Researchers uncover UK's oldest tea leaves dating back 300 years
Academics have stumbled upon what may be the oldest tea in the United Kingdom, brought in at the turn of the 18th century and decades before tea became popular. The dried green tea leaves were part of a collection that was stored in the Natural History Museum and were confirmed as the oldest known version of the national drink, dating back more than 300 years. They were purchased by James Cuninghame, a Scottish surgeon and collector, during one of his two trips to China in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. At the time, tea was considered a luxury item and was ten times more expensive than the best coffee.