Cafe owner pours tea in a London street.As German bombs fell on London in September 1939, the British tea industry faced a dilemma they had feared for some time. How would they protect the commodity that fueled an empire? That fuel was tea.Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, recounted the tumultuous time: “When London was being persistently…
Recycling Used Tea Leaves in the 18th Century
Print by T. Rowlandson c.1810 British MuseumTea was an exotic new beverage during the 1700s and there were few directions on how to steep the expensive leaves cultivated on the other side of the globe. There were no tea books and steeping suggestions were not included with your purchase because tea would not come in…
Teaspoon Etiquette of the 18th Century
Teaspoons played a very important part in the etiquette of tea drinking. The Prince de Broglie recorded how he was taught the complexities of etiquette while on a visit to England in 1782:“I partook of most excellent tea and I should be even now still drinking it, I believe, if the Ambassador had not charitably…
When to Add Milk to Tea
The habit of putting milk in tea reportedly started in France. Madame de Sévigné described how Madame de la Sablière launched the fashion: Madame de Ia Sahlière took her tea with milk, as she told me the other day, because it was to her taste.Much of the tea produced in India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya is…