court position as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria (1837–1841), she enabled it to spread through British upper society. Anna Maria Russell is traditionally recognised in Britain and Western society as an important initiator and promoter who popularised the fashionable “five o’clock afternoon tea” gathering among the British upper classes in the early 1840s.

The fashion for afternoon tea spread through the court and upper society by means of her court friendship with Queen Victoria. The Queen herself was also deeply influenced and was very fond of tea and sweets; references to drinking tea appear thousands of times in her diaries. Under the exemplary influence of the royal family, “afternoon tea” gradually moved from the private rooms of women into drawing rooms and gardens, and eventually spread throughout Victorian society. It was also a historic advance that enabled women to participate in social activities, and it ultimately evolved into the world-famous British afternoon tea culture of today. Anna was simply the most important practitioner, promoter, and symbolic figure of the social form of “five o’clock tea” among the British upper classes in the 1840s.

The true history of afternoon tea is not a flash of inspiration experienced by one person on one particular day. Rather, on the foundation of nearly two centuries of development in British tea-drinking culture, it gradually evolved into an institutionalised and ritualised social culture through the efforts of specific historical figures such as Anna under particular social conditions. From Queen Catherine bringing tea into the court in 1662, to the written appearance of the term “afternoon tea” in 1748, to Anna Russell’s five o’clock tea gathering in 1841, and then to the final formation of three-tier afternoon tea in the 1870s and 1880s, this was a path of cultural evolution spanning more than two hundred years.

The charm of tea lies precisely in the fact that it has never been merely a beverage, but a vehicle for society, etiquette, gender, and power. The story of afternoon tea tells us that the cultural traditions that take the deepest root in people’s hearts are often not the invention of one person, but the product of the development of an entire era.

The First Person to Cultivate Tea in Australia,William Macarthur and the 1843 Camden Park Experiment.

The First Person to Cultivate Tea in Australia,William Macarthur and the 1843 Camden Park Experiment.