The Tea Scoop

Authenticitea: Historical Teawares Return

I have been MIA for a few days, and I apologize. I was lost in the DeWitt Wallace Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia, and I couldn't find my way out. In fact, something happened that has never happened before. I went into tea overload.  Seriously.  You know that part of the Austin Powers movie, where he dances and the femmebots explode? It was kind of like that, except over teapots instead of Michael Myers hip thrusts. 

We were in Williamsburg from Thursday to Sunday, and I went to the DeWitt Wallace three of those days.  I had been there before, but had spent my time wandering with my husband trying to see everything instead of focusing on single exhibits.  This time, I really wanted to spend some time with their tea exhibits.  

The fact is, there just wasn't enough time. I wanted to photograph everything to show you. It was on the second day that I exploded.  I'd been walking through room after room after room. There were salt-glazed teawares, porcelain, silver, pewter.  There were multiple exhibits on all kinds of different contexts.  Finally, I walked into a room filled with teapots, and just stopped dead in my tracks.  It's not just an expression, folks, I stopped and stared at the walls in front of me and around me.  It was at that point that I gave up for the second day and decided that a new onslaught was required.  

I returned the third day, and Mr. Tea Scoop persuaded me that I need not take a picture of every single object, and that perhaps the gift shop might have a book with some lovely pictures for me to scan and show you.  Alas, it did not, and the last leg of the journey remained unphotographed. 

The saddest part of my attempt to photograph thousands (no exaggeration) of tea objects was that I did not spend nearly enough time enjoying them as they were.  I took photographs of the objects and of the captions that explained them. No time for taking notes, not with thousands of things to look at.  

Luckily, we have year-long passes and only live three hours away. We are planning a day-trip in December to look at the (historically inaccurate) Christmas decorations in the historic area and to visit Busch Gardens Christmas Town with some friends.  I believe all of the exhibits I saw were permanent exhibits, so they should still be there.

In short, prepare yourself for several days of photo-laden posts.  I took hundreds of pictures, but I will only share with you the highlights. If I shared them all, it would take months.  Check back tomorrow for Top Ten Tuesdays: Highlights of the Dewitt Wallace.  

Remember, Remember

"Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot."

This bit of popular verse is in reference to Guy Fawkes Day, a holiday celebrated in Britain in commemoration of the successful foiling of the Gunpowder Plot.

The verse was repopularized recently by the movie V for Vendetta, a dystopian story centered around that infamous date, which just so happens to be today's date. I happen to be quite a fan of that movie, as well as having an interest in English history.  

In honor of the fifth of November, have a cup of Gunpowder green tea.  This Chinese green tea gets its name from the first Europeans who saw the tightly rolled leaves, and decided that they resembled their more explosive namesake. 

Charlton's Coffeehouse

If you are considering a visit to Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia, I highly recommend putting off your visit until November 20th or after. On November 20th, Colonial Williamsburg will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Charlton's Coffeehouse, currently under construction.  When the coffeehouse opens, customers will be able to enjoy drinking chocolate, coffee, and tea, while learning about 18th century coffeehouse culture. Actors will play the part of Mr. and Mrs. Charlton. 

If you can't make a visit during the ribbon cutting ceremony, the holiday season is a lovely time to take a vacation to this part of Virginia and the nation's history. The town bedecks itself in greens and other wonderful decorations. Visitors can learn about holiday traditions in colonial America and special events are held daily. There is even an evening of dance at the Governor's Palace.

So visit Williamsburg this holiday season and warm yourself at Charlton's Coffeehouse. 

The British East India Company

In case you don't follow the English Tea Blog, I recently wrote two articles for those folks about the history of the British East India Company as it related to tea. It was a two part article, which you can read here and here. Tea and the fate of the company were inextricably intertwined. 

Just a note, the East India Trading Company in Pirates of the Caribbean was a fictional company loosely based on the actual company.  Read the Wikipedia article about the fictional company for more information. 

The History of Tea's Health Claims

Health claims have been made about tea from its earliest days in China and continue to this day. You can hardly search Google for tea without being inundated with ads for weight loss tea or teas that will cure cancer. However, as we have examined before, tea's effect on human health is still being studied. That didn't stop 17th century tea merchant Thomas Garawy from making a list of the "vertues" of tea in his advertisements. Some of his claims:

• "It maketh the body active and lusty."
• "It is very good against the Stone and Gravel, cleansing the Kidneys and Uriters, being drank with Virgins Honey instead of Sugar."
• "It prevents and cures Agues, Surfets and Feavers, by infusing a fit quantity of the Leaf, therby provoking a most gentle Vomit and breathing of the Pores, and hath been given with wonderful success."

Fortunately, tea has never provoked a "most gentle vomit" in my case.  But it just goes to show that health claims are frequently unfounded. 

(The list was found in Beatrice Hohenegger's Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West  Read her book for more of this lovely list along with a great deal of other interesting tea history). 

Tang Dynasty Teacups

Since I'm a bit of an 18th century history buff, most of my history posts tend towards that description. But let us not forget that China has a much longer and richer tea history than anywhere else.  In that vein, I wanted to share something I stumbled across on a LiveJournal community, teafortwo. User iguanahey shared his search for Tang Dynasty teacups. This is reprinted with his permission.

"I've been curious about trying out Tang Dynasty style tea brewing for a while, but it's hard to find any of the 28 tools that Lu Yu describes in the Ch'a Ching (the first real book on tea, written in the 8th century). This past weekend I visited The Best Tea House in Richmond B.C. which is known for their selection of hard-to-find items (tea re-roasters, antique gaiwans, etc) and causally mentioned to my wife that if nothing else, I'd like to find Tang Dynasty style tea cups. 

Tea cups of the late Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty pre-date what we think of as tea cups. Before that time tea was brewed rather like a soup (sometimes including bits of onion, salt, orange peel and whatnot) and drunk out of a bowl. By the late Tang tea was drunk for its own sake, and although it was still drunk out of bowls they'd become much smaller. Thus Tang Dynasty tea cups are really tiny shallow bowls that hold a little puddle of tea. Viewed on edge they look like a very wide-angled triangle with the base as the tip.

Oddly The Best Tea House didn't have any, but when we visited our next stop, Spring Cottage Tea House, we asked the owner if he had any. He knew immediately what we meant and unlocked a cabinet to show us a special-order set to Tang cups that were already sold -- they were hand-painted with delicate bamboo accents and sold for $360 for a set of six cups!! He then found a set of factory-made Tang cups in the same cabinet, but couldn't remember how much they were supposed to cost -- he offered them to us for $4 each and we jumped at the chance.

Now I'd just wanted the cup for novelty purposes until we found the rest of the Tang Dynasty tea brewing equipment, but I was really, really surprised at how different the tea experience is with this sort of tea cup. 

It's so broad and shallow that when you drink from it the tea doesn't pour into your mouth; instead it slowly ebbs in like the tide, while the puddle of tea is all about under your nose. 

The effect is that the aroma is much, much more apparent and the taste creeps slowly washes over your tongue, coating it gradually. This brings out a lot of the more delicate tea flavors that are normally lost. It makes creamy greens seem ten times creamier, and aged pu-erhs much more complex and broad. 

We've spent the last few days taking out all sorts of favorite teas and trying them with this new cup, discovering new nuances to appreciate.

If you ever get a chance to pick up a Tang Dynasty style cup, I highly, highly, highly recommend it!"

He has me quite intrigued and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for such cups.

Here are pictures of the cups:

Notice that when the cup is filled, the subtle image of an embossed dragon appears in the bottom of the cup. What a wonderful optical illusion!

A Visit to the Eighteenth Century

Recently, you may noticed that my love of history and my love of tea have been taking long strolls together.  This trend continued over the weekend when I assisted in hosting an 18th century style tea party.  The event was held at Fort Frederick State Park. 

The Menu:

Rosewater Scones
Queen Cakes
Shrewsbury Biscuits
Almond Tarts
Molasses Cookies
Clotted Cream
Jams
Lemon Curd

The Tea:

Adagio's Assam 

The menu stayed faithful to recipes (or receipts) from the eighteenth century, and we used a sugar cone and sugar nippers. We strayed a bit from authenticity in the dishes, as we did not have enough eighteenth century tea ware. In addition, it was not quite period correct to use Assam, as Indian teas were not being cultivated at this time.  Eighteenth century tea drinkers would have been drinking tea imported only from China. 

On top, you see the queen cakes, which are much like mini muffins, flavored with currants, rosewater, and mace (similar to nutmeg). 

Here are some delicious rosewater scones, prepared by "Charlotte Clift."

Here you see a cone of sugar and some sugar nippers in action.  Apparently, it takes a bit of practice to use these with finesse. We ended up with sugar all over the table. 

Of course, technically, the entire idea of afternoon tea is a mid-nineteenth century idea, but certainly ladies of the eighteenth century did serve tea as a social activity, sans tea sandwiches. 

Something Fishy About Tea

Over on the English Tea Blog, I wrote part two of an article about the Boston Tea Party and why the tea tax and tea parties were such a big deal. Read all about it here!

Authenticitea: Historical Teawares

This Sunday, Mr. Tea Scoop and I ventured over to the homes of Founding Fathers George Washington and George Mason. Mount Vernon and its owner are of course already famous, but George Mason is one of the forgotten Founding Fathers as he refused to sign the Constitution because, at the time, it lacked a Bill of Rights. History lesson aside, his estate, Gunston Hall, is quite a lovely place to visit, with sprawling lawns, a beautiful house only slightly more modest than Mount Vernon, and an air of serenity.  Mount Vernon, being a major tourist attraction, is beautiful but much more crowded. Both sites have lovely little museums, and Gunston Hall just happens to have a display or two on our favorite topic.  

This 18th century teapot, made of red stoneware, copied Chinese patterns but was manufactured in England.  The English also imported porcelain teawares until they perfected the process for themselves. 

This 1745 painting shows an English family having tea.  Notice the formal postures and the fashionable porcelain teaware on the table. Afternoon tea moved tea away from the male controlled coffeehouses to the parlor, the domain of the woman of the household. Afternoon tea may also have included music or games, such as card games. 

In the lower lefthand corner, you can see the stand that accompanies this enamel on copper tea kettle, used to bring hot water to the table.  This example was imported from China in the mid to late 18th century. 

In the 18th century, sugar did not come loose as it does today, or even in the cubes that we are accustomed to seeing on fancy tea tables.  Sugar came pressed into a cone shape wrapped in blue paper, and it was necessary to use sugar nippers, such as this pair, to pinch off lumps for use in tea. From this came the oft-repeated question: "One lump or two?"  

On the right, you see a cream pot of soft paste porcelain.  The English who began the tradition of putting milk in tea commented on the American taste for even richer tastes for the milk and cream in their tea. The silver tea pot from the late eighteenth century may have been given as a gift to commemorate a special occasion. 

Notice that this teacup or tea bowl lacks handles. This teacup follows the Chinese fashion, perhaps because green tea was brewed at a lower temperature. 

This 1760 sugar bowl followed English designs rather than Chinese, since the addition of sugar and cream to tea was an English custom, not a Chinese one.  You can see that the decoration is very English in feel. 

In case you have trouble reading the caption, this spoon was used to strain tea leaves from the cup. The spoon has a barbed tip to assist in removed tea leaves from a clogged teapot spout. I would love to add one of these to my collection!

This picture was taken in one of the upstairs bedrooms of Gunston Hall, where one of his many daughters might have taken tea in her bedroom.  Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures below of the closet where Mrs. Mason would have locked up her tea (in her bedroom). Notice the sugar nippers on the left side of the table. 

In the lower level of Gunston Hall, where photography was not permitted, the front parlor was home to something called a "tea kitchen." This was a large silver urn for keeping hot water warm. The top screwed off to add water and also to remove and heat an iron ring to keep the water hot through the afternoon. 

Tea was such a prevalent part of society in the 18th century that Mount Vernon also had a great deal of tea paraphernalia on display in the mansion, but unfortunately, photography was not allowed.  I'm hoping to pay a visit to the Dewitt Wallace Museum in Williamsburg, which was a much more extensive collection of tea wares. 

The Biggest Tea Party

Boston, 1773. Disguised men climb aboard a ship in Boston Harbor and throw all of its cargo, a shipment of tea, overboard, caffeinating an untold number of fishies. But why? And why was it such a big deal to have a tax on tea anyways?

Read my article on the English Tea Blog to find out!