Tea is one of the staple drinks in many countries all over the world, best known for its health benefits and cleansing power, teas has been widely consumed, especially green tea. But this wasn't the case in the past; green tea was actually thought to be a toxin for many years, before being debunked. So why was this so? Why was green tea believed to be a super toxin in the past?
Matthew Sweet in Inventing the Victorians: What We Think We Know About Them and Why We're Wrong, writes, "For most of the 19th century, there was less concern about the perils of taking cocaine than there was about the negative side effects of drinking green tea." The negativity against green tea was caused by baseless fears, which was that it triggered hysteria and insomnia, as well as genuine concerns about it being toxic as a result of widespread destruction of the tea's positive attributes.
There was also another reason for the belief of green tea as being toxic; it was on the commercial side. Black tea was the alternative used for green tea, and although both come from the same leaf, black tea was more compact, which meant it was easier to ship during the Victorian era. Problems with Chinese businessman were also prominent, in an effort to bulk up consignment of green tea, they added iron filings and the leaves of other plants, such as hawthorn, and dying them with verdigris, Prussian blue, Dutch pink, ferrous sulphate, copper carbonate and sheep's dung.
And in the 1870s, the shift to black tea was higher than ever as a result of changes in trade and taste. The British now grew their tea in plantations in India and Ceylon. The huge imports of this cheap, black tea banished the demand for green. With black tea sourced directly from their very own British-ran plantations, consumers were more likely to be assured of quality.
