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International Tea Day

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Agricultural worker picking tea. Photo by Jean Norwood, 1979. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppss.00556
Agricultural worker picking tea. Photo by Jean Norwood, 1979. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppss.00556

Settle in for a good strong cuppa because December 15 is International Tea Day!

Tea drinking began thousands of years ago in China and made its way west to Europe through Dutch trade in the sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century, the East India Company had a monopoly on the tea trade between China and Britain.

Despite a dramatic rejection of imported tea by angry colonials during the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, Americans have certainly not let history keep them from their tea in the long run!

International Tea Day has been celebrated since 2005 in an aim to draw attention to the impact of global trade on workers and growers in the tea industry.

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