WI: Tea was cultivated in Europe?

[hirsch91]

Europeans in the past spent vast quantities of silver to import tea from China, so much that they made a good chunk of the Chinese population drug addicts. But what if Europe started cultivating their own tea?

According to this data, and mind you this is after centuries of global warming rather than data from back then, there's a few suitable areas in modern European climate. If taken into consideration the requirements for growing tea a hardiness 8 or warmer zone, acidic soil and at least 127cm of rainfall per year, tea could be cultivated in Dalmatia, Istria, western Slovenia, northwestern Italy, north/central Portugal and Spanish Galicia and northern Spain in general among some other places. For the sake of the argument, these are the places tea could have been cultivated in centuries ago.

So what if Europeans cultivated their own tea? Would Europe still make the Chinese addicted to opium given that a lot of the tea, silk and porcelain demand could be produced in Europe? What would they be spending that silver on? What would be the social and economic impact on China? I read that beer was a staple food for peasants in Europe back in the day (see Bavarian beer riot), would tea become a viable alternative? Would tea culture replace beer culture in Europe?

Average annual precipitation

Average annual precipitation in the EEA area

www.eea.europa.eu

Germany Interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Plant Hardiness Zones for Germany Cities and Towns Mapped

www.plantmaps.com

Precipitation in Europe mapped - Vivid Maps

In Europe, the most precipitation falls in the north, least of all in the south. Of the major cities in Europe, the largest number of rainy days is observed in Glasgow, the least - in Spanish Almeria.

vividmaps.com

 

[Analytical Engine]

First, you have to get the tea out of China. Which is easier said than done. For instance, getting the secret of silk out of China was a whole Mission Impossible type thing.

 

[hirsch91]

First, you have to get the tea out of China. Which is easier said than done. For instance, getting the secret of silk out of China was a whole Mission Impossible type thing.

Didn't some Scottish merchant IOTL smuggle tea out of China which was used to set up tea plantations in Assam, India?

 

[Analytical Engine]

Didn't some Scottish merchant IOTL smuggle tea out of China which was used to set up tea plantations in Assam, India?

There was also a native strain of tea in Assam that was hybridised with Chinese tea.

Also, India was convenient because (A) it had a suitable climate, and (B) it was ruled by Britain at the time.

 

[marcinL]

First, you have to get the tea out of China. Which is easier said than done. For instance, getting the secret of silk out of China was a whole Mission Impossible type thing.

Then maybe get it from Japan or some other place

 

[Analytical Engine]

Then maybe get it from Japan or some other place

Enterprising Buddhist monks this time, instead of Christian ones.

 

[alexmilman]

Europeans in the past spent vast quantities of silver to import tea from China, so much that they made a good chunk of the Chinese population drug addicts. But what if Europe started cultivating their own tea?

According to this data, and mind you this is after centuries of global warming rather than data from back then, there's a few suitable areas in modern European climate. If taken into consideration the requirements for growing tea a hardiness 8 or warmer zone, acidic soil and at least 127cm of rainfall per year, tea could be cultivated in Dalmatia, Istria, western Slovenia, northwestern Italy, north/central Portugal and Spanish Galicia and northern Spain in general among some other places. For the sake of the argument, these are the places tea could have been cultivated in centuries ago.

So what if Europeans cultivated their own tea? Would Europe still make the Chinese addicted to opium given that a lot of the tea, silk and porcelain demand could be produced in Europe? What would they be spending that silver on? What would be the social and economic impact on China? I read that beer was a staple food for peasants in Europe back in the day (see Bavarian beer riot), would tea become a viable alternative? Would tea culture replace beer culture in Europe?

Average annual precipitation

Average annual precipitation in the EEA area

www.eea.europa.eu

Germany Interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Plant Hardiness Zones for Germany Cities and Towns Mapped

www.plantmaps.com

Precipitation in Europe mapped - Vivid Maps

In Europe, the most precipitation falls in the north, least of all in the south. Of the major cities in Europe, the largest number of rainy days is observed in Glasgow, the least - in Spanish Almeria.

vividmaps.com

List is not complete. Tea is also being grown in Krasnodar region, Russia, and in Georgia.

 

[alexmilman]

Europeans in the past spent vast quantities of silver to import tea from China, so much that they made a good chunk of the Chinese population drug addicts. But what if Europe started cultivating their own tea?

According to this data, and mind you this is after centuries of global warming rather than data from back then, there's a few suitable areas in modern European climate. If taken into consideration the requirements for growing tea a hardiness 8 or warmer zone, acidic soil and at least 127cm of rainfall per year, tea could be cultivated in Dalmatia, Istria, western Slovenia, northwestern Italy, north/central Portugal and Spanish Galicia and northern Spain in general among some other places. For the sake of the argument, these are the places tea could have been cultivated in centuries ago.

So what if Europeans cultivated their own tea? Would Europe still make the Chinese addicted to opium given that a lot of the tea, silk and porcelain demand could be produced in Europe?

AFAIK, you are talking not about “Europe” in general but specifically about Britain, the only European country in the XIX century that had access to the big quantities of opium (grown in India).

What would they be spending that silver on? What would be the social and economic impact on China? I read that beer was a staple food for peasants in Europe back in the day (see Bavarian beer riot), would tea become a viable alternative? Would tea culture replace beer culture in Europe?

Again, you are talking about specific areas of Europe, not Europe in general, and why one thing should replace another? For example, in Russian Empire beer and tea coexisted.

Average annual precipitation

Average annual precipitation in the EEA area

www.eea.europa.eu

Germany Interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Plant Hardiness Zones for Germany Cities and Towns Mapped

www.plantmaps.com

Precipitation in Europe mapped - Vivid Maps

In Europe, the most precipitation falls in the north, least of all in the south. Of the major cities in Europe, the largest number of rainy days is observed in Glasgow, the least - in Spanish Almeria.

vividmaps.com

 

[McLuvin]

>Tea is cultivated in Europe

Okay, yeah there would be a unified European Empire under the British.

The French would work the Tea Fields.

 

[TrickyApe]

List is not complete. Tea is also being grown in Krasnodar region, Russia, and in Georgia.

All over the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey too, which isn't quite Europe but close enough for the thesis. All of these regions were only introduced to tea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries though, part of the same movement that resulted in so much tea cultivation in British India.

 

[alexmilman]

All over the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey too, which isn't quite Europe but close enough for the thesis. All of these regions were only introduced to tea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries though, part of the same movement that resulted in so much tea cultivation in British India.

Yes, of course. IIRC, production in the Russian Empire started after the Brits began cultivation of their own.

 

[unprincipled peter]

Isn't tea rather labor intensive? India has the masses. Europe was getting overpopulated, but a lot of that excess found it advantageous to migrate to the Americas. There was Chinese migration, but they weren't as accepted as the Europeans.

I'm guessing that then, as now, it's more economical to produce in Asia than more first world regions.

 

[marcinL]

All over the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey too, which isn't quite Europe but close enough for the thesis. All of these regions were only introduced to tea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries though, part of the same movement that resulted in so much tea cultivation in British India.

Maybe some tea-addicted Mongol princeling could bring it there?

 

[Sevarics]

The easy answer is probably for Europeans to bring Yaupon from North America over to Europe but for that to happen, they would have to not misunderstand the Native American ritual and mistakenly believe the drink causes you to vomit.

Not exactly tea but similar enough.

 

[alexmilman]

Maybe some tea-addicted Mongol princeling could bring it there?

The tea was well-known for quite a while but to buy it and cultivate it are two different things.

 

[Metempsychosis]

The tea was well-known for quite a while but to buy it and cultivate it are two different things.

Maybe he's just that tea-obsessed.

 

[Arkenfolm]

The easy answer is probably for Europeans to bring Yaupon from North America over to Europe but for that to happen, they would have to not misunderstand the Native American ritual and mistakenly believe the drink causes you to vomit.

Not exactly tea but similar enough.

Yerba mate from the Spanish Empire would be easier, precisely because of the lack of that ritual and higher caffeine content in the semi-wild plant.

 

[alexmilman]

Maybe he's just that tea-obsessed.

Getting it from China in exchange for something of value seemingly was not a problem for anybody but the Brits.

 

[Metempsychosis]

Getting it from China in exchange for something of value seemingly was not a problem for anybody but the Brits.

Doesn't need to be a British exclusive to take luxury items and grow them for yourself. Hell, the Byzantines did it with silk, so why not tea for Mongol descendants?

 

[DJ03]

Maybe he's just that tea-obsessed.

Getting it from China in exchange for something of value seemingly was not a problem for anybody but the Brits.

maybe he's obsessed w/ the plant rather than the beverage?
camellia sinensis makes for some quite nice looking, evergreen shrubs. I could see a mongolian princeling wanting some to decorate their winter quarters.
the only problem I can see is that I'm not sure the varieties used for tea are the winter flowering ones (which I suppose would be the preferred kind).

then there's the issues of starting and scaling up commercial production of leaves and, most importantly, taste! no point cultivating the camellias if customers prefer the imported product