Was brick tea thrown overboard at the Boston Tea Party? Tea historian Bruce Richardson shreds that myth.
Was Brick Tea Thrown Overboard at the Boston Tea Party?
Twankey Tea Takes on a New Role
Chinese worker rolling Twankey green tea using his feet.Not all tea was of equal quality during the 18th century. Two sometimes distasteful Chinese teas commonly found in London and Boston were Bohea (black) and Twankey (green).Both would likely be passed over by today’s savvy tea buyers. One reason for the appearance of these poor teas…
How did tea get its name?
A Country House Teatime in Somerset, England."The thing we call a tea would taste just as sweet if we called it by any other name."How differently would the words of Juliet have sounded if only Shakespeare had known the beverage we call tea? It's too bad that the Chinese beverage would not appear in London…
Tea at Kew Palace with King George III
Kew Palace from the back garden on the River Thames side. © Bruce RichardsonOn the morning of October 25, 1760, George II died suddenly at Kensington Palace. His eldest son, Frederick, had died eight years earlier and the crown therefore went to Frederick’s first son, the 22 year old George. This young king’s boyhood had been…
The Tea Examiner of 1939
Official tea taster employed by the US government. Notice the spittoon close at hand.The country’s seven most important tea drinkers met on February 18, 1939, to tabulate what they thought of samples of the beverage they savored during five days of official tasting. They were chosen by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace to select…
Tea Knowledge in 1832
One of my favorite tea artifacts is a copy of THE PENNY MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, published in London in April 28, 1832. The front page of that edition contains a lengthy essay on the production of tea in China. Here is a short snippet from that treatise -It…