Dunking biscuits in tea? A navy practice that travelled to India over time

For most individuals, their initiation to tea was by observing elders sipping it off the saucer or dunking a biscuit and slurping it from the cup. While most of us have unquestionably caught on to the habit of dunking biscuits, some may question the practice at the back of their mind. So, here we are debunking it and connecting the threads from India to all the way back to Europe.

A centuries-old practice born in Europe

It may startle most people when they come to know that the practice of dunking biscuits in tea before eating or drinking it goes back to almost 300 years. Back in the days, European sailors were given hardtack to eat. Think about it as a thick, dry biscuit; so hard that it can be easily compared with cement. This, of course made it uncomfortable for people to eat it and thus, they use to dunk it in tea to soften it before eating it. Asking for a better meal wasn’t really in their hands! With time, as people started drinking tea all over Europe, this practice accompanied it. From hardtack to regular biscuit, it just became a way to enjoy your tea-break.

Connecting the threads between Europe and India

Fast forward the chronology to a time when India was a British colony. With the colonisers came their practice and the Indian society started adopting and loving the combination of tea and biscuit or cha-biskoot/ biscuit as it was called. Now, tea in India was a meal befitting a break or snack time. People gathered around in front of local chai shops to drink tea, or friends gathered together around the Ganges Ghats to sip and talk all about the changing world around them. And while conversations followed sips, the stomach asked for a solid accompaniment. That is how the biscuits shone in its heyday, and unconsciously or consciously dunking it in the tea became a generational habit.

Modern day references

Today society is divided about this practice.  With people becoming more mindful of table manners, dunking biscuits in tea, especially in elite circles is almost looked down upon. For many, it is either a lack of time or lack of biscuits that lead to the omission of this tradition. However, for many, it is nostalgia in regular practice or once in a while. But what is interesting is the re-invention of dunking and using the past tradition as a tool for attracting the attention of the mass for something new.

Hence, it is interesting to see how the simple solution of avoiding having hard biscuits travelled so far and wide and became a core part of tradition, nostalgia and habit among generations in a different country.

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