The Tea Scoop

Tea Bricks

Tea bricks pop up from time to time. They can be quite decorative, and should remain as decoration, as they are frequently stale. Virginia Mescher wrote the following about brick tea. She has a mission to correct misconceptions about brick tea in the 18th and 19th centuries, so the following is posted with her permission. 

"There were a number of compressed teas produced in China. Brick tea made for Russia (higher quality tea that was placed into molds compressed under extreme pressure and dried or coarse tea leaves and dust were pressed and dried. When consumed this tea was infused.) and those made for Tibet and Mongolia (fermented leaves were steamed and mixed with glutinous rice water and other binding substances and pressed into molds. This type of tea was usually boiled with butter, salt and grain which formed some a type of soup.)

I have numerous primary source accounts from 19th century sources that mention tea bricks as being only consumed in Russia, Mongolia and Tibet. These sources date from 1804 through the 1890s

Another type of tea headed for Tibet was baled. The bales were only used to transport the tea (weeds and tea plants were cut together) to the factories were the tea was processed. The bales weighed between 90 to 160 pounds depending upon the shape. As far a I know the bales were only used for transport to Tibet, not to the western world as there were not tea processors in the west in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Cake tea is what we call puerh tea. It is an aged tea that is made into flat and circular cakes about 8" in diameter. It was used mostly as a medicine and a digestive. I don't recall ever seeing a mention of it being imported into the western world. It was probably brought over in the 19th century when the Chinese were brought over as laborers. 

Tablet tea was made of fine tea dust and each weighed a few ounces each. The dust was placed in small molds and pressed. There is some evidence that some of these were made for the European market but I've not seen any mention of them. 

Ball tea was tea that was compressed into a ball to protect it from changes in humidity and other problems. Caper tea is another name for this type of tea. These balls differed in size and could be quite large. I also did not find any evidence that this type of tea was exported to the western world. 

In my research on compressed teas, I found something very interesting; in all the information and directions on making tea, there was nothing about how to prepare tea bricks (the hard ones need to be cut with a hatchet) or any other compressed tea. It would seem if the compressed tea was common enough to be imported to the colonies that we would see some instructions on how to prepare it. 

I'm not saying that I have read every book and diary written that contained information about tea. A sea captain or traveler could have brought back a compressed tea as a novelty and prepared it but I really can't see a lady serving a portion of brick tea in the Mongolian style. 

Until the 1840s, tea was only produced in China and there were many types of tea produced. (Japan had been cultivating tea for centuries but due to their isolation policy tea was not exported until after 1859.) Native Assam tea had been cultivated in that region of India since 1815 but it was not recognized until 1831; the Assam tea did not taste good and is usually used in blends rather than used alone. Robert Fortune, in 1848, was commissioned by the East India to sneak into China and obtain tea seeds and learn how the Chinese processed their tea. The tea was to be planted in the Himalayan area of India which was comparable to the best tea growing region of China. Fortune was successful and the Darjeeling Tea Company was established in 1860. 

Tea was not grown commercially in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) until 1867 and not exported to the west (London) until 1873. "

Tea Kitchens

Also known as tea urns or tea warmers, these eighteenth century devices either had burners or iron elements that could be heated to keep water warm for tea.  These are from the Dewitt Wallace Museum.  Enjoy this photo post!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!