Read the excerpt from "Early Victorian Tea Set” by Neil MacGregor. As it got cheaper, tea also spread rapidly to the working classes. By 1800, as foreigners remarked, it was the new national drink. By 1900 the average tea consumption per person in Britain was a staggering 6 lbs (3 kilograms) a year. In 1809 the Swede Erik Gustav Geijer commented: Next to water, tea is the Englishman’s proper element. All classes consume it . . . in the morning one may see in many places small tables set up under the open sky, around which coal-carters and workmen empty their cups of delicious beverage. How does Geijer’s comment support MacGregor’s point? It describes the way tea became popular in Great Britain. It shows how many wars were started as tea became desired. It illustrates the popularity of tea in Britain during the 1800s. It argues that tea is not originally from Great Britain.
