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The Netherlands

In the 16th century the Dutch were a great trading nation, with their colonies rivalling the English, Spanish and Portuguese. The Dutch East India Company, formed in the early 1600's, established a base in Java (now Jakarta, Indonesia) and, while exploring China, discovered tea. Trading began in earnest and tea drinking soon became very fashionable in the Dutch capital, the Hague, initially only in the domain of the wealthy due to its price. However as with tea in Britain 50 years later, the price dropped as the volume of tea imported rose, and from 1675 was available in common food shops throughout Holland. Entrepreneurial ventures seized this opportunity and introduced tea houses, where customers would enjoy musical entertainment whilst they drank their tea. The Netherlands was one of the first countries to investigate the health benefits of tea, with a certain Dr. Bontekoe advising his Dutch readers to use eight or ten cups of tea daily, hastily adding he sees no reason to object to fifty, one hundred or two hundred cups.

Nowadays the Dutch mainly drink black tea, which they keep as watery as possible and without milk. While not as renown for their tea consumption as the English, some of the largest tea companies in the world are Dutch.

The first shipment of Chinese tea arrived in Amsterdam in 1606, the start of the 'golden age' for the capital. Ships sailed around the globe, with Amsterdam dominating many trading networks and its merchants forming the core ownership of both the Dutch East and West India Companies.