History of Tea in EuropeItalian explorer Marco Polo’s father was a merchant trader. Nicolo Polo and his brother, Maffio, traveled to the Mongol capital Khanbaliq (now Beijing, China) and visited with Kubla Khan in 1264. In 1274 the brothers returned to Khanbaliq accompanied by young Marco. They spent the next seventeen years there. The Mongols had been drinking tea since the 8th century. Though many accounts of tea history acclaim that it was a Portuguese Jesuit Father, Jasper de Cruz, who as a missionary in China was the first European to personally encounter tea and write about it in 1560, Marco Polo mentioned tea many times in his stories that became “The Travels of Marco Polo, Venetian” two and a half centuries earlier.
In 1516 the Portuguese discovered the sea route to the East. They established a trading station in Macao. In 1597 the Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Linschooten made reference to tea in his travel journal. Dutch ships transported tea to France, Holland and the Baltic regions. Holland and Portugal were political affiliates at that time. In 1602 Holland entered into Pacific trade on her own with an exceptional Navy. Tea became very fashionable with the wealthy in the Dutch capital, the Hague. It was expensive, over $100 per pound. As more tea was imported, the price fell and it became a vailable to the public. It was sold in apothecary jars along with spices such as ginger and sugar. At this time, France and Holland led Europe in the consumption of tea. It was a way of life in Holland. Dutch inns were the first restaurant service of tea. Tavern owners furnished their guests with tea sets so the Dutchman could prepare tea for himself and his associates outside the tavern. The popularity of the beverage in France lasted only about fifty years. It was replaced by a preference for wine, chocolate and exotic coffee.
The Great Britain and other European nations didn’t receive permission to trade with China until 1685.
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