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…
5 Facts You Don’t Know About the Boston Tea Party
Boston and British Ships of War Landing Their Troops, 1768 by Paul Revere 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…
Jane Austen Describes Tea Etiquette in Northanger Abbey
The Daily Promenade at Bath. 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…
The Tea Things of Jane Austen
What tea did Jane Austen drink? And what role did tea play in her novels?This Regency period writer often used tea as a literary tool to bring the sexes together, and the term tea things was frequently employed to set the stage for conversation. In Sense and Sensibility, Elinor attends a social gathering at…
The 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.
Look Deeply Into Your Cup of Tea
Plucking leaves in Guizhou China. 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…
What Is the Perfect Morning Tea?
Fans of Downton Abbey may be fascinated—and a bit envious—of the Crawley daughters' morning ritual of awakening to a tray of hot tea placed upon their recumbent laps by their ladies' maids. I suspect the grand estate house was quite drafty; consequently, more than a few cups of hot tea were consumed before the pampered…
When 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…
In 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.
Duck 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.