
A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in the world (2017) - Tomte
http://kottke.org/17/05/a-history-of-tea-the-second-most-consumed-beverage-in-the-world
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themagician
I prefer the greentext history:

> Tea is the coolest thing in human history.

> Grows in China, only really exported to Japan.

> 1500s, some dues bring it to Europe.

> Britain goes fucking nuts for it.

> Start naval empire for the sole purposes of buying tea.

> Britain buys all the tea in China for all it’s silver bullion, utterly
> bankrupting itself.

> Britain gets China addicted to opium to balance debt. Ha.

> China gets pissed, colossal war ensues.

> Meanwhile Brits decide they want sugar in their tea, basically kick start
> the slave trade in earnest.

> Stick sugar plantations all over Americas.

> Kill half of the people in Africa just to grow that sweet, sweet sugar.

> Blitz through India, be like, “Grow tea or everyone dies.”

> okay.jpg

> China’s fucked, broke from opium wars, monopoly on tea gone,

> Africa’s fucked, millions dead, millions in chains halfway around the world.

> The Americas rolling in wealth because of slavery and plantations.

> Everyone and their mum now drinks tea, Brtis make mad bank.

> Wake up to drink sweet brew every morning, imagine the untold amount of
> violence that went into that cup.

~~~
qrbLPHiKpiux
This post looks like copy pasta from /pol

Lol

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chrisseaton
That's what "the greentext history" means.

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elliotec
Weird to post this youtube video embedded on kottke as if it was a post from
kottke, here's the original TedEd video on youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20)

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philshem
Maybe the mods can fix the link

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gumby
Also add warning [video]

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Tomte
Why do you care a video is embedded?

If it autoplays, fix your web browser. No modern browser autoplays video
anymore.

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gumby
I am not interested in links that contain no text, and I am not alone.

~~~
HNLurker2
Text is superior to video. This fuels my hatred for bad essays on YouTube
(which they don't even mention that they are highschool lever essays) and a
lot of video editing and then people go nuts and +1 million views

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vram22
How come no one has mentioned Russia and samovars yet? Heh.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar)

From the above article:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Samovar_at_a_Kerala-
sty...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Samovar_at_a_Kerala-
style_tea_shop_in_Bengaluru,_India,_April_2019.jpg)

I have seen such vessels in roadside tea shops in India, but probably did not
know at the time that they were samovars or were similar to them. I've only
read about samovars in Russian novels by authors like Gorki, Chekhov and
others.

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Synaesthesia
One of the interesting facts I read about was the invention of chai tea
(spiced tea) for the Indian market. Which was invented by the British as a way
to convince the Indians to drink tea.

Traditionally Indians had drunk spiced coffee, not tea and it took a long time
to force them off of it!

~~~
thaumasiotes
> the invention of chai tea (spiced tea)

For the record, "chai" is just the word for tea; spices are not implied. It
does not seem to have been introduced by the British, who knew it as "cha"
very early and "tea" for most of their tea-relevant history; the "chai" form
comes from Persia.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#Etymology)

But the British did give it a promotional campaign, during which they fought
against the native tendency to add spices:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#History)

~~~
sampo
"Tea" if by sea, "cha" if by land.

[https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-
land...](https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-land-and-sea-
to-conquer-the-world/)

~~~
keiferski
No mention of Polish in that article. The word for tea in Polish is “herbata”
which is unique, apparently.

~~~
taejo
The "ta" in "herbata" has the same origin as "tea".

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syockit
Sometimes I wonder how the Chinese felt about the blatant IP theft by the
British ages ago. I however am grateful for the fact that tea became more
accessible due to that. We wouldn't have Assam and Darjeeling otherwise.

~~~
NotPaidToPost
I think they felt more strongly about being forced to accept opium on penalty
of being bombed.

The thing is that they remember all those things while people in the West are
oblivious to them.

~~~
codeproject
"The thing is that they remember all those things while people in the West are
oblivious to them." You are so right. Opium wars is major part of history
books. Every educated Chinese( or not so educated ones) knows this part of
history. There is this "they wronged us" mindset right or wrong. A lot of
conflicts come from this.

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diminish
It's still Water, mineral water, tea and your occasional local favorite
beverage against Cola & co.

~~~
smcl
Coffee too, surely

~~~
ianai
I wonder if Coca Cola or Pepsi would be palpable without any sugar - maybe
sans fizz as well.

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benj111
My guess for most consumed beverage was a toss up between water or Coke. There
is still hope, it's water.

[http://www.haleysdailyblog.com/9-most-consumed-beverages-
aro...](http://www.haleysdailyblog.com/9-most-consumed-beverages-around-the-
world/)

~~~
mongol
Interesting. When does water turn from liquid to beverage? Is it when I pour
it in a drinking glass? Because I guess when it is used to flush the toilet it
is not a beverage?

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hurrdurr2
It turns into a beverage for your dog.

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edoceo
Please don't let your dog get into that habit. They might end up drinking from
chemically treated toilets (like in-tank or under rim discs). Those aren't for
flavour!

