History of Tea In France

By Mark “Dr. Tea” Ukra, Tea Expert

1. Tea made its first arrival into France from Holland in 1636.

2. England first was acquainted with tea in 1658. Please see Dr. Tea’s Time line in our Tea Library online.

3. Tea immediately became very popular in France among the rich, as was anything from the Orient. The term “patrician orientalism” was in vogue, due to the wealth associated with anything from the orient. Remember our own George Washington was a patrician orientalist.

Jules Mazarin, French diplomat and statesman

4. The most powerful man of the day in France was the religious Cardinal Mazarin. Jules Mazarin was born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino on July 14, 1602 and died March 9, 1661. He was an Italian politician who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death. Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu.

A. Louis XIII died in 1643. His successor, Louis XIV, was only a child and Mazarin functioned essentially as the ruler of France. During the regency of queen mother Anne of Austria, and until his death in 1661 at Vincennes, Mazarin effectively directed all French policy. His modest manner contrasted with the imperious Richelieu, and Anne was so fond of him and so intimate in her manner with him, that there were long-standing rumors that they had been secretly married and that the Dauphin was their offspring.

B. Cardinal Mazarin started to take tea as a patrician orientalist and for his gout. He was said to also have enjoyed the taste.

5. It is documented that Louis XIV began taking tea in 1665, as he thought it would assist with his gout. Gout was prevalent throughout Europe as a result of a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in the diet.

A. Louis XIV also took the tea because he was told the Chinese and Japanese never suffered from heart problems.

B. Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715), reigned as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death at the age of 77. He acceded to the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his First Minister ("premier ministre"), Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Louis XIV, known as The Sun King (in French Le Roi Soleil) or as Louis the Great (in French Louis le Grand, or simply Le Grand Monarque, "the Great Monarch"), ruled France for seventy-two years—the longest reign of any French or other major European monarch.

C. Louis XIV had the Chateau of Versailles outside Paris, originally a hunting lodge built by his father, converted into a spectacular royal palace; he officially moved there along with the royal court on May 6, 1682.

D. Tea was so popular in Paris during this time that it made for a great amount of amusement and Madame de Sévigné, who chronicled the doings of the Sun King and his cronies throughout his reign in a famous series of gossipy letters to her daughter, who as we read today, often found herself mentioning tea. Madame de Sévigné wrote 1,700 letters to her daughter. Her letters, which are filled with bright, sharp details, give a better insight into the times than many history books. The correspondence covers about 25 years.

Madame de Sevigne

She wrote in one of her published 1700 letters: "Saw the Princesse de Tarente who takes 12 cups of tea every day...which, she says, cures all her ills. She assured me that Monsieur de Landgrave drank 40 cups every morning. 'But Madame, perhaps it is really only 30 or so.' 'No, 40. He was dying, and it brought him back to life before our eyes.'

Madame de Sévigné also reported that it was a Frenchwoman, the Marquise de la Sablière, who initiated the fashion of adding milk to tea to save her precious porcelain from the orient, as well, "Madame de la Sablière took her tea with milk, as she told me the other day, because it was to her taste." The English, as we know delighted in this "French touch" and immediately adopted it. You see at this time during the reign of Louis XVI, everything French was in fashion in Europe and if the French took tea with milk then it was milk in tea throughout Europe.

6. During this time the French doctors got excited about tea because they saw it as a possible medicine as they were obtaining tremendous results with the use of tea for many ailments.

A. As early as 1648, a Monsieur Morisset published a treatise claiming that tea was mentally stimulating. (However, when he brought it before the faculty of medicine at the University of Paris some ardent defenders of another medicinal plant, sage, had the treatise burned!).

B. In 1657, the scientist Jonquet praised tea as the "divine herb."

C. In 1685, Philippe Sylvestre Dufour published the Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé et du Chocolat (New and Curious Treatises on Coffee, Tea and Chocolate), one of the first books in French to address tea. It extolled the leaf for its ability to cure headaches and aid digestion, and it even offered prescriptions.

7. On August 3, 1700, the French ship Amphitrite returned from China with silk, porcelain and, of course, tea. In the years that followed, the number of these ships was to increase tenfold.

8. Tea had many fervent supporters in Paris and in Versailles, where the Sun King held court. In 1714, the princess of Palatine remarked that Chinese tea was as fashionable in Paris as chocolate was in Spain.

9. By the 1770’s the Royal families under Louis XVI were coming under much scrutiny in France. The upper class were living lavishly while the masses were in poverty. The popularity of tea among the upper classes may have been the kiss of death for tea in France.

10. In 1789, a screaming mob, enraged by a noble class that did nothing but levy crippling taxes and make war, attacked the notorious Bastille prison. By the time the violence stopped, Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette were captured tried and eventually lost their heads under the sharp blades of the guillotine in front of cheering crowds.

11. Tea was the most recognized symbol of royalty. It was associated with royalty, as tea was too expensive to be consumed by the masses and as a result tea in its own way was tried and fell fate to the guillotine with the royals January 21, 1793.

12. As with everything in life, ways change. Tea's story was not over in France. 50 years after the Revolution, an Anglo mania swept the country. Everything English was now in style. Tea once again was in! Of course the price of tea by now had dropped and was now available to the masses who could also take tea. The often consumed their tea in the evening after dinner and it was accompanied by small pastries.

13. In and around the 1790’s the famous French tea importer, Mariage Frères, began to expand his business. Jean-François Mariage had been running an import firm featuring teas, spices and colonial goods in Lille, a city to the north of Paris, since the late 1700s. He trained his four sons—Louis, Aimé, Charles, and Auguste—in the family business. Aimé's sons, Henri and Edouard Mariage, in turn took up the family trade.

14. On June 1, 1854, they moved the family business to Paris and founded the Mariage Frères (Mariage Brothers) tea company, today the oldest in France. Mariage Frères quickly demonstrated what has become its trademark—interesting blends.

15. In 1860, the company came out with "Chocolat des Mandarins," a tea/chocolate blend touted as a healthy way to consume chocolate, which was considered difficult to digest but was touted as having medical benefits.

16. Today the Mariage Frères catalogue lists 213 blends among its selection of more than 500 teas. Also available are tea-flavored cookies, tea candy, tea-scented candles, and tea jellies, a French invention now found in shops from Kyoto to New York.

17. Tea is growing more and more popular in France, especially in Paris. Three "tea drinkers' clubs" meet regularly to drink and talk about tea. French tea aficionados can study their passion at the "Université du Thé" (University of Tea) and the "Ecole du Thé" (School of Tea). Nearly 145 tearooms do excellent business in Paris and more open every year.

18. Four-star chefs even use tea as an ingredient in appetizers, main courses, and desserts. French drinkers of tea pride themselves on their diverse tastes, from English-style blends to Japanese greens to Chinese whites. They practice what they call the "French art of tea," which simply consists of quality ingredients, careful preparation, and elegant presentation. Removing the leaves from the pot immediately after the tea is infused is especially considered the first principle of French tea preparation.

19. Mary Cassatt an American in France and the only woman impressionist painter continued to paint modern women after she joined the now-famous Impressionists. Just as she made her first appearance with Degas, Pissarro, and Monet in 1879, the paintings she exhibited at that show depicted young women making their own debuts at the glittering spectacle of the opera. By the 1880s, her imagery had become more domestic and interior, but no less modern. Cassatt's women engage in contemporary rituals of womanhood-whether sewing, reading or drinking tea--yet they exude a sense of dignity and purpose that challenges conventional notions of decorative femininity.

20. A marked interest for teas grown on specific estates is another hallmark of the French approach to tea. Sound familiar? You're right. The French are bringing to tea the same seriousness they have always devoted to wine. In short, tea may finally have recovered from the French Revolution and be rightfully taking its place in France!

As always, my hope is that I have provided you a little bit of knowledge on a subject that we obviously all love and in the words of the immortal comedy troop Monty Python:

"Make tea not war!!!"