"British and tea, Austrians and coffee?" Topic

Speaking from experience, a soldier or marine on campaign loves his hot beverages, especially in the morning. I did some quick, cursory research on this and found out that the British soldiers in the Napoleonic era did carry tea on them as part of their rations. I'm not sure if this was handed out, or if the soldiers managed to buy it through independent channels while on campaign. I'm curious if the Austrians, and for the matter the other continental armies, carried coffee and coffee-making equipment in the same manner during the period?

Suprised in the Aubrey/Maturin novels Jack and Steven are coffee hounds.

I am very surprised to hear that British Napoleonic soldiers drank tea. It was a very expensive beverage at the time. I have been told that tea was issued to British soldiers in late Victorian times as an alternative drink so as to woo them away from alcohol.

I have just learned something new.

warof1812.ca/food.htm

It notes tea in there, but doesn't go into much detail.
I too was wondering about price. But apparently not such an issue…

"Now to move over to drink, alcohol was most likely the favourite of the common soldier, but tea also played an important part. Captain Kincaid of the 95th reported that at Waterloo the 95th made a fire next to a cottage wall used by Lieut. Colonel Barnard and brewed a camp-kettle of tea,

‘As it stood on the edge of the high road, where all the big-wigs of the army had occasion to pass, I believe almost every one of them, in the early part of the morning, from the Duke downwards, claimed a cupful.'

He also stated that every officer's haversack should contain,

‘A couple of biscuits, a sausage, a little tea and sugar, knife, fork and spoon, a tin cup… and half a dozen cigars.'"

From: link

Tea was very expensive and it had to be paid for in silver at the point of export. Once tea plants were smuggled to India it became cheaper.

Tea was being produced by India and British colonies during the mid-1700s. The British were producing so much of it that they needed to unload it on other colonies…and raise money, hence the tea tax and the Boston Tea Party.

During the Napoleonic Wars, materials were expensive, labor was cheap. In any a case, through the East India Company the British Government has a cheap pipeline of tea and the British soldiers didn't have to pay for it.

Coffee was much rarer on the Continent because of Napoleon's Continental system. Most had to be smuggled in.

An impressive range of failures to answer the OP's question! Pity; I'd like to know the answer myself.

"hence the tea tax and the Boston Tea Party." well, sort of- the boston tea party was caused by the import tax being removed, making the tea cheaper and undercutting the tea smugglers. Who didn't like that one bit…

I knew tea became popular soon after introduction to the british isles, but I wouldnt have expected it to be easily available on campaign until the Temperence movement started pushing it towards the second half of the 19th century.

Coffee was rare and expensive then, so nothing for the common soldier. I never encountered coffee for privates in the Austrian army. I remember the story of a Prussian Freiwilliger Jäger, who mentions ordering and drinking coffee once. Those volunteers normally had more money than the conscripts.
From Kincaid's story above I presume that tea was the prerogative of officers as well.
IIRC the French got rations of brandy or the like in the morning to revive their spirits and they made fun of the Germans drinking "Milchkaffee" and eating "Butterbrod". But the "coffee with milk" normally was a form of "Ersatz", not real coffee. And even this kind of breakfast would be rare in the fields.
Don't be mislead by reenactors who like their coffee and tea in the morning as all "soldiers" do … Well, there must be some concessions to living history …

A cup of chocolate was the drink taken in the peninsular war by British Officers. In tune with local custom.

For enlisted men I would have thought tea may have been a luxury few could afford or acquire. Wine was more likely although a spirit ration was also issued.

link – tea bought locally in Portugal for an officers' mess. A pound costs about as much as three bottles of gin.

Don't know about during this period, but during the ACW it was the practice to fill the canteens with coffee. Drinking warm coffee on a march was better than drinking warm water.

That, and coffee won't give you dysentery.

That, and coffee won't give you dysentery

Not exactly, anyway…

Tea wasn't produced in India, or Ceylon, until the 1820's at the earliest, so the tea referred to in the Boston tea Party would have been very expensive Chinese tea, hardly a commodity that needed to be dumped on the colonies…..