Tea shop

A tearoom or tea shop is a small restaurant where beverages and light meals are served, usually having a sedate or subdued atmosphere. Establishments like this in various countries around the world can be grouped together as teahouses. This article deals with tea in the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent, other English-speaking countries.

A distinction needs to be made between two related meanings of "tea shop": a retail shop, and a place to eat and drink. Dry tea (first, loose tea leaves, and then in teabags) used to be sold at grocers' shops, and now mainly at supermarkets. One of the oldest shops that still specialises in selling tea for consumption at home is Twinings, which has been operating from the same premises in central London since it opened in 1706. The second meaning of tea shop, or more commonly tea room, as a commercial establishment selling hot drinks, and possibly something to eat, is the main subject of this article.

In a related usage, a tea room may be a room set aside in a workplace for employees to relax and specifically to take refreshment during work-breaks. Traditionally, a staff member serving hot drinks and snacks at a factory or office was called a tea lady, although this position is now almost defunct. In addition, in American English, "tearoom" is gay slang for a public toilet where men have sex (see cottaging).

Tea is a prominent feature of British culture and society. Britain has for centuries been one of the world's greatest tea consumers, and now consumes an average per capita tea supply of 1.9 kg (4.18 lbs) per year.

Shortly before the Restoration of 1660, Chinese green tea was introduced to the coffeehouses of London, which were significant places of social interaction, distinct from pubs, taverns, and inns. The owner of the coffeehouse explained the new beverage in a pamphlet: "That Excellent, and by all Physicians approved, China drink, called by the Chinese, Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee, ...sold at the Sultaness-head, ye Cophee-house in Sweetings-Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London". "Coffee, chocolate and a kind of drink called tee" were "sold in almost every street [in London] in 1659", according to Thomas Rugge's Diurnall. Tea was mainly consumed by upper and mercantile classes: Samuel Pepys, curious for every novelty, tasted the new drink in 1660 and recorded the experience in his diary for 25 September: "I did send for a cup of tee, (a China drink) of which I had never had drunk before".

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