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French tea culture?

France is one of the early European countries that came into contact with tea. As early as 1636, the first batch of tea arrived in Paris, France, 22 years before the earliest contact with tea in Britain. But for a long time, the per capita consumption of tea in France is far lower than that in Britain. In recent decades, a tea culture craze has quietly arisen in France, and the consumption of tea has continued to increase. At present, France is the fourth largest tea drinker in Europe, and its per capita tea consumption is second only to Ireland and Britain, and almost equal to that of Germany. However, academic circles pay little attention to French tea culture, and at present, the author has not retrieved any works that systematically discuss French tea culture. This paper makes a preliminary investigation on the evolution of French tea culture, aiming at attracting academic attention to the study of French tea culture. Please correct the shortcomings.

First, the French tea culture before the outbreak of the Great Revolution

1789 Before the French Revolution broke out, French tea culture had begun to take shape. The French tea culture in this period has typical characteristics of court nobility. Tea is regarded as a noble drink, which is basically only popular in the upper classes of society such as the court and the nobility. In the eyes of ordinary people, tea has even become a symbol of the French royal family.

(A) the early input of tea

1636, a Dutch businessman known as the "sea coachman" transported China's tea to Paris, France, and the French began to contact tea. In French, the word "tea" began to appear. As tea was first shipped to France by the Dutch, the French word "the" comes from the pronunciation of "te" in Minnan dialect in Xiamen, Fujian, just like the Dutch word "the". 1700 On August 3rd, a French ship named "Hai Hou Xing" brought back silk, porcelain and tea from China, and the direct tea trade between China and France began. Since then, the number of ships carrying tea and other goods between China and France has gradually increased. However, during this period, France's tea import trade was not independent, and most of them were imported into France together with other commodities. 1728 (the sixth year of emperor Yongzheng of Qing dynasty), France established a commercial base in Guangzhou for the first time [1](P.478), making it more convenient and quick to buy tea and other commodities from China.

(2) the upper class of society accepts tea drinking.

At the beginning of the introduction of tea into France, the medical profession once opposed drinking tea. 1648, Guipatine, an academician of French Academy of Sciences and a doctor in Paris, said that tea is a strange thing, which is not suitable for this century, and some doctors in France think that tea contains some possible medicinal ingredients, so people in the medical field started a pen war. 1648, Dr. Morrisett wrote a paper, claiming that tea has the function of mental excitement. Unfortunately, this paper was burned by some fierce officials who opposed herbs before he submitted it to the University of Paris!

Soon, the idea that drinking tea is good for health won an overwhelming victory. During the period from 1653 to 1666, the French priest Aiexander de khodes said in the Travels of Missionaries: "China people owe their health and longevity to tea, which is a common drink in the East." 1657 or so, educationist C. Serghir, medical scientist D. this Nkuete and others also strongly recommended tea, praising it as an immortal grass comparable to medicated wine and fairy medicine. 1685, Philippe Sylvester dufour published the novel "Papers on Coffee, Tea and Chocolate", which is one of the earliest French books on tea. This book praises tea as a wonderful leaf for treating headaches and helping digestion. It can even be used as a prescription.

In France, the first to accept tea was the royal nobility. When tea was first introduced to France, it was regarded as a luxury because of its high price. The royal aristocrats who drank tea generally regarded tea as a "panacea" and "elixir of life". It is said that Cardinal Mazarin, grandfather of French King Louis XIV, suffered from gout. He firmly believes that drinking tea often can relieve his illness, and drinking tea often makes him enjoy the taste of tea more and more. Louis XIV, King of the Sun, started drinking tea from 1665. He also thinks that drinking tea can help relieve gout. More interestingly, he heard that China people and Japanese people never suffer from heart disease because of drinking tea.

Due to the advocacy of the royal family, drinking tea gradually became popular in the upper class of Paris, France. Madame de Sevigne, a historian of Louis XIV, often mentioned drinking tea in his works. She once wrote: "Look at Princess Tarant ... she drinks 12 cups of tea every day ... so all her diseases are cured." She told me that Mr landgrave drinks 40 cups of tea every morning; But his wife may have drunk about 30 glasses of wine. No, 40 cups. His wife was going to die, but she came back from drinking tea and is still alive before our eyes! " [2]

/kloc-in the 0 th and 8 th centuries, the idea that drinking tea is beneficial to disease prevention and treatment is still prevalent in French upper class. 17 13 years, The Customer Account of India and China, translated by Yusè be Renaud OT (1646-1720), was published in Paris with notes and illustrations. In the book, Reno said: "China people drink tea to prevent all diseases, and Hutt also believes that tea is effective. 17 18, he published an autobiography memo, saying that tea cured his stomach trouble and ophthalmia. " [1](P.369) Tea has gradually won many enthusiastic supporters in Paris and Versailles. As Princess Palatine commented in 17 14, China's tea is as popular in Paris as Spanish people like chocolate. At that time, Mazarin, the head of the royal minister, Racine, the playwright, and Madame de Genlis, the famous writer, all became tea ceremony lovers.

(C) the initial formation of French tea culture

Compared with other European countries, French tea culture was formed earlier. The reason is that "romantic French can experience the taste and emotional appeal of tea culture from the spiritual field while accepting China tea products" [3]. As early as17th century, French upper class regarded China tea as a noble drink. When educated people drink tea together, they often discuss the brand and color of tea, and often convey tea information from China. They always try to find mysterious cultural symbols from tea itself.

In addition to tea soup, the French began to try other ways of drinking tea. Louis/Kloc-the historian de Madame de Sevigne in the 4th century once reported that Marquise de la Sabliè re began to try the method of adding milk to tea [2]. This new way of tasting tea soon spread to Britain and was greatly welcomed by British gentlemen.

In the process of drinking and tasting tea, literati began literary creation activities with tea as the object. 1709, Pierre Daniel Huth published his Latin poems in Paris, singing tea with elegies. 17 12, the French writer Peter Antoine Mitteyx wrote Ode to Tea, in which he praised Chad's way: "The joy of heaven is just the fragrance of tea, and real money is natural. Covers rapid and appropriate treatment, as well as the quality of Corning ... tea comes with wine, and the end of the war is peace. Drinking tea collectively is the nectar of God. " [1] (pages 365-366)

Second, the French tea culture from the Great Revolution to the 1960s

After the French Revolution, with the disappearance of the aristocratic class, tea was no longer regarded as an aristocratic drink, and the wind of drinking tea gradually spread among the general public. But until the 1960s, people seldom drank tea. Tea drinkers are mostly the bourgeoisie and British, American and Soviet expatriates. In the eyes of ordinary people, tea and health care drugs can be roughly equated. It is only suitable for drinking when you have a cold or indigestion, or it is a slimming drink that women drink to keep fit.

(A) tea input and tea trial planting

1. Tea import and sales

The earliest tea imported from China is green tea, followed by oolong tea, black tea, scented tea and Tuocha (brick tea). /kloc-After the 0/9th century, with the success of tea planting in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries, tea from these countries also entered the French market one after another.

/kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, tea merchants specializing in tea import trade began to appear in France. June 1854, 1, Mariage Freres Tea Company was established in Paris. The founders of the company are Henri and Edouard Mariage of Mariachi family, and their ancestors have the tradition of tea import trade. About 1700 years later, Jean-Francois Mariacci, the grandfather of Henry and Edward, began to import tea, spices and other overseas goods in Lille, north of Paris. After his death, his four sons, Louis, Aimei, Charles and August, continued to import tea and other overseas commodities. The brothers Henry and Edward are Amy's sons. Under the management of Henry and Edward brothers, the company's business is booming. In the course of operation, Mary Archie Brothers Tea Company established its own brand trademark: random tea preparation. 1860 company successfully developed the secret recipe of mixing chocolate with citrus tea, which is a kind of tea mixed with chocolate. It has created a healthy brand to attract customers and achieved great success.

In terms of domestic tea retail, in the early days, tea was mostly operated by pharmacies, grocery stores and food stores. Later, in Paris and other places, some firms specializing in or mainly dealing in tea emerged.

2. Trial planting of tea trees

After tea trees were successfully transplanted from China to Japan, India and Bangladesh, many countries tried to plant them first. France has also joined the army of trial planting countries. 1790 or so, Gordon, the owner of London flower shop, presented Le Chevalier in Paris with a tea tree, which was the first tea tree in France. From 65438 to 0938, Guillemin, a plant technician at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, received 3,000 tea plants donated by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, of which less than half survived, but the Botanical Garden paid great attention to protection. After that, it was planted on the coast of Sommer and Anger to test whether the soil and climate are suitable for growing tea. The results show that it can grow, but the quality is poor, so it can't achieve commercial success [1](P. 1 15). After that, France stopped the trial planting of tea trees.