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Tea was first introduced to Europe by Italian traveler Giovanni Battista Ramusio, who in 1555 published Voyages and Travels, containing the first European reference to tea, which he calls "Chai Catai"; his accounts were based on second-hand reports in the polities of the Gulf of Aden; Yemen and Somalia. [citation needed]
Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century. [13] During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in British India. The term herbal tea refers to drinks not made from Camellia sinensis.
The Dutch first introduced tea to England in 1644. [27] By the 19th century, most British tea was purchased directly from merchants in Canton, whose population uses cha, the English however kept its Dutch-derived Min word for tea, although char is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the drink in British English (see below).
Tea was introduced from China to Europe in the 17th century, but, as a luxury item, was not transported in significant quantities until the 19th century. China was the main centre of production until late in the 19th century.
Portugal was the first to introduce the practise of drinking tea to Europe and the first European country to produce tea. [ 64 ] In 1750, terrains ranging from the fields of Capelas to those of Porto Formoso on the island of São Miguel were used for the first trial crops of tea, delivering 10 kg (22 lb) of black tea and 8 kg (18 lb) of green tea.
The culinary fashion of European elites changed considerably in this period. Typically medieval spices like galangal and grains of paradise were no longer seen in recipes. . Updated recipes still had the strong acidic flavors of earlier centuries, but by the 1650s new innovative recipes blending subtle savory flavors like herbs and mushrooms could be found in Parisian cookboo
Cereals remained the most important staple during the Early Middle Ages as rice was introduced to Europe late, with the potato first used in the 16th century, and much later for the wider population. Barley , oats , and rye were eaten by the poor while wheat was generally more expensive.
The trade was changed by the Crusades and later the European Age of Discovery, [4] during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper, became an influential activity for European traders. [5] From the 11th to the 15th centuries, the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa monopolized the trade between Europe and Asia. [ 6 ]