Tea in London was first announced via a coffee house advertisement in the September 2, 1658 edition of The Gazette, a London weekly news pamphlet of seven pages, the first four of which declared the momentous death of Oliver Cromwell.
That Excellent, and by all Physitians approved, China Drink called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alais [sic] Tee, is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.
Tea surely had no better timing for the announcement of the drink and its pleasures, and neither had the new Chinese import a better venue nor audience, for the readers of The Gazette were intensely focused on the latest news and novelties of the day. The proprietor of the Sultaness Head Coffee House made doubly sure of spreading the news by running the same advertisement a fortnight later in a competing weekly, the Mercurius Politicus, published September 23-30. Printed on the last pages of the news pamphlets, these trailers were the first public notices of brewed tea dipped from a barrel.