Alice Loxton

speaker

770 appearances 11 recordings 7 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 3 Sep

Alice Loxton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 11 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 4.

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You're Dead to Me · Why do British people love tea? (from Here For The History) · 19 Jun 2026 podcast

I am feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

About my company.

But the question is, why is tea so important?

Did you know, this is an amazing fact, next to water, it's the most consumed beverage in the world.

So there's a lot of tea drinkers, there's a lot of us out there.

But what about in Britain?

How did something not native to Britain become intrinsically linked to British identity?

Chapter one, Royal Tea.

Now legend has it, 5,000 years ago, revered Chinese emperor and herbalist, Shennong, was relaxing under a camellia sinensis tree as his servants prepared some boiling water to be drunk.

As he did so, a leaf of the tree drifts off the branch and lands in the pot of boiling water.

But instead of throwing it away, Shenong takes a sip.

He tries this new concoction.

And there we have it.

Tea is born.

A huge moment.

Now, there are a few origin stories of how tea was invented, but this is probably the most famous of all.

But if we're going to be looking at the role that tea played in Britain's history, it actually starts much later in the 1600s.

So a time of civil wars, Puritans, roughs, people wearing those big wide-brimmed hats, the plagues, the Great Fire of London, that sort of thing.

And we're going to look at the year 1662.

The Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza is sailing through storms and rolling seas.

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