Perhaps you have been watching the new Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Persuasion and you wondered about the type of tea her characters drank. Tea historian Bruce Richardson describes the tea habits of Jane Austen and her characters in Regency England.
Robert Fortune Why can’t we grow tea in America? We can, and we now do. The history of tea planting in the United States can be traced to the years just prior to The Civil War. On July 21, 1857, Charles Mason, United State Commissioner of Patents, wrote to his seed suppliers in London to…
"Where can I experience the best afternoon tea in London?" is a question I am asked again and again as my friends and readers prepare for their first trip to England. I've been writing about the tea scene in London for over 20 years and have had ample opportunities to sit at countless tea…
The international panel of judges - Jane Pettigrew, Kevin Gascoyne, Bruce Richardson and, Selena Ahmed - pose with event organizer Eva Lee (center) in front of the TOTUS Awards display at Volcano Village, Hawaii.The first Teas of the United States (TOTUS) competition was held on the Big Island of Hawaii November 4-7. I was delighted…
Jane Pettigrew chats with Bruce Richardson over tea at The Athenaeum.I had the opportunity recently to preview the new Gentleman's Afternoon Tea offered at London's 5-star Hotel Athenaeum, located in fashionable Mayfair on Piccadilly across from Green Park. Afternoon tea unfolds here every day in the sunny Garden Room, enclosed on one side by the hotel’s unique ‘Living Wall’ – home to…
The song “Everything Stops For Tea” was first performed by Scotsman Jack Buchanan and featured in the 1935 musical film Come Out Of The Pantry, which was set in New York. In Great Britain, everything did stop for tea throughout the first half of the 1900s as British workers took their tea break. By 1900,…
I had the opportunity to return to the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia last month for TeaTime magazine’s Occasion for Tea. The other speakers included Jane Pettigrew, Norwood Pratt, Shelley Richardson, and editor Lorna Reeves. We were joined by 70 devoted tea enthusiasts from across the United States and Canada for a weekend of…
America’s great twentieth-century tea party was stoked by three remarkable social phenomena 1) the advent of the automobile, 2) the temperance movement, and 3)· women’s quest for equality. Put a thoroughly modern woman into the driver’s seat of a Ford, ban alcohol, build good roads that spiral out of major cities into the scenic countryside, and you…