There are a million different types of tea but predictably enough as the most Scottish tour guide going, my favourite is Scottish breakfast tea. It is hearty, it blends surprisingly well with whisky (only on very special occasions), and it is just the perfect way to start a day of taking in the country. But most are aware of English breakfast tea and not aware of Scottish breakfast tea. It’s less available overseas than English breakfast tea and many might be tempted to think it’s just branding, right? Tea is tea. Surely it’s all the same. That’s where you’re wrong. Today we’re talking about Scottish breakfast tea, what it is, how it differs to English, and we might look at a couple other breakfast teas. It’s a story which involves war and colonialism. Quite a lot to take in with your morning cuppa.
So let’s explore tea together.
Is Scottish breakfast tea grown in Scotland?
No.
Easy answer
Scottish breakfast tea is not grown in Scotland anymore than Yorkshire tea is grown in Yorkshire. What Scottish breakfast tea is is a blend of different tea leaves. Plants grow differently in different conditions. Just as how different regions exist for coffee and wine. Soil condition, weather, as well as differences in the plant itself. So breakfast teas are all different.
What is breakfast tea?
Black tea is the most popular tea type in the UK, and breakfast tea is essentially in this mix. It is said that the blend came about when by a Scottish merchant named Robert Drysdale in 19th-century America and on looking up the name Robert Drysdale I learnt he’s also a present day Brazilian-American jiu-jitsu expert.
I would have to assume that’s a different Robert Drysdale! A testament to how Scots have travelled the world, often peacefully, and made communities everywhere.
On further research, the jiu-jitsu Drysdale is the only one famous enough to have a Wikipedia page. Fortunately, it was also written about in a book called Breakfast: A History by Heather Arndt Anderson so we know it’s not a collective hallucination and Drysdale existed. You can read more here.
English Breakfast: cheap tea
Tea was a bit of a luxury. It was expensive because it came from all over the world. Imported goods are quite expensive even with the advent of globalisation in the 19th-century. You once had to get your tea from a tea merchant and blend it yourself, or pay a tea expert who could do it for you.
Breakfast tea was designed to be cheap. Interesting that it has turned out so popular then compared to more expensive teas but cheap thrills are often great value for money.
How is Scottish breakfast tea different?
Our breakfast tea is different because our water is different. The water of Scotland is often softer than the water in England. This is due to the low levels of chalk in the soil in comparison to England. It requires giving tea something a bit stronger to give it a proper kick.
Our tea blends often have a bit more of China in them.
What’s China doing in the tea?
China did not ask to be put in Scottish breakfast tea. Robert Fortune – amazing name by the way – was a Scottish botanist and world traveller. Fortune is credited with introducing many plants to various parts of the world, including Edinburgh’s Botanical Gardens.
He also broke the rules in China. Westerners were limited to the treaty ports forced on China by the unequal treaties. The Chinese government did not want Westerners going deeper into the mainland and had laws preventing this.
Robert Fortune went in disguise. He explored interior China, and stole secrets of tea creation.
Chinese tea brews differently and the leaves are in the mix in Scottish breakfast blends.
Oh, dear
It gets worse. The Opium Wars are in the mix. Britain developed a significant trade imbalance with China, and at the time trade imbalances were especially bad. They could deplete gold reserves. (Today it is different because currency doesn’t really exist but that’s a topic for a whole other article.)
Anyway, the British Empire started dealing drugs. Opium flooded into China because it could be grown very easily in India, sold in China, and the gold reserves remained flush.
The Opium Wars resulted in part because of the crazy desire for Chinese tea. It seems particularly offensive that not only did the British Empire get China addicted to drugs to buy tea, but then a Scottish botanist stole their tea growing secrets to then grow more tea in India.
How do you address history like this?
Well, personally, nobody in my family was involved in the tea trade and looking into genealogy we had not much role in the British Empire. But it does feel very embarrassing that my fellow Scots were involved in it so deeply and especially in such a horrible way.
These days the relationship between Scotland and China is a lot better than in previous days. We still love their tea, nowadays the Chinese absolutely adore our whisky and have become a huge market for us. And nowadays we can sit down and have a whisky and tea, together.
The writer of this piece feels like a strong cup of something.
If you’d like to know more about who we are and what we are doing, there’s a handy section of the website labelled About which I’ve also linked to right there.
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