However, a September 1658 advertisement in the London periodical Mercurius Politicus has the first known reference to tea in this nation. It stated that a coffee shop in Sweeting's Rents in the City was selling "China Drink, termed by the Chinese, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alias Tee." Since the first coffee house was founded in London in 1652 and this advertisement's terms imply that most readers were still not quite familiar with tea, it is reasonable to believe that the beverage was still somewhat of a novelty.
The history of tea in Britain will be changed forever by Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza. She was a Portuguese princess who had a serious tea addiction, and it was thanks to her that tea became popular, first at court and later among the affluent classes as a whole. Profiting from this, the East India Company started importing tea into Britain, placing its first order for 100 pounds of China tea to be transported from Java in 1664.
