Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s famous drink order “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot,” is among the Star Trek universe’s most well-known sayings. It’s become synonymous with Patrick Stewart’s Picard. Along with the 24th century leader’s other catch phrases, “Make it so” and “Engage,” these lines convey to viewers that Picard is both reliable and decisive, if a creature of habit. But why does tea matter?

Because of what it represents. Despite his long, French name, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the quintessential British captain.

Early in the series, Data gives viewers a line about how the French language has died out, ostensibly as an explanation for Picard’s noticeably British accent, but his French ancestry and cultural heritage (he grew up on the family vineyard in La Barre, France) are secondary to his representation of Britishness. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry has stated that Picard was based on Horatio Hornblower, the fictional 19th century British naval officer.

Picard is, in many respects, a 24th century extrapolation of a 19th century Royal Navy officer. A quick look around Picard’s Ready Room illustrates aspects of this characterization. A model of a constellation class star cruiser features prominently, as does a painting of his current vessel. A crystal sailing ship model rests on an end table. He keeps a copy of Shakespeare’s complete works and changes the pages on display throughout the series. When he steps outside of his Ready Room, he quotes and performs Shakespeare and sings naval songs like “Heart of Oak”. He embodies aspects of British culture (literature) and the means of its dissemination (naval/space empires).

He drinks tea.

Picard’s beverage of choice is not insignificant. British tea consumption is entangled in the birth of capitalism, the growth of the Royal Navy, and the global expansion of the British Empire. Tea was an essential element of settler colonialism around the world. In India, the British East India Company, an important tea trader, enforced its rule through military might and administrative control. Like literature, tea became an imperial “civilizing” tool. Tea helped drive the sugar trade and consequently the slave trade. It reinforced class distinctions as afternoon tea evolved for the masses and high tea for the upper class. It helped fuel the industrial revolution and the exploitation of workers.

The choice of Earl Grey tea should not be ignored either. Named after a former British prime minister, it’s come to be associated with the upper class and a 2010 survey suggested Brits think posh people drink Picard’s preferred beverage.

When read in the context of Britain’s history with the tea trade, it’s somewhat problematic to have a very British man, captain of a starship, exploring the galaxy in a heavily armoured vessel (it has a Battle Bridge for a reason), drinking tea. However, Picard’s relationship with the beverage is not as straightforward as his famous order “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot” implies.

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

JLP is depicted drinking hot beverages as early as the pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint”. Yet he doesn’t specifically order Earl Grey tea until midway through the second season in “Contagion” (the Enterprise is experiencing system wide malfunctions so Picard receives a cup of plant instead). He drinks hot beverages of various hues throughout the series so he’s not as devoted to Earl Grey tea as we might think. His tea habit evolves over time, but his tea consumption also parallels evolutions in his personal and professional relationships.

This is not my favourite cup.

Typically, he walks over to the replicator in his Ready Room and orders a single cup. He has a favourite. You know the one; it’s got a black handle that encircles the clear, glass, and beaker-like cup — a visual merger of high school chem class and glassware, creating the 24th century equivalent of the Ikea 365+ line. Unfortunately, even in the future your go-to-cup is occasionally unavailable forcing the most stoic starship captains to go to extremes.

Often, Picard serves crew members and visitors alike with individual cups or glasses of their preferred beverages. This is partly because coffee and Raktajino (its Klingon variant) still have a substantial number of devotees in the 24th century. Deanna Troi, in particular, seems to enjoy the popular beverage and Picard often hands her what looks like a cup of coffee with cream or milk. Picard shines in these moments. Few people match JLP in effortlessly balancing and passing a full cup on a saucer. What may seem like an insignificant skill is no doubt integral for the captain of the Federation flagship; a clumsy hand off or a shaky spill could sink a diplomatic negotiation or lead to Neutral Zone tensions.

Just as Picard’s tea consumption slowly evolves over the course of The Next Generation’s seven seasons, how and when he shares a hot cup with someone does as well. While a cup of tea is the captain’s go to beverage, on certain occasions he uses a tea pot. The switch to using a pot or a full tea set makes all the difference in the world. Except for on rare occasions, the tea pot represents a communal experience for Picard. As the captain of the ship, JLP maintains a distance from the other members of his crew, but often this gap is overcome, old friendships renewed or new ones forged, with a pot of tea.

What follows is a discussion of the tea sets used by JLP either as host or guest. Tea sets used by Picard make up the majority of the china and earthenware highlighted on TNG. In fact, only three tea sets appear on TNG that Picard doesn’t use (The set Moriarty uses when he has tea with Dr. Pulaski in “Elementary, Dear Data,” the set Pulaski and Worf use while participating in the Klingon tea ceremony in addition to the modern set on Prime Minister Granger’s desk in “Up the Long Ladder”).

“Encounter at Farpoint” tea set (“Encounter at Farpoint”)

Just having some tea by myself at an impossible long and reflective table.

This one looks like a coffee percolator and I suppose it’s possible that it is a coffee percolator. However, the pot shape (narrow body with wide base) is a standard, mid-24th century form later popularized on DS9. It’s especially prominent as a cup or mug design on the space station and is used to serve a variety of hot beverages. It’s particularly useful for space travel, as the wide base prevents tipping. In this way, it’s a sort of 24th century update of the Cube teapot, an early-20th century design ideal for naval ships. The pot is primarily white, featuring a crest detail (likely a Starfleet or Federation logo but it’s hard to make out) on both the pot and the cup. Picard never uses such branded tableware again. For its part, the cup features a utility of function. Its ergonomic grip is both minimal and stylish, but Picard resists its ease of use. This episode introduces us to the 24th century and this set communicates Picard’s place as an officer in a paramilitary organization.

Sexy.

This is as close as Picard gets to sharing a pot of tea with Will Riker. While the pair were introduced a bit earlier in the episode on the Battle Bridge, this is their first real interaction and it takes place in the Observation Lounge. Somewhat surprisingly, Picard doesn’t offer Riker a cup (I guess because there isn’t another one on the table?) and proceeds to question his new first officer about away mission protocols.

Yvette Gessard-Picard Heritage Tea Set (“Where No One Has Gone Before”)

heeeeey son

In the fair reaches of the galaxy, where thoughts become reality, Picard encounters his mother, Yvette Gessard-Picard in a corridor with a table set for tea (aww he was thinking about his mom). While not technically real, it’s safe to say this tea set existed at the Picard family home, as it’s part of JLP’s memory.

Maman Picard uses a silver tea set here but unfortunately, it lacks the intricate ornamentation of earlier eras of French design. Over the centuries, French silversmiths and silverware production was negatively impacted by wars and political upheaval. Particularly damaging to the industry was Louis XIV revocation of the Edict of Nantes, forcing Huguenot silversmiths to flee France in 1685, a 1689 law forcing nobles to surrender their silver to the crown to pay for the King’s wars, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars. The reemergence of French silver production at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries with the arrival of Art Noveau and Art Deco styles was significant. While this set mirrors the increasingly streamlined designs of these later eras, it lacks the asymmetry of Art Noveau works and the angularity of Art Deco forms.

Prime Directive Tea Set (“Pen Pals”)