Read the excerpt from Early Victorian Tea Set.
MacGregor's main purpose in providing the quote is to
Among the upper classes, tea had been popular since before
1700. It received celebrity endorsement from Charles Il's
queen, Catherine of Braganza, and from Queen Anne. It
came from China, it was expensive, refreshingly bitter and
drunk in tiny cups without milk or sugar. People kept their tea
in locked tea caddies, as if it were a drug; for those who
could afford it, it often was. In the 1750s Samuel Johnson
confessed himself a happy addict:
A hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for
twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of
this fascinating plant, whose kettle scarcely has time to
cool, who with Tea amuses the evening, with Tea
solaces the midnights, and with Tea welcomes the
morning.
explain why only the upper classes could afford to drink
tea.
express his viewpoint on the importance of drinking tea
often.
illustrate how celebrities preferred their tea with sugar and
milk.
support his statement that people locked away their tea
like it was a drug.