I know it is probably quite strange to publish something about a country that is going to get under the ever cautious eyes of Mr @thedevotea himself and that @lahikmajoe wrote about.
What is even worst is knowing that in 2009, with a mere 0,21 kg per year and per capita, France ranked 88 in terms of tea consumption per capita and per year (along really known tea drinkers countries like Azerbaijan, Belize and Moldiva) (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consumption_per_capita and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations).
But we are talking about the country of Theodor, Palais des Thés, Mariage Frères, Kusmi Tea, Dammann Frères and so many others I forgot to name (and no this is not a ranking), so there must be something to it.
I did some research and found online a book published in 1912, L’agriculture pratique des pays chauds, a compilation of newspapers from the Bulletin du Jardin Colonial et des jardins d’essai des colonies françaises (Bulletin from the Colonial Garden and the French Tropical Botanical Gardens).
I think the best way to sum up this article is to say that some of the French colonies had potential but lacked both the cheap labour needed to harvest tea and the skilled one needed to prepare it.
The main producing area was Indochina but I will come back to it later.
In Senegal, there was no tea but a kind of ersatz, the Lippia adoensis, but the production was rather low.
Mayotte and Madagascar produced some tea (not much) but mostly in private gardens or through experiments with plants comings from Java or Ceylon.
The production in the second of these islands is said to have been of excellent quality but I don’t know how they judged it.
La Réunion must have shown great promises since tea production was introduced at least 4 times (1816, 1841, 1858 and 1894) from Java or Ceylon, mostly because the interest seems to have vanished because of the same reasons that seem to have plagued the French tea industry.
However, the quality was there since in 1867, tea from La Réunion earned the gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition (the writer wrote the London one but it must be a mistake).
Now we are getting to Indochina, the tea jewel of the French Empire.
The local people produced a tea but it was badly prepared (at least for the European standards) and as such was not really interesting for the colonial power or the rich local people (who drank Chinese tea)
It seems that the missionaries were among the first to introduce tea production (mostly because no one ever thought of competing against the Chinese teas) in Assam from where it went in the whole country.
The different plantations belonged to French owners and the production was directly sold through them.
But all this for what?
Here is the tea consumption in France during these years.
As you will see it is not really that bright with a really low consumption per inhabitant and a stable price (rather typical of the period).
I would have liked to publish here some of the pictures that first inspired me but I asked for the authorization and didn’t receive it.
So I can only put the link here and hope you will click on it.
http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/sdx/ulysse/index
After clicking on it, just write “thé” in the “Plein texte” box and then hit enter.
Every British colony had the same problems. But instead of just shrugging their shoulders and saying “C’est trop dur”, the enterprising Brits started wars, imported poor labourers, stole tea plants and skills, got China hooked on opium and generally got on with stuff. The only French colonies to last are in places where the locals are even less motivated to actually get anything done. Other than green peppercorns, vanilla and a trade in lemurs, what has ever come out of a french colony?
I must agree with your first sentence “quite strange to publish something about a country that is going to get under the ever cautious eyes of Mr @thedevotea himself” and I think anyone reading this comment will agree with you.
(actually, I enjoyed the article, but saying that would be a whole lot less funny)
I will not debate with you on colonialism since I am talking to an indirect subject of Her Gracious Majesty but also since it would bring us to a lot of debate.
I will only remind the last sentence 😛
And I will be honnest to a tea: this is a summary and translation of the info I read in this book.
I’m over here giggling at the fact that the U.S. is ranked 69th on the tea consumption list.
They have to be somewhere.
You must have put in a lot of research Xavier – very interesting blog. And don’t forget that your wines, charcuterie, bread and patisserie (among other things) are superb!
I don’t forget all these things but they are not tea related.
And the research happened by mere luck, I found the website and then the pictures. After that I got curious about tea produced in France and after a careful Internet research (this is what I dislike about computers and Internet, they don’t get the difference between thé (tea in French) and the (no need to tell you what it means)) I managed to find a copy of the book I mentioned.
I had then to read it and to smmarize it into something interesting for you.
@xavier I couldn’t get anything when I clicked on the link. Not an actual result I mean, just the frame. Does it work for you?
Interesting summary here, with lots of food for thought.
The US is probably ahead of Germany and France because we consume so much iced tea here, whereas the tea drunk in Europe is mostly hot tea. The teas drunk in middle Eastern countries is brewed very differently to Irish tea, both rank high in consumption. Anyway, just observing that tea means something different from country to country.
Also interesting that France wasn’t so successful, but did try several times in La Réunion, that was news to me.
Anyway, all very interesting – merci beaucoup mon cher Xavier,
J.
Thanks @jackie
It came as a surprise to me too but I knew they are doing tea since I ordered some last year.
And regarding the link, it didn’t work 🙁 I will repost it.
This is one of my favourite tea blogs, as you well know.
You’re talking about something very few of us teabloggers have the knowledge or interest to begin to cover.
What I like most is that you make it understandable. The history of French tea colonisation? Who wouldn’t want to know about that?
Let me just say that I’m a bit sad that we’re having our 2nd Annual Intenational Tea Trade Convention in London rather than Paris, as we’d originally planned.
The circumstances warranted a change of venue, but I think some of the tea salons in the City of Lights are the nicest in the world. Well, the nicest I’ve been to.
As you say, Paris is the home of Mariage Frères, which has not only a tea shop but a tea museum in the Marais neighbourhood.
Perhaps next year we should all meet there.
Let’s agree that we will make our next Tea Trade Convention in France or anywhere else in the world.
And thanks for the nice words.
I try to find some little things that might be of interest to my dear tea friends.
Good to see that we are ranked on the best position: 42.
This inspires me to write something about the more successful Dutch attempts on Java. If my information is correct the first profitable (though small scale and not really sustainable till after the Assam variety was introduced) “European” tea gardens.
But it might take a while. First things first.
Sounds interesting.
In Avignon, a French Hotel employee – one who would later make some threats – swore to me that no hotel room in France has a kettle because “not a single person in France drinks tea” . Mind you, I heard the same guy tell someone else “There is not a single Internet Café in France.
Based on the train and bus stations in Avignon and Montpellior, I would agree with the theory that there is not a single broom or mop in France, but I managed to find both tea and an internet café.
Guess he has never been to Paris. Oh, wait Paris and France are two different worlds.
But I guess he said it while Xavier was out of the country.
But more seriously You now know how big his world is.
@bram Paris and France are different countries but France and everywhere within its borders are different countries speaking the same language (or so I hope).
@thedevotea No kettle in hotel rooms is quite normal but no tea drinker or Internet Café in France? This guy was lazy.