Derek > wrote in message >...
> Gyorgy Sajo rose quietly and spake the following:
>
> > In 1644 the Manchus came to power in China. They preferred to drink
> > black tea with milk, and this habit spred quickly to Europe, together
> > with the first shipments of tea. From the above follows that the
> > Europeans most probably received black/red tea from China.
>
> Except, the Dutch started importing tea almost 50 years earlier.
>
> It's more likely that this habit spread quickly to England, which started
> importing the beverage around 1650.

You are right about the Dutch being the first to import tea to Europe,
and that in pre-Manchu China they possibly did not experience the
habit of drinking black tea with milk. However, according to my source
(Evans' book), some fifty years later they were the first to introduce
it to Europe:

"Manchu-style milk-tea had astounding repercussions; in fact, it
became the most popular tea outside of China. (...) Following the
publication of a descripition of the Dutch Embassy of Captain Moor
Mautzuiker, Peter de Goyer, and Jacob de Keyser to China on August 8,
1656, which spoke of adding milk to tea, the novel Melkthee [English:
milk tea] appeared at fairs in Holland and Friesland. From there it
gained the rest of Europe."