The consumption of tea in France dates back to the seventeenth century, and has been growing slowly ever since. The market is highly fragmented, with upmarket tea brands building up an image of "French tea" that is easily exported.
Tea arrived in France during the reign of Louis XIII, at the same time as other luxury colonial products, chocolate, and coffee, and gained in popularity with the arrival of Jules Mazarin at court, who attributed medicinal virtues to tea. The price was high, however, and tea was reserved for the aristocracy, who were not content just to drink it: it was also used as a smoking plant, salad herb, or ointment ingredient. The use of milk in tea developed at the French court, as the hot liquid could damage porcelain cups. During the French Revolution, tea was seen as a luxury product and its consumption was discouraged. Under the Second Empire, Anglomania gave a new lease of life to tea consumption, and Empress Eugenie opened a private tea room inspired by the literary salons of the previous century. Other French tea rooms, open to the public, appeared at the same time, including Ladurée. Tea began to be consumed throughout France but was still reserved for the notables. In the 19th century, the working classes took up the habit of boiling water to protect themselves against cholera epidemics and became accustomed to tea competing with coffee. The end of the 19th century was marked by the Japanese movement and the fascination of Parisian cultural elites with the Far East, which gave tea a new lease of life. Black tea dominated French consumption until the 1970s before fragrant teas took over until the beginning of the 21st century, when the trend was to return to green tea, seen as natural and healthy.
Tea production in the 19th century was colonial, mainly in Indochina. An attempt at acclimatization in French Guiana was unsuccessful. Attempts were made to produce tea in France during the century, but specimens remained confined to botanical gardens. An attempt to produce tea on Reunion Island was abandoned in 1972 and not resumed until the beginning of the 21st century, while local experiments were organized in Brittany and Nantes. While French production remains anecdotal, French tea houses enjoy a good reputation. Several major brands, such as Kusmi Tea, Mariage Frères and Dammann Frères, process tea in France, before shipping it to Europe or Japan.
History
Aristocratic period: from the 17th century to the French Revolution
Tea has been consumed in France since the reign of Louis XIII, on par with other colonial luxury products such as chocolate and coffee. Sources differ as to its precise introduction: either via the Dutch, who received their first shipment of tea in Amsterdam in 1610 and then redistributed it in Europe, or directly by the Jesuits, notably Alexandre de Rhodes, a missionary sent to China from 1618 to 1653. Jules Mazarin's arrival at court increased tea's popularity among the aristocracy: tea was thought to have cured his gout, and French medical treatises of the seventeenth century constantly extolled the merits of tea. However, due to its high price, doctors looked for alternatives among European plants, such as sage or veronica officinalis. In the 17th century, the use of tea in France was not limited to drinking. It was also consumed as a smoking plant, salad herb, or used in onguent.
It was at the French court that the custom of adding milk to tea was first established: pouring a few cold drops into the porcelain cup beforehand protects the object from the thermal shock of pouring hot tea.
Tea was imported from China via Holland until 1700, which marked the return of the ship L'Amphitrite from China and the start of direct imports. In Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, the Jesuits report that they sought to directly develop the tea trade between China and France, notably through the establishment of trading posts in Canton, but that this operation collapsed in the 18th century due to the hostility of the Chinese towards them. Meanwhile, French imports of Chinese tea, via the port of Lorient, reached 1,000 tons in 1766 and increased 400-fold between 1693 and 1785. During the Regency and the reign of Louis XV, the consumption of chocolate (claimed to be an aphrodisiac) and coffee (due to the literary cafés) increased in France more than that of tea. Queen Marie Leszczynska received a Japanese porcelain and French gold set containing tea, chocolate and coffee for the birth of the Dauphin, now kept in the Louvre. Tea was more popular at the court of the Duchy of Lorraine, where Stanislas Leszczynski's physician recommended tea to him and where Turkish and Chinese exoticism was in fashion. Stanislas's confectioner, Joseph Gilliers, recommended choosing leaves that had "a violet taste and smell", boiling them for 15 minutes in water, possibly enriched with two slices of lemon, and drinking the mixture with a sugar loaf.
During the French Revolution, tea, synonymous with luxury and the gulf separating the upper classes from the rest of society, was decried and its consumption discouraged.
Rediscovery: Anglomania, Japonism, colonial and popular consumption
In the 19th century, and more particularly during the Second Empire, Anglomania gave a new lease of life to the consumption of Tea. The Empress Eugénie de Montijo's private tea room provided an opportunity to bring together the intellectuals of the day (Gustave Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Auguste Delacroix, Gustave Doré, Louis Pasteur... ), in the manner of the literary salons of the previous century; it thus served to anchor a filiation between the Second Empire and the French monarchy, this filiation being reaffirmed in the revival of the aesthetic of Marie-Antoinette of Austria and enriched by an assumed celebration of colonial riches.
Other French-style tearooms, open to the public, appeared in Paris. These included Ladurée, where tea, other non-alcoholic beverages, and pastries were served to a predominantly female clientele. These tea rooms enabled well-to-do women to get out of the house without having to frequent the socially disreputable cafés and bistros of the time. This service was later extended to the grand palaces of Paris but remained confined to provincial notables and the capital's bourgeois arrondissements: 7th, 8th, and 16th. Tea was also consumed by the wealthy in Biarritz and on the Mediterranean Riviera, and was reserved for medical use in other social classes. The spread of tea to the less affluent classes was very slow, driven in part by the need to boil water before consumption to protect against the cholera epidemic that raged throughout the 19th century but slowed by competition from coffee, which was abundantly produced in the French colonies.
France wanted to develop tea production in its colonies, particularly in Indochina, to meet the needs of three categories of consumers: those in Indochina, who imported their tea from China; those in North Africa, who imported English green tea; and finally, those in mainland France, who imported British black tea. For the French, local production was of very poor quality, and it seemed necessary to establish new plantations run by colonists.
An attempt to grow tea in French Guiana, an underdeveloped colony where colonists saw their enrichment diminish with the banning of the slave trade in 1815, failed miserably: around 30 Chinese and Malays, drawn from the Manila community, were hired and settled in 1820 in a dwelling on the Kaw marshes. However, the project had not been properly planned, as the question of whether the site was suitable for growing tea had not been asked, while the workers were installed in poor conditions and subjected to ill treatment. The majority died of disease in this unhealthy environment, with four survivors being brought back to Asia in 1835.
In the 19th century, tea imports to France fluctuated sharply: 150 tons in 1829, 46 tons in 1830, 87 tons in 1831, and 231 tons in 1842. The method of preparing tea evolved: first, the crockery, teapot, and cup were heated with boiling water, then 4 grams of tea per guest were poured into the teapot, which was covered entirely with boiling water and left to infuse for 6 to 8 minutes; water was then added to make enough for all guests, and sugar, tea and two spoonfuls of cream were poured into each cup. Metal teapots, especially silver ones, were considered better than porcelain ones due to their thermal conductivity, and it was recommended to store tea in tin or lead tins. Attempts were made to produce tea in France during the 19th century, but specimens remained confined to botanical gardens, in part those of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle and the Orangerie du Luxembourg.m 5.
The end of the 19th century was marked by the Japanese movement and the fascination of Parisian cultural elites with the Far East, as exemplified by their frequentation of the Porte chinoise, a tea and furniture store frequented by Zola, Baudelaire, Champfleury, Cernushi, Manet, Degas, Monet and Fantin-Latour.
The 1900 Universal Exhibition was an opportunity for France to discover Ceylon tea, which took on an image of exoticism and quality. At the beginning of the 20th century, tea was above all a pretext for social and social gatherings, and tea-dancing parties became increasingly popular.
In 1925, four-fifths of tea consumption in the French colonial empire was in North Africa, in the form of green tea; these 5,000 tonnes came mainly from imports, with French Indochina producing barely 500 tonnes of tea. At the end of the 1930s, numbers were relatively similar, with Indochina producing around 550 tonnes, France 1,350 tonnes, Tunisia 2,093 tonnes and Algeria 1,569 tonnes. Tea not produced in Indochina was imported from China and India. Consumption changed little until the mid-1950s (1,614 tons in France, 2,482 in Tunisia), except in Algeria, where it more than doubled to 3,846 tons in 1956.
When France was occupied by Germany during the Second World War, the population was hit by numerous shortages, particularly of tea. The Vichy regime claimed that these shortages were due to the blockade, but the fact that metropolitan agricultural products, such as pigs, were also in short supply led the French population to believe that it was the German occupiers who were appropriating resources. The tea shortage eases with the Churchill-Weygand agreements, under which it is decided that England will resupply North Africa with tea. An attempt to produce tea on Reunion Island was abandoned in 1972, only to be resumed at the beginning of the 21st century.
Third wind: "French tea", gastronomic approach, diversification Black tea dominated French consumption until the 1970s, then flavored teas became the most popular until the beginning of the 21st century when the trend was to return to green tea, seen as natural and healthy.
The 1980s marked a turning point for French tea, with Mariage Frères implementing a marketing strategy based on the image of French luxury, and the founding of Palais des thés, a company more focused on travel and cultural discovery. These initiatives were reinforced by a major investment in advertising by the major tea brands in the 1990s.
Tea consumption rose sharply at the turn of the 21st century, doubling from 1995 to 2005 and tripling from 1995 to 2015. Consumption is shifting more and more towards the major tea houses, as opposed to private labels, which are growing by 10% a year and remain in the majority. This growth is accompanied by a democratization of tea-shop attendance.
Consumption