The Tea Maestro
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FeaturedTaking Tea with Mackintosh
The advent of the tearoom came about in 1875 when Glasgow tea retailer Stuart Cranston hit upon a simple idea for encouraging customers to sample his teas. He provided tables and seating for 16 people at his Queen Street store and advertised a cup of China tea “with milk and sugar for two pence–bread and… Read more
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FeaturedSix Skills to Sharpen Your Teatime Etiquette
Tea author Bruce Richardson shares his advice on developing skills that help everyone feel comfortable at afternoon tea events in London and beyond.
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Who Was Earl Grey?
Earl Grey is a name that has been synonymous with tea drinking for over a century. It ranks at the top of the list of the five most recognized teas in western society. It is, after all, the favorite flavored tea in the world, and its derivatives are legion – Lady Grey, Earl Grey Lavender,… Read more
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Seven Steps to Making Good Tea
At the conclusion of my lectures, I am often asked, “Can I heat my tea water in a microwave?” The straight answer is “yes.” However, my question to the inquirer is, “Will the use of a microwave add to your sense of ritual?” Most tea professionals will forego a microwave in favor of a proper… Read more
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FeaturedThe 6 BEST TEAS of 2020
As 2020 drew to a close, I looked back on the exceptional teas that came my way throughout the year – even as gardens experienced temporary lockdowns and shipments from Asia encountered delays. While I was unable to visit gardens in person, I continue to search for teas that represent the classic taste profile from… Read more
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Featured5 Facts You Don’t Know About the Boston Tea Party
December 16 marks the anniversary of one of the most iconic events in American history. On that night in 1773, about 150 men disguised their faces and tossed 340 chests of tea from three ships docked in Boston Harbor. The already contentious relationship between the colonists and their English overseers deteriorated even further until, on… Read more
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FeaturedWhat Tea Would 007 Drink?
What if Sean Connery as James Bond had been a teetotaler rather than a expert? What tea would he drink to leave us shaken, not stirred?
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FeaturedJane Austen Describes Tea Etiquette in Northanger Abbey
Throughout the novels of Jane Austen, detailed tea scenes help up know the tea rituals of the British upper class in the early 1800s. In Northanger Abbey, Austen sets the stage in the Assembly Rooms of Bath, where Regency-era rules of etiquette leads to an embarrassing situation at the communal tea table. First, readers must… Read more
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FeaturedCOVID-19 Locked Down the Tea Gardens in Assam. Then The Floods Came.
The 800 tea gardens of Assam have experienced one of their most challenging growing seasons in history this year. At the outbreak of the COVID-19, the government ordered the shutdown of all tea plucking, fertilizing, and pest management activities for three weeks. That closure slowed the spread of the virus and provided the opportunity to… Read more
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FeaturedWhat Is a Dish of Tea?
It was a common occurrence in the Colonial era to receive an invitation to “share a dish of tea.” In 18th century Boston or Bath, a dish of tea referred to a teacup or tea bowl, containing black or green tea, placed on a saucer.
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FeaturedWhich Countries Ship the Most Tea to the United States?
Where does America get most of its tea? Statistics just released from the Tea Association of the United States indicate that the major tea producing countries continue their usual rankings in tonnage exported to the U.S.A through the first four months of this year. World tea supplies have seen some disruption as producing countries deal… Read more
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FeaturedThe Women’s Right to Vote Movement Started with a Tea Party
Early suffragists spent years, and in some cases entire lifespans advocating for the right to vote. Many of their meetings were infused with tea.
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FeaturedLook Deeply Into Your Cup of Tea
May 21 is International Tea Day, a day when we believers in the communal cup of humanity gather to spread the good news of our favorite beverage. Teaists are all part of this colorful cult of tea that has simmered worldwide for over a thousand years. Although Westerners are new comers to this global tea… Read more
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FeaturedWhen Monkeys Picked Tea
I received a call a few years ago from an MTV staffer who was producing a story on “manly teas.” He had been offered a monkey-picked oolong in a tea store. He was fascinated about this rare tea and thought it would be appealing for his male audience. “How do they train monkeys to pick… Read more
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FeaturedBlending Teas for Yale’s Center for British Art
Tea Maestro Bruce Richardson designed signature tea blends based upon art work found in the Yale Center for British Art. Read the story and see the photos of this creative endeavor.
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FeaturedIs Bottled Tea Actually Healthy?
You can’t turn the aisle in the supermarket these days without running headlong into an endcap stocked with bottles of RTD (ready-to-drink) green tea. Bottled tea is a $2.2 billion consumer market. As the popularity of these beverages continues to skyrocket, my customers ask if they are really getting the health benefits they expect. The… Read more
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FeaturedIn Search of Oriental Beauty in the Tea Fields of Taiwan
Oriental Beauty, one of the world’s great oolongs, begins with bug-bitten tea leaves from the mountain tea gardens of Taiwan.
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FeaturedIs Chinese Tea Safe To Drink?
I was in Shanghai between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, just as the first mention of a mysterious virus was beginning to appear in the news. I returned two weeks before travel from China was banned and I continue to stay in touch with Chinese industry officials as well as with importers here in America.… Read more
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FeaturedDuck in for Afternoon Tea at the Peabody Hotel Memphis
Bruce Richardson reviews the afternoon tea service at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and stays to interview the hotel’s Duck Master before the the daily duck parade.
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FeaturedThe Dutch First Brought Tea to America
The earliest reference to the use of tea in Holland appears in a letter dated January 2, 1637, from the “Lords XVII,” the name by which the seventeen directors of the Dutch East India Company were popularly known, to the Governor General of Netherlands East India at Batavia. It reads: As tea begins to come… Read more
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FeaturedYour Chance to Own a Crooked Tearoom
The medieval Suffolk village of Lavenham has more than 300 half-timbered homes and now you can own one of their most photographed buildings — if you don’t mind slanting floors and you can afford the £525,000 price tag. Everyl Madell once ran the popular Munnings Tea Room on the first floor. Unfortunately, the longtime establishment… Read more
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FeaturedTea for Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was an early “foodie” and his great passion for food and drink included Chinese teas, both black and green. According to the archives of Monticello, Jefferson’s financial records and correspondence show consistent purchases of tea and provide valuable information about the kinds and amounts of tea he and his family drank. The few… Read more
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FeaturedKagoshima – Japan’s Second Largest Tea Growing Prefecture
As America’s demand for Japanese green tea exploded in the 1880s, large commercial tea gardens were planted further south in Kagoshima Prefecture
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