National Tea Day (UK)

National Tea Day, celebrated on April 21st, honors tea's status as Britain's most iconic drink, with the UK consuming an estimated 100 million cups of tea every day. Tea arrived in Britain in the 17th century, initially as an expensive luxury imported by the East India Company and popularized among the aristocracy, most notably through Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II, who brought her tea-drinking habit to the English court in 1662. Over the following two centuries, falling prices and colonial tea production in India and Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) transformed tea from an elite indulgence into a staple of daily life across all social classes, deeply woven into British social rituals from the elaborate afternoon tea service popularized by the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s to the humble builder's tea break. The tradition of adding milk is thought to date back to when delicate porcelain cups risked cracking from boiling tea, prompting the practice of pouring milk in first to temper the heat. National Tea Day events typically include tastings, tea-pairing menus at cafes and hotels, and charitable initiatives, with many British workplaces treating the day as an excuse for an extra round of tea breaks.