The True History of Tea by Erling Hoh

Author:Erling Hoh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2012-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

The Muse’s friend, tea does our fancy aid,

Repress those vapours which the head invade,

And keep the palace of the soul serene,

Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen.33

Other than the coffee houses, pharmacies were the main outlet for tea, which was largely viewed as a medicine, and no sooner had the exotic novelty drink from the Far East begun to circulate in Europe than medical professionals aligned themselves in two diametrically opposed camps: one that believed tea to be a panacea for all ills, and one that derided tea as a dangerous foreign herb detrimental to human health. The first salvo was fired in 1635 by the German physician Simon Paulli, who wrote: “As to the virtues they attribute to it, it may be admitted that it does possess them in the Orient, but it loses them in our climates, where it becomes, on the contrary, very dangerous to use. It hastens the death of those that drink it, especially if they have passed the age of forty years.”

In 1641, the renowned Dutch physician Nikolas Dirx, under the pseudonym Nikolas Tulp, responded with an equally unequivocal endorsement: “Nothing is comparable to this plant. Those who use it are for that reason, alone, exempt from all maladies and reach an extreme old age. Not only does it procure great vigor for their bodies, but it preserves them from gravel [aggregations of crystals formed in the urinary tract] and gallstone, headaches, colds, ophthalmia, catarrh, asthma, sluggishness of the stomach, and intestinal troubles.”34 Subsequently, the learned doctor Guy Patin of Paris joined the fray, denouncing tea as “the newest impertinence of the century.” The Dutch physician Cornelis Decker, popularly known as Dr. Bontekoe (a name he adopted himself from a sign near his father’s shop; it means “spotted cow”), outdid everybody in his Treatise on the Excellent Herb Tea by recommending up to 200 cups per day. Not surprisingly, the records of the Dutch East India Company reveal that Dr. Bontekoe received a substantial reward for his role in boosting the sales of tea.

Much of the first tea imported to Europe came from Japan, where Portuguese missionaries led by the Jesuit François Xavier had in the 16th century brought about the most dramatic conversion to Christianity since the conversion of Ireland by St. Patrick. By 1582, 150,000 Japanese had converted, worshiping in some 200 churches, and Christian samurai generals went to battle flying crosses on their banners. Then, in 1587, Hideyoshi, the Japanese leader who had ordered Sen Rikyū’s seppuku, angered by the pomposity of the Portuguese prelates and sensing the entrenchment of an alien force outside his control, suddenly ordered the expulsion of all missionaries and the brutal persecution of all believers. The Japanese displayed as much ingenuity as the Romans had, crucifying Christians upside down in tidal flats, where they were slowly drowned by the incoming tide.

By 1638, the Portuguese had been completely expelled, leaving the Dutch with a monopoly on Japan’s trade with the West that lasted until 1853. Alongside

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