英國人下午茶文化背后不為人知的故事

眾所周知，中國是最早開始喝茶的國家，西方人為此深表感激。但是，多虧了葡萄牙人，特別是一位葡萄牙女性，喝茶才得以在英國廣泛傳播，而這一點卻鮮為人知。

And while it’s fairly common knowledge that Westerners have China to thank for the original cultivation of the tannic brew, it’s far less known that it was the Portuguese who inspired its popularity in England – in particular, one Portuguese woman.

1662年，布拉干薩王朝（Braganza）的公主凱瑟琳（葡萄牙國王約翰四世之女）嫁給了英國國王查理二世，其嫁妝極其豐厚，包括金銀財寶、香料以及經(jīng)濟價值巨大的重要港口丹吉爾和孟買。聯(lián)姻之后，凱瑟琳成為英格蘭、蘇格蘭與愛爾蘭的王后，地位顯赫。

Travel back in time to 1662, when Catherine of Braganza (daughter of Portugal’s King John IV) won the hand of England’s newly restored monarch, King Charles II, with the help of a very large dowry that included money, spices, treasures and the lucrative ports of Tangiers and Bombay. This hookup made her one very important lady: the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.

之后，她一路北進與查理國王會合，據(jù)說其隨身物品中包含一些散裝茶葉；也許，這也是其陪嫁物品之一。有趣的是，傳說這些茶葉在《芳香植物的運輸》（Transporte de Ervas Aromaticas）一書中有所記載，該書后來被簡稱為“T.E.A.”。

When she relocated up north to join King Charles, she is said to have packed loose-leaf tea as part of her personal belongings; it would also have likely been part of her dowry. A fun legend has it that the crates were marked Transporte de Ervas Aromaticas (Transport of Aromatic Herbs) – later abbreviated to T.E.A.

凱瑟琳剛到英國之時，茶葉只是作為一種藥品在市場流通，藥效是幫助人們振奮精神、理氣健脾。但是，這位年輕的王后習慣于每天飲茶，堅持飲茶的習慣。久而久之，茶葉便不再是健康提神藥品，發(fā)展成為社交飲品，開始在英國盛行。

When Catherine arrived in England, tea was being consumed there only as a medicine, supposedly invigorating the body and keeping the spleen free of obstructions. But since the young queen was used to sipping the pick-me-up as part of her daily routine, she no doubt continued her habit, making it popular as a social beverage rather than as a health tonic.

“與查理國王聯(lián)姻之后，凱瑟琳迅速成為眾人關注的焦點——她的穿著打扮、她使用的家具……所有與她相關的東西都成為王室談資，”《布拉干薩王朝公主凱瑟琳：查理二世的王后》作者莎拉·貝絲·沃特金斯說。“她的日常飲茶活動引來許多人紛紛效仿。貴婦們紛涌而至，模仿其飲茶習慣以便融入王后的社交圈?！薄?

“When Catherine married Charles, she was the focus of attention – everything from her clothes to her furniture became the source of court talk,” said Sarah-Beth Watkins, author of Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen. “Her regular drinking of tea encouraged others to drink it. Ladies flocked to copy her and be a part of her circle.”

凱瑟琳嫁來英國不久，當紅詩人埃德蒙德·瓦勒甚至為她寫了一首生日頌，將這位來自葡萄牙的王后與英國的飲茶之風永遠聯(lián)系在了一起。詩歌中這樣寫道：

“最英明的王后，最神奇的植物，

那個勇敢的國家，

陽光沐浴著的美麗之地，

給予我們的豐厚恩賜，

我們謳歌著，

用一顆感恩的心?！?

Hot poet of the time, Edmund Waller, even wrote a birthday ode to her shortly after her arrival, which forever linked the queen and Portugal with the fashionable status of tea in England. He wrote:

“The best of Queens, and best of herbs, we owe

To that bold nation, which the way did show

To the fair region where the sun doth rise,

Whose rich productions we so justly prize.”

準確來說，茶葉在凱瑟琳嫁來英國之前已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)，但是當時并不流行?！皳?jù)記載，瓦勒于1657年便有飲茶的習慣，這比凱瑟琳的出現(xiàn)早了整整六年，”倫敦瑪麗王后大學的教授馬克曼·埃利斯說，其致力于18世紀研究，與人合著《茶葉帝國：征服世界的亞洲樹葉》。“他是有名的飲茶愛好者，這在當時并不多見，究其原因是茶葉價格昂貴，當時所有人都喝咖啡。”

To be fair, tea could be found in England before Catherine arrived, but it wasn’t very popular. “Waller is recorded drinking tea in 1657, which is a whole six years before Catherine turns up,” said Markman Ellis, professor of 18th-Century Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and co-author of Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World. “He is a well-known aficionado for tea, which is unusual because it was so expensive and everyone was drinking coffee at this time.”

茶葉昂貴的原因有三：一是當時英國同中國沒有直接的貿易往來；二是印度的茶葉還沒有傳到英國；三是荷蘭人進口的茶葉數(shù)量少，所以售價非常高昂。

The reason for the cost was threefold: England had no direct trade with China; tea from India wasn’t around yet; and the small quantities that the Dutch were importing were sold at a very high premium.

“茶葉之所以如此昂貴，是因為從中國進口的關稅非常高，”簡·佩蒂格魯說，其著有《茶葉社會史》一書，在2014年世界茶業(yè)大獎中被授予最佳茶業(yè)教育工作者獎，擔任英國茶學院研究主任。　

“It was very expensive because it came from China and it was taxed very heavily,” explained Jane Pettigrew, author of A Social History of Tea, winner of the 2014 World Tea Awards’ Best Tea Educator and director of studies at UK Tea Academy.

實際上，當時茶葉的價格高得驚人（一英鎊的價格相當于工薪階級一年的收入），埃利斯還提道，“除了社會最上層、最富有的人，其他人都不可能負擔得起茶葉。因此茶葉成為貴婦與王室結交的手段，通過茶葉與凱瑟琳結交便是最好的例子?！薄?

Indeed it was so pricey (a pound went for as much as a working-class citizen made in a year), that, according to Ellis, “it ruled out anyone but the most elite and wealthiest sectors of society. So tea became associated with elite women’s sociability around the royal court, of which Catherine was the most famous emblem.”

名人飲茶又有何妨呢？普通人會效仿名人飲茶。“無論王后做什么，其他人都會盲目效仿。于是，到了17世紀末，貴族們自然而然開始少量飲茶，”佩蒂格魯說?！?

And what happens with famous people? Non-famous people imitate them. “When the queen does something, everyone wants to follow suit, so very, very gradually by the end of the 17th Century, the aristocracy hadd sipping small amounts of tea,” Pettrigrew said.

當然，飲茶儀式并不是上層階級的發(fā)明，也是源于模仿。據(jù)佩蒂格魯所述，“直到荷蘭人帶來茶葉，我們英國人才對茶葉有所了解。我們沒有糖匙，沒有茶杯，沒有茶壺（只有廚房水壺），所以還是沿用老辦法：模仿中國的整套飲茶儀式。我們從中國進口小的瓷茶杯、杯托、糖匙器具以及小茶壺?！?

Of course, the upper class didn’t invent the ritual of tea-drinking themselves – they were imitators too. As Pettigrew recounted, “Until tea arrived with the Dutch, we [the English] didn’t know anything about tea. No sugar spoons, no cups, no tea kettles (only kitchen kettles), so we did what always happens: we copied the entire ritual from China. We imported Chinese tiny porcelain tea bowls, the saucers, the dishes for sugar, the small teapots.”

飲茶瓷器之所以風靡英國，還受到凱瑟琳的母國——葡萄牙的影響?！捌咸蜒朗谴善鬟M口到歐洲的路線之一，”埃利斯說道。“瓷器價格昂貴，但非常精致漂亮，飲茶之所以受歡迎的原因之一就是可以使用這些精美的茶具，就像擁有最新款蘋果手機一樣?！薄　?

Catherine’s home country had a hand in in popularising this aspect of the tea experience, too. “Portugal was one of the routes [by which] porcelain got to Europe,” Ellis noted. “It was very expensive and very beautiful, and one of the things that made tea drinking attractive was all the pretty stuff that went with it, like having the latest iPhone.”

也許正因為瓷器貴重才能夠作為凱瑟琳的嫁妝。像其他的貴婦一樣，凱瑟琳開始在英國生活之后，利用這些精美之物增加下午茶的情趣。佩蒂格魯解釋說，“一開始，她只是在王室里飲茶，將其作為一種貴族的習慣，場面奢華，十足的上層階級做派。因此，飲茶儀式自中國傳入之后便迅速與高雅生活密不可分。茶葉一傳入英國，便與貴婦、豪宅產(chǎn)生聯(lián)系，我認為凱瑟琳在這個過程中發(fā)揮了重要作用，主要原因是瓷器的價格非常昂貴。窮人只配使用陶器，只有貴族才用得起一切貴重之物。現(xiàn)代社會也是如此：消費的東西越貴，代表你的地位越高?！薄?

Since it was so prized, porcelain was probably part of Catherine’s dowry, and, like other aristocratic ladies, she would have accrued many gorgeous trappings to pad out her tea sessions once she was living in England. Pettigrew explained, “Shed it as an aristocratic habit in her palaces – very posh, very upper class, and so the ceremony that arrived from China was immediately associated with fine living. As soon as tea arrived, it had very strong connections to feminine women and very big houses, I suppose through Catherine, because the porcelain cost huge amounts of money. The poor had to make due with earthenware. So everything that was expensive had to do with the aristocracy. It’s the same as today: You buy expensive things to show how important you are.”

后來，下層階級使飲茶變得更加平民化。但在當今社會，倫敦的游客依然可以通過高檔酒店提供的下午茶服務體驗貴族的奢華，尤其是在倫敦朗廷酒店（Langham Hotel）的廷廊（據(jù)稱這里是下午茶的誕生地）、赫赫有名的倫敦麗茲酒店（Ritz London）和凱萊奇酒店（Claridge's）。

Eventually the lower classes transformed tea into a more egalitarian drink, but today, travellers to London can still experience the aristocratic pomp and circumstance at upscale hotels’ afternoon tea services, most notably at the Langham Hotel’s Palm Court in London (which claims to be the birthplace of afternoon tea), the famed Ritz London and Claridge’s.

此外，您還可以在葡萄牙體驗極其盛大的飲茶儀式。盡管如此，就算在葡萄牙，英國飲茶之風與凱瑟琳王后的淵源也鮮為人知。然而，古鎮(zhèn)辛特拉（Sintra）的一個酒店要努力改變這一狀況。這就是提弗里瑟特阿斯皇宮酒店（Tivoli Palácio de Seteais Sintra Hotel），酒店總經(jīng)理馬里奧·庫斯托迪奧（Mario Custódio）舉辦以凱瑟琳為主題的下午茶活動?！白x書時，我們不了解這段歷史，”庫斯托迪奧說，“我什么也不清楚，就連其他葡萄牙人對此也一無所知。”

You can find fancy tea events in Portugal too, but even there, the link to Queen Catherine is not well known. In the historic municipality of Sintra, though, one hotel is trying to change that. At the Tivoli Palácio de Seteais Sintra Hotel, general manager Mario Custódio is about to launch a special afternoon tea themed after Catherine in October. “In school we don’t get this [history],” Custódio said. “I had no idea. Even the Portuguese don’t know this.”

辛特拉地區(qū)距離里斯本大約30分鐘的行程，向外延伸到植被茂盛的山腳下。這里因云集歐洲浪漫主義建筑而聞名，被列入教科文組織世界遺產(chǎn)名錄。瑟特阿斯宮（Seteais Palace）由荷蘭領事丹尼爾·吉爾德梅斯特（Daniel Gildemeester）于18世紀80年代建成，宮殿裝飾奢華、造型獨特，成為辛特拉景觀中的一道亮麗風景線?；槎Y蛋糕式樣的怪異裝飾物高高聳立于交錯蔓生的花園與公園之上。雖然凱瑟琳王后從未居住于此，但這里云集的古老財富、經(jīng)典的建筑群將葡萄牙貴族過去的生活呈現(xiàn)得淋漓盡致。想象一下，一群衣著華麗的貴婦正在富麗堂皇的會客廳聚會，時不時傳來清脆的茶杯撞擊聲，以及嘰嘰喳喳的交頭接耳聲。　　

The area of Sintra, spread across lush green mountains about 30 minutes outside Lisbon, is a Unesco World Heritage Site, noted for its concentrated displays of European romantic architecture. The Seteais Palace, built in the 1780s by Dutch consul Daniel Gildemeester, is just one of several ornate, whimsical estate homes that dot the Sintra landscape; wedding-cake follies overlooking intricate, sprawling gardens and parks. Queen Catherine never lived here, but the concentration of old wealth and must-see mansions makes it the perfect place to reflect on what the lives of Portuguese nobility used to be like. You can easily imagine opulently dressed noblewomen gathering in opulently draped drawing rooms, clinking teacups and swapping news and gossip.

庫斯托迪奧認為，將這些鮮為人知的歷史碎片通過現(xiàn)實呈現(xiàn)出來，可以幫助游客獲得更獨特、更個性化的旅游體驗?！拔抑耘⑦@些不為人知的歷史呈現(xiàn)出來，是因為這些是現(xiàn)代社會的財富，”他說?！?

For Custódio, bringing these little-known bits of history to life is what makes the travel experience special and personal for visitors. “I’m trying to [present] these things that are very unknown because that is luxury today,” he said.

日常下午茶服務（只對酒店客人開放）能夠凸顯葡萄牙與高雅飲茶傳統(tǒng)之間的淵源。例如，庫斯托迪奧正與歷史學家合作，希望能夠做出凱瑟琳王后當時飲用的茶（埃利斯認為很可能是綠茶，原因是王后死后很長時間，直到19世紀30年代，才有印度來的茶葉引入到英國）。庫斯托迪奧還希望能夠做出橘子醬，這是因為在研究過程中，他偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)橘子醬也是布拉干薩王朝公主凱瑟琳諸多神秘傳說之一。據(jù)說，世界上最好的橘子有一部分來自于葡萄牙，凱瑟琳王后會定期將這些橘子運往其英國的新家。有些橘子在運輸途中品質下降，最后就被做成了橘子醬。若是能享用到完好無損的橘子自然最好，但如果凱瑟琳王后送給您的禮物是橘子醬而不是橘子，那說明她并不是非常看重您呀。

The daily tea service (open only to hotel guests), will highlight aspects of the Portuguese connection to this genteel tradition. For instance, Custódio is working with a historian to serve the type of tea Catherine would have drank (Ellis thinks it’s most likely a green tea, as no tea came out of India until the 1830s, long after she’d passed away). Marmalade will also be part of the menu, as that’s another part of the Catherine of Braganza mythology that Custódio has stumbled across in his research. The tale goes that, since some of the best oranges in the world come from Portugal, Catherine had them shipped over to her new English home regularly. The ones that didn’t make the journey in top condition were turned into marmalade. Of course, whole oranges were a more prized snack, so if Queen Catherine gave you a gift of marmalade instead of oranges, it meant she didn’t think that much of you.The spread at the Seteais Palace will come with no such judgments. Custódio is simply hoping that by mingling with visitors during the themed tea service and by gifting them with a small book – complete with QR codes for more photos, historical facts and fun stories – he’ll be helping to share some of the culture and colour of his home and reinforce the long-term influence of a little-known transplant queen.

“凱瑟琳王后對茶文化做出了巨大的貢獻，我們葡萄牙人不愿意對此視而不見。我希望這段珍貴的歷史能夠得以延續(xù)?！?

“We Portuguese want to believe that Catarina was responsible for the tea. I don’t want this history to die.”

圖文來源：新浪網(wǎng)

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