Tea

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"This tea was brought to me from India by a ship, then, up from the harbor to a factory, where it was packaged and ferried by carriage to my door, unpacked in the larder and brought upstairs to me."

―Crawford Starrick expounding on tea, 1868.

Tea or chai is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia. Famous for its stimulating effect, tea was also used for recreational purposes, leading to the establishment of teahouses where individuals could meet while drinking tea.

History

With the establishment of the Silk Road, tea was diffused by the merchants from the Far East to the Middle East. In 870 CE, the Hidden One Basim Ibn Ishaq introduced to his Frankish brethren Oisel and Matthias the beverage when they met in Antioch.

During the Colonial Era, tea circulated through European countries and their American colonies, especially becoming a part of British culture with the East India Company exporting tea from Asia to Great Britain and the British Colonies. During the 18th century, tea's consumption began to be rival by coffee. In 1768, the merchant Bouché had difficulty selling tea in New Orleans and was forced to slander his business rival Philippe de Grandpré as he sold coffee.

In 1773, the British Parliament approved the Tea Act, allowing the East India Company to ship tea to the American colonies directly from India. This made the tea cheaper to buy, increasing the East India Company's profits and hopefully preventing the colonists from trying to smuggle expensive Dutch tea. However, the colonists objected, believing the Act was a trick to make them pay tax despite their lack of representation in Parliament. Philadelphia and New York City turned away the East India Company's ships, but Massachusetts' Governor Thomas Hutchinson allowed the ships to stay in Boston Harbor.

Stephane Chapheau and Ratonhnhaké:ton throwing tea crates during the Boston Tea Party

The Colonial Templar William Johnson smuggled tea from the ships of the East India Company to finance the purchasing of the Iroquois lands for the Order. On 16 December 1773, the Colonial Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton, with Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and William Molineux from the Sons of Liberty, boarded the East India company's ships and threw the tea cargo in the Boston Harbor, foiling Johnson's plan. The event was remembered as the Boston Tea Party and was one of the first steps to the American Revolutionary War. The Colonial Assassins organized other Tea Parties in New Jersey and Maryland to defy the British rule in the Colonies. Back at the Davenport Homestead, Ratonhnaké:ton produced tea with the help of the innkeepers Oliver and Corrine using honey and rosemary. Ratonhnaké:ton sold it across the North American East Coast and the Caribbean Sea.

Crawford Starrick drinking a cup of tea

Tea remained a part of British culture through to the modern age, serving as a beverage during social events or in a more individual level. In the Victorian era, the entrepreneur Crawford Starrick entered into the tea trade as head of Starrick Industries. The company's reach in the market was vast, with every step along the tea supply chain—from the shipping crew in India to the London delivery man—staffed by many of Starrick's employees.

Centuries later in 2020, the Assassin Rebecca Crane asked her husband Shaun Hastings to pick up some mint tea for her during his supply run near Concord, New York while they supervised Layla as she relived the memories of the Raven Clan Viking Eivor Varinsdottir. Shaun bought some, but protested that the flavor was artificially infused instead of being properly steeped with leaves.

Appearence

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• Assassin's Creed III (first appearance)
  • The Tyranny of King Washington
• Assassin's Creed: Brahman
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
• Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (novel) (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed comic
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
• Assassin's Creed: Gold
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road (mentioned only, as "chai")
• Echoes of History (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Daughter of No One (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows
• Assassin's Creed: Jade