Tea Fact Friday

Hello welcome to Tea Fact Friday:
Today's fact is about the London Tea Auctions which operated from 1679 - 1998. The world's first tea auctions began as quarterly events controlled by the East India Company. In 1835 they became independent from company control. By the mid 19th century tea had become so popular that auctions took place monthly and ultimately, weekly. Tea was sent from India, China, Sri Lanka and Africa for sale at the auction and as the auction grew busier a practice developed of devoting particular days of the week to the sale of teas from each individual country. By the 1950's, a third of all the world's tea was bought through these auctions. The sales finally ended because tea was increasingly being auctioned in the producing countries.

Thanks to James Norwood Pratt, Tea Dictionary, Tea Society Press, San Francisco, CA. Printed in India, 2010