Tam O'Braan, Scottish Tea Grower Tam O’Braan’s tall tale of Scottish-grown tea continues to steep in the pages of the British press. Dawn Thompson, writer for The Sottish Mail on Sunday reports this week that Aberdeen scientists have proven that the Scottish Dalreoch White Tea O’Braan sold to Fortnum & Mason and other posh merchants –…
Japan has been a leading innovator in tea hybridization, cultivation, and manufacture since the end of the 19th century. The country is the 8th largest producer of tea in the world, supplying 2% of the international demand. Since the first Japanese tea was exported to The United States in 1859, we have been one of…
My wife and I have found great delight in introducing our grandson to the ritual of tea. Green, strawberry, or black with lots of milk, Davis is enthralled with all the tea families and takes great pleasure in pouring the tea from his tiny teapot into his porcelain cup with the giraffe handle. He gives…
William of Orange, Husband of Queen Mary, Kensington Palace Every tea seller tells a story about a customer who sent back their pot of Orange Pekoe tea because it did not taste of oranges. How can this be? The answer to the disappointed drinker’s dilemma may be found in the fact that, while Orange Pekoe…
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 April…
Throughout the culture of tea, the name Taiwan—formerly Formosa—is synonymous with classic oolongs. The island country accounts for about 20% of all oolongs produced worldwide. I traveled there recently to explore their legendary tea culture and observe the harvest of Oriental Beauty, one of the most prized teas in any oolong collection. In 1542,…
The iconic clipper ship Cutty Sark has come back to life in her new Greenwich dry dock on the eastern edge of London, not far from where tea clippers once brought endless cargos of tea into the warehouses of the East India Company. Her journey here was not without incident, and we are fortunate to have…
Tea may not be the first beverage visitors think of when visiting Bordeaux but, during my first visit to France's sixth largest city, I was delighted to find a vibrant tea culture where several traditional and contemporary tea shops, as well as salons du thé, are doing a brisk business. If you have already explored Paris…
My typical breakfast routine in France is a fresh croissant with butter and preserves and accompanied by a cup of café au lait. But in Bordeaux, I broke with routine and enjoyed my most memorable French breakfast in the company of friends and seated at the baker’s table of Au Pétrin Moissagais. There we ate thick slices…
Of the world’s three great temperance beverages–cocoa, tea, and coffee–cocoa was the first to be introduced by the Spanish into Europe in 1528. A century later, the Dutch brought tea to Europe. Finally, coffee made its European debut in 1615, thanks to Venetian traders.From the onset, cocoa, tea, and coffee were afforded only by wealthy families.…