Tea History & New Bedford, Massachusetts
Tea in many ways is the history of people. Tea goes back more than 5,000 years where it was first discovered in China. From China, tea has influenced the entire world as perhaps no other food agricultural product has. Now many countries produce tea, with the very best teas coming from China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, with other countries producing some excellent teas, such as Kenya, Indonesia, et. al..
Tea is the most consumed beverage in the world, and thus greatly affecting the lives of many people in many countries. Tea was in Japan over 1,200 years ago, as well as in the holdings of the Mongolian & Ottoman Empires. The Portuguese navigators found tea in the 1500s & the Dutch capitalized on it as did the English. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York in America), probably had tea prior to England. Tea reached the shores of England just after being introduced to Europe. The British truly institutionalized tea throughout its society & empire, as no other country did. Supposedly, Winston Churchill once said tea was more important than bullets. After the British East India Company was dissolved in 1833 tea became more widely popular, and the era of the clipper ships began.
New Bedford, Massachusetts was twice in its history the richest city in the world, per capita. First because New Bedford was once the whaling capital of the world. The New Bedford whaling ships traveled the world in search of whales for the riches they would bring. Whaling ships were used to also bring in tea. In fact two whaling ships owned by the Rotch family were leased out to the British East India Company that were used in Sam Adams' Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, the Dartmouth & the Beaver. The sale of tea imports into Massachusetts helped finance the next industry that would make New Bedford again the richest city in the world, per capita, the textile industry...
Barrows Tea Company is proud to carry on the continuing history of tea in New Bedford. The Barrows family has had its roots in the New Bedford area since 1623. Sam Barrows, graduated with a degree in U.S. National Park History from Colorado State University in 1979. He eventually fell into the tea industry for his occupation because he and his brothers only drank tea when they were growing up. In many ways Barrows Tea Company has been a pioneer in the American tea industry, with our introduction of single estate teas beginning in 1984 and with our introduction in early 1992 with a unique round unbleached tea bag product line. Now, in 1998, Barrows Tea Company is introducing its organic tea bag product line that will, as all of its products are, be the finest in the world!!!!