Jane Austen & Tea: Creating Regency Breakfast Tea

"But indeed, I would rather have nothing but tea." (Mansfield Park)

With this year (2025) being the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, we thought it only fitting to launch a Jane Austen themed tea here at Char in Winchester, her final resting place. During the research process, it became evident that one tea alone would not do justice to the author and what her works have come to represent to her enduring fans, so we made three! Over the next few weeks, we will explore the historical context and process of creating our new Jane Austen teas.

Regency Breakfast

The time in which Jane grew up was a period of uncertainty in England. The King (George III) was declared mentally incapacitated, and so his son George IV served as Prince Regent, acting on his behalf, hence the name The Regency Period. Although this regency only lasted between 1811 and 1820, it marked the high point of a distinct shift from the prior Georgian era in terms of fashion, culture, and architecture, and so The Regency Period may often refer to a much broader span of years anywhere between the late 1790s to the 1830s. 

Jane focused her creative attention to the illustration of the social nuances and subtleties of society during this tumultuous era in which the structure of class and unspoken rules that govern interpersonal relations provided much comfort and were observed by most without question. Jane's keen observation, psychological insight of characters, romances and intrigues delivered with sharp wit (that highlights the ludicrous without being dismissive of the circumstances surrounding it) has become synonymous with this period of history for many to this day.

During the Regency period, tea was one of the distinguishing beverages that would likely be familiar to someone of high birth. Indeed, Jane herself was fond of tea. However, the tea that Jane drank would not likely be the tea that we would all think of nowadays. Indian tea had yet to be discovered, and so tea that was enjoyed in England during the Regency era would have come from China. It could be black tea or green, though as we have some indications that Jane's family enjoyed tea with sugar, it is more likely that they preferred black Chinese teas. Therefore, for Regency Breakfast, we selected a very fine Chinese black tea which is rich, smooth, and slightly smoky and floral. Transport yourself back to when the fireplace was the heart of the house, and writing was done mostly by an open window where the soft scents of an English garden carried through the house. Perhaps write a line or two of your own while you sip your Regency Breakfast tea.