On April 27, 1773, the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government and, thus, granting it a de facto monopoly on the American tea trade.

Why did the colonists refuse to buy tea? They refused because it was being taxed and it was too expensive. If they wanted tea, they were forced to buy it from England and not many could afford it.

The colonists resisted the new tax, arguing that only their own elective colonial assemblies could tax them, and that “taxation without representation” was unjust and unconstitutional. This act placed duties on a number of goods imported into the colonies, including tea, glass, paper and paint.

The main reason the American colonists had for protesting the tea tax was that “Americans did not want to be taxed by those they did not elect,” since the colonists had no representation in Parliament.

Because the British East India Company had a monopoly over the tea industry in England, tea became more popular than coffee, chocolate, and alcohol. Tea was seen as inherently British, and its consumption was encouraged by the British government because of the revenue gained from taxing tea.

The answer is that in the 17th and 18th centuries the china cups tea was served in were so delicate they would crack from the heat of the tea. Milk was added to cool the liquid and stop the cups from cracking. This is why, even today, many English people add milk to their cups BEFORE adding the tea!

Despite the huge rise in artisan coffee shops and the popularity of coffee culture in the U.K., Brits remain a nation of tea drinkers with 75% of us drinking at least one cup per day according to recent research by The Grocer.

Turns out, it’s all to do with taxes. Tea was first brought to Britain in the early 17th century by the East India Company and was presented to King Charles II. His Portuguese wife, Princess Catherine of Braganza, set the trend in drinking tea, which then caught on among the aristocrats of the time.

pet word for “mother,” 1823, short for mummy (see mamma). In British sociology, used from 1957 in reference to “the working class mother as an influence in the lives of her children.” Also sometimes a vulgar corruption of madam.

China is far and away the largest consumer of tea, at 1.6 billion pounds a year. But per person, as illustrated in the map above, the picture is a lot different: Turkey, Ireland, and the United Kingdom are home to the world’s biggest tea drinkers.

Belarus, a small landlocked country in Europe, consumed the greatest average number of liters of pure alcohol per capita. On average, its citizens consumed 14.4 liters each year, over 1.5 times more than Americans.

In 2018, Mexico and Thailand had the highest per capita consumption of bottled water worldwide, at 72.4 gallons of bottled water per person. Coming in second place was Italy with 50.3 billion gallons of per capita consumption in that year.

10 Countries That Use the Most Water

• China – 362 trillion gallons.
• United States – 216 trillion gallons.
• Brazil – 95 trillion gallons.
• Russia – 71 trillion gallons.
• Mexico – 53 trillion gallons.
• India – 30 trillion gallons.
• England – 20 trillion gallons.
• France – 20 trillion gallons.

7 Countries That Waste the Most Water

• Canada– population in thousands: 30 889- 29.1 m3.
• Armenia– population in thousands: 3 090- 27.3 m3.
• New Zealand– population in thousands: 3 906- 26.1 m3.
• USA– population in thousands: 288 958– 22.6 m3.
• Costa Rica– population in thousands: 3 963- 19.9 m3.

Water leaving our homes generally goes either into a septic tank in the back yard where it seeps back into the ground, or is sent to a wastewater-treatment plant through a sewer system.

Most people use about 30 gallons of water for a bath, according to industry estimates. A standard showerhead uses 2.5 gallons a minute, or 25 gallons for 10 minutes. Either way, the shower saves water – as long as you don’t go past 10 minutes. The shorter the shower, the greater the savings.

12.5 gallons

1.6 gallons