PAM Slater from Cheltenham was our latest guest speaker when she gave a talk on 'The Story of Tea'.

She is an enthusiastic traveller and has made several trips to India, where on one occasion she visited a local tea factory.

This, she found to be most fascinating and as a result decided to study the subject of tea.

Her research revealed that tea was being drunk by the Chinese long before the advent of A.D. and tea had been discovered in ancient tombs.

Tea became popular across Europe as a result of Portuguese sailors bringing it back.

It spread to Holland and eventually came to England.

At the time coffee houses were fashionable in this country and tea was extremely expensive due to heavy taxation.

A person visiting a tea house would be shown to a table on which sat a box marked T.I.P.S. and before the tea arrived the person was obliged to put money on the box or their tea would be almost cold when served.

While tips are a recognised part of life now it was interesting to learn it stood for 'To Insure Prompt Service'.

It was not until 1964 that tax on tea was abolished.

Nowadays it seems teabags are favoured by a large percentage of the population and these were first introduced in 1953 by Tetleys.

It is impossible to convey the full breath of this talk but it covered geography, botany, how the British paid the Chinese in opium and the Boston Tea Party.

Members were curious to know more about tea and Pam was able to answer all the questions raised.

Alan Callender thanked her for a most interesting morning.

Probus meet at 10.15am on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at the Cotswold Indoor Bowling Centre, Dudbridge, Stroud, and is open to all retired men.

Ample free car parking is available on site.