Peace In a Bowl of Tea

I like a nice cup of tea in the morning for the start of the day you see,
and at half past eleven.
Well, my idea of heaven is a nice cup of tea.
I like a nice cup of tea for my dinner,
and a nice cup of tea with by tea.
And when it’s time for bed, there is a lot to be said,
for a nice cup of tea.

These few lines enhance the writer's fondness for his first choice of beverage – tea. This script was composed by no less a person than the famous British writer, Sir A.P.Herbert at a time when the habit of tea drinking was constantly on the rise.

To the Chinese who discovered the tea plant, and to the Japanese who refined the art of tea drinking, it has long ceased to be neither a habit, nor an art. It has become a way of life. This basic way of tea could be explained with four Japanese characters.

“WA” means harmony,
“KET” means respect
“SAI” means purity, both worldly and spiritual, and
“JAKU” could be translated to mean tranquillity or peace of mind.

Tradition has it that the powdered green tea that Zen monks brought when they returned from their studies in China in the thirteenth century was the beginning of the tea ceremony in Japan that is practised even now. It would however appear strange today, in the world of high speed, fast tempo, and the like, that so much time, labour and energy are spent on this slow but dignified ritual.

The search for nutritional values in tea started long after the people had developed a taste for tea. It took an extended duration for research scientists to work out any tolerable discoveries on the links between tea consumption and its therapeutic values. Tea was accepted in the world purely for its accepted goodness.

The tea drinking habit, thanks to the Seventh Duke of Bedford, has now been well founded on the Western sector, though lacking in all these original rituals. Let’s revert to the all-important subject regarding the nutritious value of tea. In a publication, “All About Tea,” William H. Ukers has indexed a digest of scientific, medical and popular opinions expressed by competent authorities, collected from newspapers periodicals, and from research papers presented by renowned scientists. Reproduced below are some of the conclusions arrived at by those distinguished personalities.

Tea as a wholesome drink - Tea is very wholesome, since it produces many good effects but only a few bad ones. We see some people who will drink ten or twelve dishes a day without any hurt at all. It is good for the disorders of the brain and nerves. It refreshes the spirit. It agrees at all times with any age and constitution. - Doctor Louis Lemery

Tea an aid to the liver - We may say of these nitrogenous compounds, caffeine or theine, that they are food for the liver, since they contain the elements by the presence of which that organ is enabled to perform its functions. - Baron Justus Von Liebig

The psychological value of tea - It has a strange influence over mood, a strange power of changing the look of things, and changing it for the better, so that we can believe and hope and do under the influence of tea what we should otherwise give up in discouragement and despair; feeling under the influence of which tissues wear rapidly. - The Lancet London

The drink of sobriety - Tea, not only contributes to the sobriety of a nation, but it imparts all the charms to society which spring from the enjoyment of conversation, without the excitement that follow after strong drink. -C.W. Chancellor

The drink of pleasure and of health - In the forenoon, or heat of the day, a kind cup of tea is more cooling, calming, and invigorating than wine. It is not so soon followed by the reaction that craves repetition of the stimulant to the injury of health. - Gordon Stables

Tea a nerve nutrient - In reference to my suggestion to give children tea, I may explain that it is done intentionally. Making allowances for a few exceptions, there is probably no real objection to their use even at early ages. They rouse the dull, calm the excitable, prevent headaches, and fit the brain for work. To stigmatise these invaluable articles of diet as “nerve stimulants” is to me an erroneous expression. They have a right to be ranked as “nerve nutrients." - Sir Jonathan Hutchinson

Tea cures brain fag - I cannot understand how there can be any discussion upon the effect of tea and the result to the nervous system. In moderation, tea helps the average person. A woman spends the day in hunting bargains, and gets home in the evening thoroughly worn out. She is in that condition is known as “brain fag," and has resort to a cup of tea. Within a few minutes she feels refreshed and has a characteristic sense of well-being. - George Lloyd Magruder

Tea promotes cerebration - Tea, coffee and cocoa, are true promoters of increased cerebration, but alcohol in whatever form, whether in the shape of the delicate and seductive champagne or vulgar pot house beer, is a paralytic from the first. Tea and its fellows promote the action of the mental faculties. Alcohol on the other hand, is a depressant. - William Stirling

The stuff to feed the troops - In the war that I witnessed in Manchuria, two nations were engaged which are known as tea drinkers. The exertion they put forth no one can appreciate who had not seen them. In the summer the heat was humid and stiffing, and alternated with torrential rain, so that the roads were always muddy and marching became a painful fatigue. In the great battles, the troops marched and fought day after day, night after night, were always under fire, had little food and little sleep, they were terribly fatigued, but never collapsed. They brewed a cup of tea and on they went. Nothing quite so satisfied thirst on a hot day as a cup of tea. Nothing quite so well stifled a growling stomach, so quickly warmed up a frame stiffened with cold as a glass of tea. When the saddle without food, for thirty-six hours or more, nothing so restored the physical balance as a glass of tea, and my first care in getting into camp was to have my canteen filled with weak tea. - Captain Carl Reichmann

Tea for the aged - Tea is mildly stimulating to the nervous system, refreshes the mental machinery, and relives bodily fatigue. For headaches arising from “run down nerves” it often affords prompt surcease. Many elderly people find tea particularly satisfying and soothing after reaching a period of life when the functional activity of the stomach is gradually weakened. At this time, when “the shadows are lengthening” and the digestive department finds difficult in furnishing a sufficiency of heat and energy units, generous libations of tea often cheer up the fagging stomach and intestines, enabling them to perform their necessary tasks. - George M. Niles

More mental and physical work - Even in small doses, one cup of tea or coffee per day acts as a stimulant to nerve or muscle tissue. The general results of the action of caffeine upon the nervous system are to increase the reflex irritability of the cerebral cortex. Mental functions primarily improve. Ideas flow more rapidly. The threshold stimulus of all the senses is lowered. The sense of fatigue is lessened. Wakefulness supervenes, and mental and physical inertia is dissipated. - Wilse Robinson.

Tea the saviour of civilisation - Tea has been one of the saviours of humanity. I verily believe that but for the introduction of tea and coffee, Europe might have drunk itself to death. - Sir James Crichton-Browne.

Tea induces tranquillity - The famous Canadian doctor now comes out to plead for afternoon tea as a tranquilliser, an inducer of the meditative, the inventive, the creative frame of mind. There is something vital beneath the trivial teacup chatter. Afternoon tea, he regards as a valuable promoter of efficiency of the most practical hard-headed sort. It has been tried out on factories, large officers, department stores, banks (Canadian or English, and to some slight degree in America, it has gained foothold) and greater output and better quality of work results from the twenty minutes breaks for refreshments.

At a tea party Dr Benting aptly remarked that it was one of the best and most grateful promoters of friendly understanding. The brief period of peaceful meditation before we put the finishing touches to our daily task is a habit and a ritual of priceless value, he argues. It is not merely a pleasure, it is a psychic balance of most vital potency.

If there is one thing we Americans need, it is a few minutes off each day to take time to think, to ask ourselves why all the hurry, wither all the excitement is leading us. I like the idea of the 4 o’clock recess. – F.G.Banting

A necessity of modern life - Tea may be regarded as almost a necessity of modern life, a stimulating and harmless beverage, giving a fillip to a jaded brain and heart at the time of the day when it is most needed. It forms a most welcome change in flavour from coffee, and no ill effects accrue, neither nerving, cardiac, or dyspeptic, if properly prepared from good quality leaves and taken in moderation. - J. Campbell

Tea drinking promotes slenderness - Tea and coffee drinking causes much less injury than over-eating. An important thing to consider in these days when young and old are desirous of a svelte appearance, and when overeating is the commonest vice of each group. Indeed, these beverages lessen the sense of hunger and thus, to some extent, prevent overeating. - Hugh A.McGuigan

Too many alarmists - I do not believe that tea and coffee is harmful if used in reasonable quantities. It is my opinion that we have too many extremists and alarmists in the medical profession and among the laity as well. -F.H. Barnes.

Critics of tea not sincere - Tea and coffee are harmless to the vast majority of healthy people when used in moderation. Most of the prejudices and fear existing in people’s minds with reference to tea and coffee have been created by shrewdly worded advertisements of fake substitutes. - Charles D. Lockwood

Adaptability Of Tea

"Nowhere in the English prodigy of domesticity more notably evidenced than in the festival of afternoon tea," declared George Gissing (1857-1903) in private papers of Henry Ryecroft. "One of the shining moments of my day is that when, having returned a little weary from an afternoon walk. I exchange boots for slippers, out-of-doors coat for easy familiar shabby jacket, and in my deep soft elbowed chair, await the tea tray."

The fascinating story of tea, innovating from the colourful legend of the tea plant springing from the eyelids of a slumberous Chinese sage, to the branded packages that adorn our grocer's shelves, it has enjoyed a flawless record, to become the world's most favourite drink.

Originating in the East, tea has come a long way in conquering the world as the universal drink. It is taken so much for granted that its singularity as a natural drink is not generally recognised. It is one of the most adaptable commodities in the world with a diversity of uses, and with a history extending over several centuries.

Tea as a wholesome drink was launched in China. It was initially regarded a much priced health drink, consumed mainly for its medical properties. Many were the ancient Chinese epigrams fabricated to project the health giving properties of tea. "A daily cup of tea or more keeps you out of the drug store." A statement in an ancient medical book of the Tang Dynasty says, "Various medicines are the cure of different diseases, but tea is the cure of all diseases."

For many decades most tea drinkers in the West marched to a British tune, although there were many varieties, each having its own special taste. Initially it was all green tea, and that was all they had. A century later the aromatic flavour of Chinese black tea took the world by storm, enthusiastically consuming scented teas. From about the mid 1850's British grown teas began to conquer the world of tea, and soon established a monopoly over the tea trade. They established their own unified standards, and the only tea that was worth its name was the healthy, deep amber varieties from Assam and Ceylon. This opinion is still held by many die-hards' connoisseurs, although there are many kinds of tea in China and Ceylon than there are wines in France.

Very few tea addicts realise that the flavour of tea changes with seasons, that teas produced from the same bush could change from day to day, and that the jat, soil and wind velocities at different times of the day can impart different flavours to the leaf. It is only after these ambient factors are understood, that one begins to realise the stupidity of adhering to a narrow view of tea.

The tealeaf itself upholds the characteristics of the soil on which it is grown. Each harvest whether plucked from the hilly areas in the mountainous regions of the Himalayas, or from the great valleys of Ceylon, whether it be spring, summer, autumn or winter, each cup has its own identity.

An unsuspecting tea drinker can be taken on an imaginary voyage when viewing the display of the various types of tea on a supermarket shelf. In most cases' teas are purchased not so much for the quality of the product, but for the exotic and elaborate design on the tin. Tea merchants are well aware of the influence such complicated pattern has on household blends.

Rhythmical and sometimes, striking names are used by merchants to market their products. As a rule, Chinese teas are often named after flowers, rivers, and mythological heroes. All these tend to confuse the innocent tea drinker.

To appreciate the vast array of teas available, a great deal of care and sharpness is required. There is not only a tea for every taste, but also for every moment of the day. It takes a long time to acquire a new taste, and it must be undertaken gradually. A start could be made with a standard blend, with food specially chosen to enhance its character.

In this tangled tea scene, where certain teas are identified by origins, others by districts and still others by magical sounding names, the average tea drinker is hard pressed to make a choice.

A tea-taster when describing the various types of tea will be full of fine words. He will employ a vocabulary as charming as that used by wine tasters. Thus for a leaf with a fine appearance, he will call it "true to grade." If too large for the grade he would describe it as "bold." The liquor of an immature tea will be "green" to him. A fully mature tea will be labelled as "bitter" or "flat."

What does all this mean to an average tea drinker? Today, presentation of tea to the general public is getting more simplified. For the more tender and affectionate types, who were hooked on to tea, the tea-masters have taken the degree of fermentation and the size and form of the leaf into account in the classification of teas.

The Tea Habit

“Some curious fanatics in matters of taste, bent on belittling the findings of extreme civilisation, maintain that the true and the only wise method of making tea is to drink it as do the Chinese. The delightful that injure or weaken their aesthetic powers on the appreciation of birds’ nest soup and his fondness for sensual pleasure on the preparation of rats and puppies in pies, puts a pinch of tealeaves and swallows it. The agreeable fanatic admires the simplicity of the operation, reflects that the Chinaman grows the tea, prepares it for use, knows every grade and quality of it and himself drinks it accordingly, the Chinaman’s way of drinking tea is the best way."

It was not to be so. As time went by, each country adopted its own method of brewing tea. A story is told about Rikyu, the great Japanese tea master who, when questioned regarding the supposed secrets of Cha-no-yu, the celebrated tea ceremony of Japan replied:--

“Well, there is no particular secret in the ceremony save in making tea agreeable to the palate, in pilling the charcoal on the brazier so as to make a good fire, for boiling the water, in arranging flowers in a natural way, and making things cool in the summer and warm in the winter.”

The inquirer, disappointed with such an obviously uninteresting formula exclaimed, “Who on earth does not know how to do that.” Rikyu, undisturbed by his reaction replied, “Well if you know it, do it.”

The great tea culture still practised the world over, has evolved slowly over the centuries, and tea drinking has become an integral part of life and refinement of many societies. One of the greatest traditions of Western cultures has been the exploration, exploitation and occasionally appropriation of foreign cultures.

Tea is certainly the most accommodating substance. More tea is consumed world wide than any other beverage, except perhaps water. It stretches from China to England, from India to America, from Japan to Morocco, and it is acquiring more followers each day. It is estimated that over half a billion cups of tea are drunk daily on this planet. Tea has never posed a threat to a way of life, and what is most important is that it had, in no way, been synonymous with standardisation.

Unlike other beverages, tea offers all opportunities for the free expression of individual tastes. Many cultures are thus discovered along the route that leads from a steaming bowl of cha with Yak butter, to a tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon.

Tea originated in China in the year 2737 BC, and for the next three thousand years it stayed entirely a Chinese affair. In “The Chinese Art of Tea,” John Blofeld noted that every layer of Chinese society played a part in its history.

To the Chinese, offering a bowl of tea was a sign of welcome, and by 500 BC, tea had procured its true assertion in society as a mark of friendship and hospitality, and it continues to be so even today.

It was much later that tea acquired a place in medical history, and soon became an object of adoration and flourishing trade. Chinese tea found converts across its boarders, and the Imperial Government profited by taxing the tea trade. Many were there to sing its praises and compose poems in recognition of its healing powers. It was going to be the beverage of refined souls, glorified by poets and systematised by tea masters. Divine approval tea obtained during this period, called for more sophisticated forms and techniques in the preparation of the brew. Metallic utensils gave way to well-designed teapots and to bowels engraved in gold and silver.

From about the tenth century, the art of tea drinking had reached its zenith, and tea contests became a fashionable pastime. Very strict rules were laid down for the preparation of tea for the Royalty, but Emperor Hui Tsun (1100-1126) had his own way. The tealeaves had to be picked by young virgins wearing gloves and using gold scissors. They were permitted to cut only the bud and the youngest leaf, which was left on a golden platter to dry before being poured directly into the Emperor’s bowl.

Not all Chinese could aspire to such degree of purity. Only the rich could afford this form of ritual. They gathered in teahouses known for their extravagance, their friendliness and their magnificent decorations. For the less fortunate, there were always the street hawkers who provided them with a cheaper drink. There were also the working-class teahouses that provided, in addition to tea, cheap musical entertainment.

What amidst so many ways of drinking tea is the right way? Strong brew or weak, milk or no milk, sugar, loose tea or tea bags, hot or iced, leaf or mint, or even butter flavoured. Since so many different people are indoctrinated that their way is the right way, there can only be one answer to the question.

The right way to drink tea is the way you like it best. To this must however be added an important conditional stipulation. Whatever way you take your tea, the leaves should have been given the chance of bringing out its full character and flavour.

At this point, we leave the realm of preference and enter the world of fact, because, tea’s full properties and flavours will not be released unless the dry leaves have been exposed for a sufficient length of time, to the action of fresh water as near the boil as possible.

Instructions to wash the pot, and to take the teapot to the kettle are not just old wives’ nonsense, but they do help to obtain the best from the tea. As for the length of time needed for the full infusion of the leaves, about five minutes would suffice, but in no case should it be less than three minutes.

The Book of tea by Kakuzo Okakura has clearly identified three styles of tea preparation in ancient China. There was “cake tea” that was boiled, “powered tea” that was whipped, and “leaf tea” that was steeped. It was steeped tea that the outside world took as their model, whilst all other methods had given way to philosophical and political upheavals and remained unknown in the West.

“There is greatness in the smallest incidents of life.” So said Lu Yu, the oldest interpreter of tea about the proper use of tea. In the ten thousand objects which heaven nourishes, there is supreme perfection. It is only for ease and comfort that human beings work at things. Thus with tea, there are nine ways by which man must tax himself when he has to do with tea.

He must manufacture it,
He must develop a sense of selectivity and discrimination about it,
He must provide the proper implements,
He must prepare the right kind of fire,
He must select suitable water,
He must roast the tea to a turn,
He must grind it well,
He must brew it to its utmost perfection,
He must finally drink it.

The manner in which tea is drunk in the West has not been universally adopted. It is those countries that have no traditional tea habit that offers the greatest provocation to the hardened tea drinker. Yet, the way in which tea is commonly made in Britain is not, or not necessarily the correct way. In China and Japan, the original homes of tea drinking, it was brewed and consumed without the addition of milk or sugar.

Tea making and drinking in Japan is elaborately formalised in the famous tea ceremony in which green frothy tea is consumed in a ceremonial fashion attended by appreciative sucking noises and much bowing. The habit of adding milk to tea in general terms is the preserve of countries of the British Commonwealth. Many others such as Russia and the United States often drink their tea without milk, but they prefer a slice of lemon, and sugar to taste. In North Africa, tea is kept boiling for fifteen minutes before being heavily sugared and slopped back and forth between the tea pot and a large glass to make it frothy. In Tibet, green tea is boiled for several hours and then has salt and rancid butter added before being served in wooden bowls.

It is strange that although tea is made from the popular Camellias, each nation has different ideas about making tea. The reputed food of tealeaves on bread and butter had long been in existence. In Thailand, they chew miang with salt and other condiments. In Burma, tealeaves were pickled with oil and garlic with dry fish to taste. Newly married couples shared the same cup of tealeaves steeped in oil to ensure happiness till deaths do them part. In Kashmir, they drink tea boiled in red potash aniseed and salt. The Arabs like it sweet with mint leaves added for flavouring. Koreans are known to suck raw eggs between sips of tea.

The different methods of tea drinking are without number, but they are all united in their common regard for Camellia sinensis but divided by the methods in which they prepare their brew.

When the tea drinking habit was first introduced to the western world, it underwent violent changes in their social behaviour. Tea, coffee and sister beverages can hold their own today because of the immense service it has bequeathed to modern society. If one were to trace back the life styles of the Western nations in the bracing cold before the introduction of tea as a soothing drink, without a doubt they would have gone to any length to avoid drinking plain water.

The monks of Abingdon were entitled to three gallons of beer. It is also reported that in 1346, the English army engaged in the routine task of devastating France, cast aside the campaign and returned home after four days without wine or beer.

The Story of Tea

The story of tea is an absorbing subject, but obscured by the mists of great age and tangled with myth and legend. According to ancient Chinese tradition, tea has a place within a complex, but fashionable version of the creation.

When Heaven and Earth were split to pieces, giving birth to the world, the universe was ruled by twelve brilliant Emperors of heaven who each ruled for 18,000 years. They were followed by eleven Emperors of Earth who were also in power for 18,000 years each. They were succeeded by nine Emperors of mankind, who reigned for 45,000 years and finally this period of rule was completed with the three sovereigns living in Hunan, south of the yellow river. They invented all the arts crafts that they presented to men.

Shen Nung, considered the divine creator was the first to till the earth and so gave the gift of tea to man. He wrote the first classic on tea. According to him, “Tea grew in winter in the valleys by the streams on the hills of Chow, and does not perish in severe winter. It is gathered on the third day of the third month and then dried. It quenches thirst. It lessens the desire for sleep. It gladdens and cheers the heart.”

Tea, unlike most other beverages, was from its earliest appearance endowed with the aura of the Gods, and acclaimed having a combination of medicine and elixir of life.

Many are the legendary stories related concerning the origin of tea, but the central theme of all these stories is philosophy, religion, and literature. Tea was meant to become a spiritual criterion of a way of life. The Buddhists of the day named tea “froth of the liquid Jade,” a much needed ingredient of the magic potion of eternal life.

Adventurers and priests searched for this fable drink on expeditions to the unexplored world. Strange stories have emerge, and one such tale is regarding a cult who trained monkeys to gather wild tea leaves from luxuriant plants growing among high dangerous rocks.

Another very interesting Chinese creation, which embodies the importance of legendary beliefs in oriental philosophy relating to spirit and matter follows. The story is told that at the beginning of Eternity, Soul and Substance had a fight unto death. Finally the son of heaven, the “Yellow Emperor” prevailed over the demon of earth and night. In this cosmic anguish, the dying demon struck the blue jade roof of heaven with his mighty head, and sent the world into a spin. Planets and stars faltered in their orbits.

From the bowels of the earth, there rose the Goddess Nu Wa, who through the powers of the coiled green dragon eased the troubled planets with its aura of serene potency. Dressed in fiery robes, she created the rainbow, and used it to rebuild the damaged sky. The sad story is that in the process of reconstruction, she overlooked to repair two tiny cracks. So began the drama of love, two spirits careening through time and space, never resting until by their union they complete the universe. The key notion in this philosophy is reflected in the modern day architecture of the tearoom, where the frailty of the structure is a matter of spiritual emphasis, and where symmetry is avoided.

It took a long time for fiction to be expressed as a statement of fact. Written records soon began to replace old oral traditions, and tea entered a new phase. The interpretation of folklore to fact was not always easy, and there were many problems tea historians had to confront. They were unable to trace Chinese written references to tea, as the Chinese language is composed of ideograms and symbols, rather than words, as we know then in modern times. The term Ch’a did not come into common use until about the seventh century AD, The earlier symbol for tea was t’u, but it went on to symbolise other plants as well. These factors made it difficult for the interpreters to determine which plant was refereed to.

Chinese history is based on dynasties or periods of administration that flowered and faded, and as each set took control, they set about changing or destroying the history of the previous regime. Each ruling Emperor would employ every technique at hand to impress upon the people that his form of rule is the best. If an Emperor felt that it is in his interest to say that he discovered tea, he would order his scribes to change all history books. This form of ridicule would undoubtedly strengthen his rule, but create endless problems for the twentieth century scholars.

It has taken a few centuries for the truth to emerge, regarding the origin of tea, to separate myth from reality. Teacher of ancient Chinese history would have had to venture across the hazy, transient boundary between fable and fact. After centuries of research the truth has at last been established.

Long before the political boundaries were drawn, this was a vast area. It has now been established that the aboriginal tribesmen living in the hills south-west of the Chinese border, in the area now referred to as South-east Asia, had made a drink by boiling the green leaves of wild tea trees in ancient kettles over crude smoky camp-fires. The mission has now ended, and this is proved to be the starting point from which the Chinese had learnt the use of tea.

The Erh Ya is an ancient dictionary, attributed to the Duke of Chou in the eighteen century BC. When it was commented upon in 350 AD, the definition of tea was added to it. It was referred to as “a beverage made from the leaves by boiling.” This drink was regarded as a medicinal decoction taken to cure a variety of digestive and nervous disorders. Its healing qualities were so respected, that it was often applied as an external past to cure rheumatic pains.

Most historians now agree upon 350 AD as the earliest credible record of tea cultivation.

Many more references to tea followed thereafter, and its form of end use kept changing all the time. The customarily method of preparation adopted in China was to form the tea leaves into cakes, have them roasted until reddish in colour, pound them into a powder, and treat it to boiling water when required. Very often, onions, ginger and orange were added to taste.

Wild tealeaves first took the form of food, long before it was cultivated for use as a beverage. Northern Siam, now referred to as Thailand, were known to have steamed tea leaves, fashioned them into balls, and eaten with salt, garlic, pig fat, and dried fish. This seems very similar to the practice adopted by African tribesmen who used coffee in a similar manner, as an energiser for strength. Koreans sucked raw eggs from the shell in between sips of tea. In Kashmir, tea was served with red potash, anise seeds and salt.

The Burmese went further to turn the tea leaves into a delicious pickled tea salad. It was a long drawn process. Boiled and manipulated jungle tea leaves were stored in hollow bamboo and buried for months. These were dug up, and served as a delicacy at special functions. The Tibetans had their own way of preparing breakfast tea. It was an involved process. This tasty meal was a combination of barley meal, salt and goat’s milk butter, and agitated to the consistency of chocolate.

The utilisation of tea was many. It had been a food, medicine, beverage, and part of a religious ritual. It must not be forgotten that from its very inception, tea had been used as money. It is reported that Chine adopted a system of banking based on tea long before West was civilised. Paper or coined money found little use to the tribes of the interior, farmers and herdsmen. They prized crude compressed brick tea, made by primitive ox-presses. They made use of this to consume and trade. Minted money often decreased in value the further it travelled, but brick tea enjoyed the virtue of gaining in value as distances increased from the garden of their origin.

Chinese Tea Acquires Refinement

How to obtain the best in tea

The following is a citation from a lecture delivered to the students of the London Hospital by Sir Andrew Clark, which appeared in the Paris edition of the New York Herald of April 1892.

“Let him” he said, “have plenty of good feeding, and at the close of his meal, let him sip a cut of milk and water, or a cup of tea. And here I must pause to speak to you about tea. Tea is a blessed beverage. I do not know what I should do without it. But there is tea and tea, but one of the teas I have in mind is the representation of all that is physiologically wicked. I go about town a good deal, holding consultations here and there, and about five O’ clock, when I get into a place, the lady of the house will say to me “Sir Andrew, you look so tired. Do let me give you a cup of tea.” I say, “Thank you very much.” But the tea had stood for half an hour, and she remarks, “I know you do not like it strong, Sir Andrew, and then she puts about tablespoon of tea into a cup and fills it up with water. Now I call it positive cruelty to give tea like that to anybody, and I hope you gentlemen will always set your faces against such a beverage.”

Throughout the ages considerable attention has been paid to the aspect of brewing tea, and in their search for the correct conformity, one has to necessarily take into account the local cultures and the background of the consuming public in that particular environment. A specific form of brewing tea in China, England or America as worked out by the connoisseurs and experts cannot be adopted in other parts of the world.

Good tea they say is a bargain, but to what extent is our experience of tea limited by the way we brew it, or by the lack of choices. The most widely used is not necessarily the best. Lu Tung, a Chinese poet of the 8th century wrote these words about tea.

“The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second cup breaks my loneliness, third cup searches my barren entrails but to find therein some five thousand volumes of odd ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration, all the wrongs of life pass through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified, the sixth calls me up to the realm of immortals…let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.”

Today, most packers offer blends, and this in no way is an indication of the unique quality in the tea. It is determined by the emergency of mass production and mass marketing.

A shopper may be told that his extraordinary blend contains specially manufactured pekoes and orange pekoes for the tea drinking pleasure of his clients. It may sound good, but at the same time it is senseless and misleading. Pekoes and orange pekoes only mean the size or the cut of the leaf. It does not in any way describe its origin nor the degree of fermentation it has undergone during the process of manufacture, which ultimately determine quality levels. Marketing tea in this fashion is like marketing cheese as sliced, or unsliced without any reference to whether they are cheddars, or bries, sharps, or milds, domestic or imports.

This beverage is such that tea will yield up its wonderful qualities if treated with only a little of care. Buy the best, as it will cost you only a few cents a cup. We have seen the growth and changes that have taken place in the tea-drinking world, from the original Chinese ways to modern forms of serving tea in the commercial centres in the world.

It is difficult at this stage to determine what constitute the goodness in tea, but the average tea drinker has it for its delicate aroma and flavour, and to him, the stimulating and comforting qualities is secondary factors.

On the other side of the scale we have the black blocks of Australia, considered heavy tea drinkers, who care little for the finer qualities of tea. They have it thick and course, and it can supplement a meal, whilst those in other countries have it light and only become little more than a thirst quencher.

The essential ingredient required to obtain a pleasing cup of tea is your favourite bland of tea. Long exposures to the air can make it stale. Being a hygroscopic substance, tea can be easily contaminated. It should be stored away in an airtight tea caddy or tin. It should be kept in a cool dry place out of direct light.

Water used for brewing tea must be freshly boiled. This may be outside the scope of the average tea drinker, but the tea supplier to that region should take care of this aspect by providing the correct blend. The general conception however is that alkaline water produces dull liquors. Tea infuses more readily in soft water than in hard water. The tea tasters will look after this aspect of the problem.

Over-boiled water makes flat teas, and does not give the vital taste associated with a good cup of tea. Water that is just brought to the boil should be used for brewing tea. A good brew is obtained by allowing an applicable amount of boiling water to drain the best of the constituents from a specific amount of dry leaf, and infused for a precise amount of time. A tea that is correctly brewed will have flavour, body, stimulation, pungency and colour in well-balanced proportions.

Intensive research has been conducted to ascertain the correct length of time the tea should be allowed to brew to draw in the best from the leaves. In the case of fermented teas, five-minute infusion is considered the best. Some controversy persists concerning the infusion time for a perfect cup of tea from a chemical standpoint, and a consumer's judgement. For a brew of plain tea, where no cream or milk is added, a brewing time of three to four minutes is recommended. If the intention is to add cream or milk, then an extended brewing time is advocated, from five to six minutes.

The colour, pungency and body of fermented teas are derived from the water-soluble tannins, and tannin oxidation products in the dry leaf. Colour is an optical sensation. Astringency is more a palpable than a taste perception. Body or fullness is felt in the mouth, a perfect cup of tea will have all these ingredients in their correct proportion.

Quality of tea is maximised by the clever handling of the leaf in field and factories of the tea-growing countries in the world. The flavour of tea is remarkably refined, but tea is a simple commodity, the brewing of which is a simple operation. A good cup of tea could be brewed with the minimum of care and skill, but never rush into it. Brewing of tea is part of drinking it, and drinking it is a part of living. Make the brewing of tea a ritual. Watch the leaves unfold as the tea develops colour and puts forth its tempting fragrance.

Do not restrain yourself to buying the cheapest tea. It pays to buy the best that suits you, and use one teaspoon of tea bag for each 5,1/2 ounce cup. The brew should be a delightful composition of flavour, body, colour, stimulation and pungency.

The teapot that is used should be most applicable to the task, and should be treated with utmost respect. The inside of the pot should never be scrubbed, but only rinsed with running water. The deposits of tannin that coats the sides of the pot should be retained, as it will enhance the flavour of the tea in the pot.

A pot used for brewing smoky teas such as Oolongs should not be used for other purposes. A seasoned tea drinker will have different pots to brew unlike types of tea. The average tea drinker should have a separate pot to brew mild teas, another for strong teas, and perhaps an additional one for flavoured teas.

Teapots made of terracotta or cast iron is best suited for brewing strong teas that are rich in tannin, such as Ceylon and Assam’s. Porcelain or enamel cast iron is recommended for green and semi-fermented teas. Light liquoring black teas such as Darjeeling too should brew well in these pots.

It must be remembered that tea is flavoured water, and therefore the quality of the water plays an important part in the final reckoning. The Japanese mastered the art of selecting the ideal type of water, and they have made this tea drinking ceremony into a fine art. It is said that the Queen of England carries her quota of spring water with her wherever she goes, to ensure that she has a favourite cup of tea. Secure the best source of water that is pure, fresh, odourless and free of calcium.

Bring freshly drawn water to a bubbling boil, and pour it when it reaches the stage of bubbling intensely. Water that is under boiled over boiled or kept in a container will only give you stale and flat tea. They lack liveliness and will default in its ability to agitate the leaves for a proper infusion.

Pre-heat your teapot. The teapot should maintain the high temperature when boiling water is poured. A cold teapot will reduce the temperature, and will result in the preparation of less lively teas.

Keep the temperatures constant by taking the pot to the kettle. Brew the tea for three to six minutes depending on the kind of tea used. Flaky leaf will brew faster than well-twisted leaf. Adjusting the brewing time within the given guidelines will ensure that the brewing process will suit the type of leaf and personal taste. Tea should not be at any stage stewed, as the brew will become too heavy and bitter. It will kill the flavour and the aroma of the tea.

Keep the brewing tea hot while infusion is taking place. A tea cozy could be used for this purpose. Separate the infused leaf from the liquor, stir well and serve. Nothing is gained if kept for long, except bitterness. If tea bags are used, just lift it from the pot. If you want more tea, brew more tea, but make it a point to use fresh leaf or a new tea bag. Avoid using fresh water on spent leaf, it will only give a little colour and a little bitterness.

In the country of origin, tea was always taken straight without the addition of any flavours. On its long journey to the West, it had acquired many refinements, and the gentle art of savouring the tea has been laid open to revolutionary changes. Today, this formidable subject revolves round milk, sugar and lemon. This to a connoisseur may sound junk, but this hard line has to be softened to satisfy all tastes.

Thick liquoring black teas from Ceylon and Assam will tolerate milk. As the British have laid down, serving of tea at morning breakfast should be a full bodied variety, where milk can help in the digestive process. For other light liquoring varieties such as Darjeeling, greens and semi fermented types, milk is totally unacceptable.

The true critic will discourage the use of lemon at all times, as it can totally change the taste and colour of the tea. A slice of lemon however could be introduced to certain varieties of delicate, light liquoring aromatic teas, such as those from Nuwara Eliya.

Sugar to some tea drinkers is necessary, and it can be added to average quality black tea. The use of these additives will continue to confront constant rivals, some tea addicts have gone to the extent of proclaiming that those of who are desirous of enjoying a sweet drink should have sugar dissolved in hot water. But tea after all is a beverage, and the best way to have it is to have it your way.

In general, tea could be classified under three categories. Fermented black-tea, Unfermented Green tea, and semi-fermented tea. Although these differences remain, the tea plant is the same in all the countries. These variances however are due to the different methods of manufacture, local climate, soil, and cultivation methods. There are hundreds of different marks with each country, while the number of possible blends available would be unlimited.

The fully fermented black tea varieties are mostly manufactured in India Ceylon and Java. They are plucked the year round, and the best quality sorts are obtained from Ceylon during February, March and April, and again during August and September. South India produces the best teas during December and January, and the second flush harvested during June and July and the autumn teas that flushes from September onwards in North India are of vintage quality.

North and South China produce their best black teas with the commencement of the first picking from April to October, but their most popular greens are obtained during June and July. Japan enjoys their season from May to October. Although many crops are harvested during this period, first and the second farmed during May and June has claimed world recognition. In Formosa, quality follows the seasons, starting with spring, and then followed by summer autumn and winter, but the teas manufactured in the months of June and July is the best.

Long before marketing of tea got sophisticated, the average consumer had to depend on the grocer to supply him with his requirements of black or green tea. The dealer nor the consumer at that stage realised that there were vast variances between the various teas of the same category.

It is estimated that among the Chinese blacks, there are more than 500 varieties of grades, and among the greens, 200. Ceylon and India between them can easily measure up to a further 2000. In addition 300 could be added for Japan Java and other small producers.

There are more than 3000 straight teas that can be blended in an enormous combination of blends. In this vast entanglement of different blends, there is a tea to suit the requirements of each consumer.

Try out the various descriptions and pick out the one you fancy most, and ensure that you “drink the best.” Never compromise quality at any stage. More than 200 cups of tea could be made from a pound of tea, and even at today’s apparently high prices, the cost per cup would be negligible

The British Acquired Their Own Way

“For an Englishman to be cheerful, he must have his tea, good tea at that, whenever he wants it, at the railway station, on the trains, in the office, and the tea trolley must roll out all the time for him at home.”

The advancement of civilisation in the Western world could be linked with the introduction of tea and coffee. With it the entire life style of the average consumer in Britain changed.

He starts the day with the early morning cup of tea. He follows this pattern of consumption with several more cups at breakfast time. They became famous for taking regular tea breaks, and they continue with this habit into the better part of the morning. There were still others who went further to washing down their lunch with a large cup of tea, but their drink of tea in the afternoon was universally accepted. Some complete their dinner with a cup of tea, but most of them take further doses before retiring for the night.

“It is not too fanciful,” so says P. J. Banyard in his book The Tea Trade “to connect the introduction of tea and coffee to the West with the advance of Western civilisation and technical accomplishment. Certainly the rising consumption of tea in Britain runs parallel with rising achievement as a society. The truth is the average human being needs a liquid intake of less than a gallon a day but can manage a great deal more. When this intake was supplied by intoxicants of varying strengths, the general efficiency must have been impaired. It is now difficult for most of us to imagine a world in which the only alternate to water was milk or alcohol. It now gives an indication of the changes brought about by the introduction of tea and coffee.”

Tea is more than simple refreshment. It has got itself so dug into the social lives of the British, that it has given its name to a meal. The period between dinner and supper became longer and longer, during the eighteen-century, with the result, the pangs of hunger became unbearable.

When tea was first introduced to England from China, it would certainly have been in the Chinese manner that tea would have been prepared and drunk. It did not however take much time before the Englishman adopted their own way of brewing tea in harmony with their own habits and temperaments.

The spectacular rise of tea consumption in England was linked to the success of the coffee houses, the first of which was opened in London in 1652. Within fifty years, London alone could boast of over five hundred coffee houses, and they became the foremost social centres of British life.

Apparently it was here that the European version of “tipping” originated. Customers could toss a coin into a box marked T. I. P. (To Insure Promptness)

The first of its kind to specialise in tea was “Tom’s Coffee House,” that was started in 1706 by Thomas Twining, now a household word in the world of tea. During the last quarter of the eighteen- century, tea consumption doubled in England, after the tea drinking habit had filtered down from the aristocracy to the middle and the lower classes.

The British, like all others, had to evolve their own style of drinking tea. Catherine the Portuguese Queen of Charles 11 was the first to accept this challenge. She introduced tea drinking to the English Court after her marriage in 1662. She added a sparkling display and a social distinction to the art of tea making, which was missing at the coffee houses.

An array of tea making utensils was introduced to make the tea drinking ceremony look more glamorous, with teapots made of costly Chinese. The English custom was to half fill the teapot containing the required quantity of leaf with boiling water and left to infuse. Teapot was filled with more boiling water once the liquid in the pot was exhausted.

The magical formula, a teaspoon per person and one for the pot are followed even today by the folks who still prefers the ritualistic form of brewing tea. Milk or cream is often added to the beverage in the cup. It is customary to serve a jug of hot water. This makes the tea go much further. In this manner, they have made tea a very cheap drink.

With the people of high social standing, the standard rule is for the early-morning cup of tea to be brought to the bedside. It is regarded the awakener and the stimulator, and it is recognised and catered to by the hotels. Tea is a washer down of substantial meals, as well as an appetiser, a digester and a sundowner.

They introduced the terms such as “Tea “Tea Time," and “High Tea” which are a way of life even today. The terms may sound similar to the unsuspecting, but the British ensured that a distinct difference prevailed among the three terms, and defined accordingly. The general term “Tea” meant any occasion when tea was served. “Tea Time” was meant to denote a particular time when tea is served, usually accompanied by light refreshments. At a “High Tea” a meal was always served with meats and other relishes.

The world is indebted to Anne, spouse of the Seventh Duke of Bedford (1778 to 1861) for having introduced the concept of an “Afternoon Tea." It was the eating habits prevalent during that time, where no meals were taken between lunch and dinner eaten at three or four o’clock in the afternoon that prompted the ladies to establish an afternoon meal.

However as the evening meal was delayed, the pangs of hunger became unbearable for some. It was for this reason that incited Lawrence Durrell to remark, “when silences begin to fall, broken only by the rumblings of a lady’s entrails, it is the beginning of the end.” To starve off such a dreadful situation the Duchess decided to strike a new line by introducing the afternoon tea, where light refreshments were served.

Tea has played many a part in Britain’s long history, and when the temperance movement started in England in the early 1830’s, the reformers found that they could promote the consumption of tea in the hope of subduing alcoholic beverages in the country. They succeeded in their attempts to wean people away from alcohol. “Tea Meetings” became so popular that the wealthy, the beauty, and the intelligent, were always present at these gatherings.

The eminent position offered to this beverage by society at large, brought about a cultural revolution in Britain. There was an emotional upheaval that made the artisans of the day fly into passion. Its influence spread far and wide.
Furniture makers looked to new designs, artisans, with proven artistic talents were called upon to produce silver, porcelain or earthenware tea pots, and China tea cups and saucers of great beauty. It was round these “Tea Tables” that the social life of these pioneers centred.

It was to the earthenware industry that tea gave its greatest incentive for further expansion. It was fashionable in China to make tea in unglazed stoneware, and this was soon picked up in Europe. Production of ceramics had already got under way in Holland, but this was not suitable for making teapots. By the end of the seventeenth century, England was very much into it and the headquarters for this new industry was established in Staffordshire.

The novel idea of adding milk to tea would have originated in England, and remained the preserve of countries of the British Commonwealth. As there is nothing in Chinese or Japanese practice to suggest it. This takes us back to Thomas Garway’s famous broadsheet published in London in 1660, where he describes the fifteen practical virtues of tea.

These were all medicinal, but one virtue that received a special mention was “it being prepared and drunk with milk and water, strengthens the inward parts and prevents consumption and powerfully assuaged the pains of the bowels, or griping of the guts and looseness." His reference to tea, in this instance, is undoubtedly for special medical purposes and not for general use. It becomes clear that when the Chinese and the Japanese were enjoying tea as a drink, the English thought of it largely as a medicine.

The strength of the brew is sometimes given as the reason for the use of milk; and into this category could be included the full-bodied Ceylon and Indian teas. This explanation again does not seen reasonable as this habit of the use of milk had been established in England at least a hundred years before Indian or Ceylon teas ever penetrated the British market.

Although the habit of serving tea with milk is fairly universal within the Commonwealth, there are still slight variations in some countries, to the British way of brewing tea. In South Africa, milk is added to a brew that is considerably weaker to what is normally drunk in England. In the United States the users of milk are very much in a minority, as they are on the Continent. The Middle East countries consume large quantities of tea but milk is hardly added. China and Japan have never departed from taking their home-grown tea neat.

“Saucering” tea and then drinking from the saucer had been a common practice in Britain. As tea-drinking habit developed further, they introduced more and more refinement to the art of tea drinking, and elevated it to a level unmatched earlier.

The next controversy arises from the milk-in-first- and the milk-in-last drinkers of tea. This again could be regarded as a matter of personal preference, but those who take the milk last in this instance, should be given the last word. They only can tell how much milk needs to be added after having poured out the tea and seen in the cup.

Addition of sugar again is a follow up of the original method of drinking tea in China and Japan. To ascertain the exact date when this habit was introduced to England is difficult to ascertain, but by the middle of the 18th century, tea with cream or milk and with sugar to taste, had become England’s accepted custom, whether in the Royal Palace in Windsor or in the humblest cottage in the country. With the fast spreading of this custom, the sugar bowl and the cream ewer came to be included as standard equipment in the tea sets manufactured in all the porcelain factories in Britain.

The use of sugar has caused sharp diversions among tea drinkers. The decision to exclude sugar in the tea by some, could be traced back to the days of rationing, when they were forced to deny themselves of sugar in the tea, so as to make the family ration suffice for puddings and jams. This category of people no doubt, reaped their reward in acquiring a real preference for unsweetened tea.

The use of tea bags is on a steady rise in Britain now, but there is still a segment of the consuming public that are still capable of making a delicious and a satisfying cup of tea, The most noticeable difference between American and British attitude towards tea is the place reserved for it in public life. In London there are hundreds of popular tearooms run by popular brand holders. In the summer, tea is generally enjoyed in the open, and tea gardens are operated in all public parks of London.

The addiction of the British to tea is best explained in one of the recollections of Cecil Roth.

“I was recently the guest of Baron Alfred de Rothschild in his Seamore Place palace. Early in the morning, a liveried servant entered my room pushing a huge table on wheels. He asked, “would you like tea or peach sir?” I chose tea. This immediately provoked another question. “China, India or Ceylon sir.” When I asked for Indian tea, he enquired, “With lemon, cream or milk sir? I opted for milk, but he wanted to know which breed of cow I preferred. “Jersey, Hereford, or Sorthorn sir?” Never have I drunk such a good cup of tea

The entire scenario has changed today. Doubts now exist as to whether the British, who had transformed the art of tea drinking to a proficiency of the highest order, and converted it to a ceremony, will give up their favourite cup of hot tea. There is sufficient proof to indicate that soft drinks are taking over from more traditional beverages as the average consumer is getting concerned with health. In addition, in this world of restless competition they are also looking for convenience, with the result old customs are fast dying out. Habits may change, but the consumption of tea in whatever form it is taken will remain the bedrock of the beverage market in England.

Tea In the Middle East

Prior to the sixteenth century, it must have been with the coming of caravans, that Chinese tea started to penetrate the western world in very small quantities. Afghanistan, the focus of the silk route, had it first, and they made it their national drink. The Afghan merchants, pilgrims, camel-drivers and caravan travellers enjoyed this new beverage in open tents, seated cross-legged as they savoured it. They drank green tea as a thirst quencher, and black tea as a stimulant. They added large quantities of refined sugar to sweeten the tea.

It must have been the “camel trains” that ultimately brought tea to the Mediterranean shores, reaching the Ottoman Empire and Egypt several centuries before it reached the Western World. Tea was very much appreciated in Turkey, and it was customary for every household to have a pot of tea on the boil. Serving of tea was a kind disposition expressed by the host to accommodate a foreigner in the house. It requires the host to continually refill a guest’s glass until he places the teaspoon across the glass. These traditions are still carried out in Turkey and Iran.

Egypt is one of the largest consumers of tea in the world, and definitely the largest in Africa. Tea had been the choice of the Royalty, and records of its use date back to the fifteenth century. In September 1942, Rommel purchased the support of the Sheikhs by offering them ten thousand Italian Lire and six pounds of tea in the middle of the Libyan Desert. So important had tea been to the Egyptians.

In the more posh teahouses in the city, customers are usually served with a glass of unsugared “chai” on a small tray, accompanied by a glass of cold water, a small glass of sugar, a spoon, and on rare occasions, the third glass containing mint leaves. Like in all other Middle East countries, Tea is served to all visitors, and it is consumed seated on mats placed on the ground.

Green tea is generally consumed in Morocco and Afghanistan, and in the case of the former, it has become a part of their traditional mint tea. It is however a recent tradition. Green tea is served in brightly coloured small glasses. Serving of tea is a man’s job, and is generally performed by the head of the family, to signify that he is the head, father and host. Mint tea on the other hand is served at all hours of the day accompanied by sweets. It eases digestion, and their popular dictum is that tea should be bitter as death, sweet as life and as mellow as love.

It’s Introduction to the West

Tea was first introduced into Europe through Holland around 1640. It for long was considered a medicinal plant mostly used by women who could purchase them from the herbalist shops, forerunners to pharmacies of today. During the initial stages, it was only the aristocracy that could afford to purchase it. The price of tea during the mid 1660’s was reckoned at around 80 to 100 Dollars per pound, and remained a luxury that only the rich could indulge in.

Exotic teas with strange names were exported from China to Europe and America during the 17th and 18th century, but most of them have sadly disappeared. There was “Young Hyson," Bing, Caper, and Twankay (after which Gilbert and Sullivan’s widow Twankey was named). No tea however was stranger than that reserved for the Emperor and his Court. These came from the wild tea bushes in Yunnan province in China. These tea trees grew to such height that it was impossible for the tips to be plucked except by specially trained monkeys. About 200 pounds of “Imperial Monkey Picked Tea” were produced each season.

As imports increased, the price of tea naturally dropped, and more and more people came to relish this wonder beverage from the East. By the mid eighteen-century the Germans had replaced their morning bowl of soup with tea. The aristocracy had their own tearooms in their houses to entertain their friends, while the lower class citizens formed “tea clubs."

Once the tea drinking habit got well entrenched in the lives of the German people, there was an inclination for the more invigorating sorts to emulate the Chinese, and they transformed the art of tea drinking into a ceremony, where the guests gathered in the afternoon to partake in the ritual. They even made out in passionate terms the various stages in the preparation of tea.

By chance, tea had been quick to gather fallacious assumptions in its preparation, unlike in the case of coffee and cocoa that was in vogue before tea. To stir tea in a pot is to stir disagreement. Froth on the surface of the liquid would mean the promise of a love letter. If you put in the milk before the sugar, you risk losing your sweetheart. If a girl permits a man to pour out a second cup of tea for her, she will succumb to his designs. A floating tealeaf gives advance notice of visit of a stranger.

Tea drinking soon became a social event, where poets, artists, writers and diplomats gathered to discuss the events of the day, and the more sensitive younger generation was fast giving up their coffee in preference to tea.

Sugar was used as the standard form of sweetening but milk took a long time to make its appearance. Tea was never drunk out of the cup but out of the saucer, and as an expression of gratitude, the guests made audible sipping and sniffing sounds while drinking the tea. Cakes were served during the tea ceremony and the conversation generally centred round tea. Twenty to thirty cups of tea are consumed in this manner, after which brandy with raisins was served, and with it came the piper for both men and women.

Frequent tea parties left many a home ruined. Women neglected their housework. Spouses, returning after a hard day work, finding the wife missing from home, started to patronise the taverns. Tea came under heavy attack during this period.

As in most other countries, tea found a niche market in France purely for its medicinal properties. As early as 1692, tea and tobacco were both used as stimulants, with a sprinkling of brandy on it.

To the French, thing's exotic was highly fashionable, and when the first French ship from the orient unloaded its costly cargo in 1700, tea was its main attraction. Louis XIV considered the beverage made out from the Chinese plant to be a sociable and a beneficial drink, even for the healthy.

Tea in France was an unaffordable item for most, and it remained so for a considerable length of time. It was therefore the franchise of the rich and wealthy. It was a sign of utmost distinction, and it opened new avenues for the artisans to exercise their talents in turning new designs in tea services. The Frenchmen took their tea from a silver teapot, in a cup of jade, with a golden saucer on a lacquered table.

It was only during the nineteenth century that the common man got a chance of tasting tea, whilst in England at about the same time the average man was drinking six cups a day, stretching across England from the Royalty to the man in the slums.

The widespread opening up of “tea salons” during the latter part of the nineteenth century, helped to promote the tea drinking habit. Tea consumption in France is fast increasing and it has doubled during the past three decades.

Every neighbourhood in Paris and other downtown cities can boast of new and inviting tea rooms, tempting the younger generation and getting them hooked on to tea. In French, tea rooms as distinct from café’s, was for a long time the only public place that women could frequent without endangering their reputation.

The habit of pouring milk in tea reportedly started in France. In addition to enhancing its taste, there is a practical reason for this custom. It has been found out that pouring a little cold milk in the cup prevents the scalding tea from cracking fragile Chinese porcelain.

Americans Looked For Convenience

Europe, Britain, Holland and parts of northern Germany are the strongholds of tea. At a cursory glance, it would appear that nations that have ports facing the Atlantic and being pioneers of world trade had acquired the tea habit long before others. Those with Mediterranean ports and enjoying trading ties with Africa and Arabia preferred coffee.

It is not too fanciful, so says P. J. Banyard in his book “The Tea Trade” to connect the introduction of tea and coffee to the West with the advance of Western civilisation and technical accomplishment. Certainly the rising consumption of tea in Britain runs parallel with rising achievement as a society. The truth is that Homo sapiens needs a liquid intake of less than a gallon a day but can manage a great deal more. When this intake was supplied by intoxicants of varying strengths, the general efficiency must have been impaired. It is now difficult for most of us to imagine a world in which the only alternative to water was milk or alcohol. It now gives an indication of the changes brought about by the introduction of tea and coffee.

Had it not been for the Boston Tea Party, the Americans would have gone the same way the English immigrants presented the “way with tea” to the new world. The glamour of tea drinking was upheld when it was first introduced to America by the Dutch, with the upper classes organising regular tea parties, using their silver tea pots and porcelain tea services, all taken across with them from Holland. It became a device to social success, and an occasion for the elite families of Philadelphia and Boston to meet.

New Amsterdam made tea in the Dutch manner. A good woman offering hospitality would serve several kinds to suit the tastes of the guests. They never used milk, but they sometimes offered saffron and peach leaves for flavouring. Sugar was served in powdered and in lump from which they nibbled it or put into the tea. They indulged in the childlike habit of sucking tea through a lump of sugar. When New Amsterdam became New York, they followed the British way.

During the early eighteen century, the more modest types drank bitter tea with butter and salt, whilst others preferred Chinese tea scented with saffron or gardenia petals. America soon became a dumping ground for British imported teas, and a promising source for raising funds to fight the French and the Indian wars.

Tea came under heavy taxation. The patriotic reaction to this levy was unbelievable. On 16th December 1773 loyalist from St Andrews Masonic Lodge Boston, all dressed as Red Indians threw overboard three hundred and forty chests of tea into the sea. This ultimately led to the battle of Bunker Hill and the declaration of Independence in 1776. So were the violent reactions that even the tea pots took a new design, to be labelled as “patriotic teapot.”

Americans are said to pay more attention to leaf appearance than to cup quality. There is a great lack of uniformity in the tea consumption patterns throughout the country. Some sections are heavy drinkers, and others very light, depending on racial descent. They are mostly seasonal drinkers, like the Southern States, which only consume little tea in winter, but offset this be liberal consumption of iced tea in summer.

Citizens of the United States, who were initially coffee drinkers, developed two new taste habits after tea was introduced into the country; one is iced tea, and the other tea bags.

The introduction of iced tea to the American market, and its ultimate success as a beverage came its way by a splendid stroke of luck. At the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 an attempt was made by Richard Blechymden, yet another Englishman working for the Indian tea producers, to wean the Americans from the habit of drinking green tea to black Indian tea.

The conventional way of drinking tea scorching hot, he found out, did not appeal to the Americans. In absolute despondency, Richard poured his tea into glasses and added ice. The immediate response from the public was most favourable and success was assured. For the Americans -- a new drink was born.

Today, iced tea is the most popular hot weather beverage, and considered the most effective thirst-quencher in the humid heat of the American summer. Conventional tea addicts however say, perhaps with some justice, that the flavoured iced tea brew does not taste like tea at all, but it is how they like it. Some of the Alpine guides mix it with red wine to make what they claim to be the best thirst-quencher and reviver combined. This has lead to a booming trade in “instant tea,” a freeze-dried powder to be dissolved in cold water.

The use of tea bags has also enjoyed a long history in America. It was in 1904 that an accident revolutionised the tea drinking habits of the Americans. According to records, Thomas Sullivan, an enterprising tea and coffee merchant in New York sent a few samples of his tea to his customers in small hand-sewn silk bags, as this was found to be less expansive.

Orders soon began to pour in, but to Sullivan’s great surprise, they were all for tea packaged in little bags. The customers had found out that by pouring the hot water over the bags they could make tea with less effort.

Today, expensive and elaborate machines turn out millions of tea bags every day to supply the American market, where half the tea consumed is in the form of tea bags. The success of the bag lies in the convenience afforded to the housewife. With the tea bag, there is no spent leaf to wash out of the pot, or remove from the sink.

The English however feel that the tea bags lend it to abuse, particularly in hotels and restaurants, whose proprietors and staff are seldom of tea drinking ancestry. There is also the tendency for some tea baggers to reduce the volume of tea in the bag. Despite all these shortcomings, the average tea drinker should find nothing amiss with the cup of tea brewed from a tea bag provided the tea is made in the normal way by pouring boiling water on to the tea bags in a tea pot -- provided enough tea bags are used.

The American standard is to use one bag per person and one for the pot. Tea drinking after all is a habit and deviations from the conventional methods, as ordained by the British, are bound to occur in keeping with personal preferences. After all, there is no universal method of brewing tea. In the use of tea bags, it is the convenience that all appreciate, and this could outweigh the extra cost involved in its purchase.

Despite the convenience factor, there are certain disagreements regarding the use of tea bags. Delicious tea can be obtained from tea bags, but bad brewing habits tend to combine forces with a generally mediocre product to make the delicious tea the exception rather than the rule. When tea is brewed in the conventional manner, the brewer can see the leaves.

They can enjoy the differences in shape, colour and texture, the golden or the coppery shafts of the tippy teas, the tightly curled long strands of an orange pekoe, and the greyish greens of a delicate gun powder.
The tea in a tea bag, in a sense is mutilated beyond recognition further hidden by the filter paper. In this instance, let the consumer decide in which form he would like to have his tea brewed.

Today, the American consumer is a victim of an assault from all sides with messages and advertisements via Television, Radio, Newspapers, and magazines, Billboards, and the latest the internet and the e-mail, and their personal computers. As mentioned by Peter Goggi at the last International Tea convention held in Sri Lanka, tea can be sold to everyone at different life stages, day stages or mood stages.

Tea answers more “need stages” than any other beverage. “Just to clarify” he said, “Need States are defined by a combination of consumers’ motivations and feelings when selecting beverages, such as, their emotional state, their physical state, and desired product benefits. They can be further described by time of day, who they want to consume with, what they are doing, etc. In the case of tea, whether hot or cold, sweetened or plain, tea provides a lift, a calming, a soothing, and a restoring sense of self.”

The scope seems unlimited, and tea is poised to fit various needs in the future. They need products that display alien, and unique textures and appearances, perhaps flavoured with fruit of healthy vegetable tastes. People today are seeking verity in colour, taste, texture and size. In short, tea has become the obvious choice at home, school and workplace, as a hot, cold, iced, RTD, green, flavoured, or Oolong. Tea is indeed the choice for the future, and is unfolding fast in America.

The Japanese Developed It To A Fine Art

The tea drinking habit was introduced from China almost 1,000 years ago, using only green tea as the base, and served throughout each meal.

In Japan, tea drinking has been glorified into an aesthetic cult based on worship of the beautiful in the daily routine of life. The five hundred years old ceremony, Cha-no-yu is considered Japan’s greatest contribution to tea, with its elaborate ritual, but with simplicity and austerity as its keynote, has exercised a powerful influence on Japanese art and culture.

It was left for the Japanese to develop the tea ceremony to its logical conclusion. “Everything is symbolic of something else,” so says J. M. Scott in his book The Tea Story.

“The tea room is a place apart, approached by a path which however short, represents an escape from the troubled world. The door is only three feet high, so the room is entered in the attitude of humanity. The room is small without ornaments, except for symbolically arranged flowers to encourage simplicity and peace. Periods of silence or of a prescribed form of conversation are required. The tea is prepared just so and drunk so while seated cross-legged on a mat, every movement being significant. It is said to take three years to perfect this ritual, far more complicated than wine tasting. After drinking, the host deprecates the tea, saying how poor the tea is. A Westerner would be inclined to agree with him, for it is in fact tea-powder whisked up into something reminiscent of pea-soup with a thing like a shaving brush made of finely split bamboo. When it is all over the host kneels at the door, bowing his head in humble gratitude for the polite expression of his departing guests.”

This sums all the ritualistic and sacramental manifestations that go into the correct performance of the tea ceremony.

Some of the rules for the ceremony written about 600 years ago, but still represent the highest ideals of the ceremony as it is practised today.

1. It is important on entering the ceremony to have not only a clean face and hands, but chiefly a clean heart.
2. The host must meet the guests and conduct them in. If he is too poor to the give them the tea and necessaries for the ceremony, or if the eatables are tasteless, the guest can leave at once.
3. When the water makes a sound as the wind in the fir trees, the bell rings and the guests enters the waiting room.
4. It is forbidden, since long ago, to speak in or out of the room of anything worldly, including politics, and especially scandal.
5. No guest or host may, in any true, pure meeting, flatter either by word or deed.

This ceremony is conducted in a specially constructed room abbreviated to suggest a purified barrenness. No more than five guests are entertained at a time. They enter through a low door after removing all footwear. Every gesture of the person who performs the ceremony is prescribed.

He then prepares the charcoal fire, by sprinkling incense on it. The guests then retire to the garden until the water in the iron kettle boils. At the sound of a gong, the guests are brought back, followed by the host, carrying with him all the utensils required for the ceremony.

From a stoneware tea jar, the host takes three heaping tea scoops per person of finely powdered green tea, places it in the tea bowl made of pottery and pours boiling water from the kettle with a ladle. He then stirs the tea in the bowl with a bamboo whisk. This is done until the tea in the bowl froths at the top. The chief guest is given the first choice to savour the contents. He drinks it in three and a half sip, making a sucking noise, in compliment to the tea, and passes to the next. The host drinks the tea last, and the ceremony ends with much bowing and expressions of polite thanks on the part of the guests, and humble apologies on the part of the host, for the inadequacy of the entertainment.

The ceremonies are still conducted, but confined mostly to the monasteries and among a small minority of the elite tea masters and their acolytes. This practice is encouraged. These classes are mostly followed by young women who were anxious to acquire these skills in the tea ceremony as it enhances their chances of marriage.

It must be recalled that the Japanese and the Chinese leaned the use of the tea drink from aboriginal tribesman of the hill districts, who prepared the beverage by boiling the raw green leaves of the wild tea tree. This was later developed into a socio-religious rite of exquisite refinement.

Recent modernisation trends are fast waning the younger generation away from old customs, and green tea is mostly drunk in the mornings just to get a good start for the day. It is fast losing its sophistication and becoming an everyday drink. The latest craze is for flavoured and scented blends.

It is the wish of the older generation that the Japanese youth will gradually rediscover the “way of tea,” as tea has remained deeply entrenched in contemporary Japanese culture, and it is the only country in the world to elect a “Miss Tea” each year to promote each year’s tea harvest.

Russia Evolved A Unique Process

Another as old and as famous a tea drinking nation as England, is Russia. They discovered tea in 1638, and adopted their own style of drinking tea, which centres round the “samovar." It all started with the ambassador Vassily Starkov receiving of a gift of one hundred and forty pounds of tea from a Mongol Prince. Although its success was instantaneous at the highest echelons of power, it took a further two centuries for it to become a common drink in the land of vodka. Tea arrived from China by caravan, and it was not until the mid-eighteen century that tea was able to penetrate the interior of Russia.

The spread of tea was accompanied by the invention of the samovar. It is not a kind of tea pot that the western world adopted as a convenient method of brewing tea. It could be regarded more a tea kettle. The samovar, which acts as a water boiler is made out of either copper, brass, or silver. The brew is made with boiling water drawn from this apparatus.

Before the samovar is brought to the table, the boiler is filled with tea, and lighted charcoal placed in the vertical pipe. Tea is made in a small tea pot that is placed on top of the samovar. When the tea has drawn its full strength, the host fills about one quarter of each glass, from the pot and the balance from the samovar. The glasses have silver holders with handles. A liberal quantity of sugar and a flavouring of lemon is added, but no milk or cream is used. Sugar is rarely added to the tea by the peasant classes, but instead taken in the mouth. With each mouthful of tea, a spoonful of jam is sometimes taken in place of lemon and, during winter times, rum is added as a protection against influenza.

“Russian Tea," for many years, meant Chinese brick tea imported into Russia. Being connoisseurs of tea for over three centuries, they have acquired their own style of tea drinking. It is their eating habits that have driven the Russians to become heavy drinkers of tea. Their breakfast is light, but they combine their lunch and dinner into one enormous meal that is eaten between three and six. During mid-meals, tea keeps them going.

Tea rooms or Chainayas, as referred to in Russia, could be found in all commercial areas, and they are heavily patronised during all hours of day and night. For those who want to brew their own tea, boiling water is provided free of charge, at all railway stations.

They eat a piece of unrefined sugar or a spoonful of fruit jam that melts in the mouth when mixed with a sip of strong bitter tea. “Ecstasy” wrote Pushkin, “is a glass full of tea and a piece of sugar in the tea.” To the Rusians, tea has remained a priceless commodity, and they have been supporting the top-end of the market both in Colombo and Calcutta.

In Bokhara, a Soviet state, the natives carry their tea in small bags, and when he is thirsty for a cup of tea, he looks for the nearest tea booth, and has the proprietor brew it for him. Tea is rarely purchased at these booths, the owner is only paid for his skill at brewing the tea.

Tibetans Take Their Tea Filled To The Brim

Salted tea with goat’s milk is the standard springtime drink of the shepherds occupying the Himalayan pastures. Further, Tibet is the only place in the world where tea is considered a sacred offering, but it also remains as an essential element of local hospitality as in China. When served to a visitor, the bowels are filled to the brim to ward off evil.

The Tibetans still follow another unique method of making their tea. Their source of supply had always been China, and it came as brick tea. The leaves for its manufacture are carefully gathered during June July and August, from terraced mountain side tea fields, in the district of Ya-Chou. Preparation of brick tea was an elaborate operation. The selected leaves were fired in heated pans for a few minutes and then spread out for sun-drying. After this basic function, they were packed in loose bales and sold to agents of the brick tea manufactures.

Upon reaching the factories, the sacks of tea were allowed to stand and foment for a few days, after which the leaves and the stems spread out and picked over into different grades by persons and children.

They often selected three leaf grades, but there was always room for the fourth, which consisted of the oldest and the toughest leaves, chopped up branches and sweepings. Thereafter, each grade steamed separately over a boiler. When it gets soft, it was treated with leaf dust and a mixture of thick rice water. It was then rammed into moulds.

An individual brick measured eleven inches by four inches with a thickness of one inch, and weighed six pounds. They were then set aside in racks to dry for about three days and then wrapped in paper bearing the manufacture's name. Four bricks were packed together, end to end, in a bamboo frame, and after the coarse cakes had been tucked in at the ends to prevent damage to bricks, they were ready for transport.

The standard form of transport was on the back of a coolly, who could carry up to 400 pounds. These consignments of brick tea had to be carried to a distribution point situated at Ta-Chien-Lu. This journey had to be undertaken through difficult terrain and required about twenty days to cover the distance of 150 miles.

The preparation of the tea was equally fascinating. Small particles are chipped off the brick, and placed in a pot containing cold water. The water is then boiled for several hours until the infusion is virtually black.

A little salt or soda is added, and the liquid strained into an upright cylinder. A large slice of rancid yak then added and mixed vigorously to form a thick broth, and then served out in small wooden bowls.

It is said that the Tibetans usually drank thirty to forty bowls of this “hot buttered tea” per day. To Tibet go the honour of holding the world’s largest tea party. In 1852 more than 4,000 Lamas consumed cauldrons of tea in holy silence at a party given for them by a wealthy pilgrim.

Britishers Introduced “Tea Time” To India

From among the wild growing tea trees, Assam produced the first Indian tea, which was sold in London in 1839. During the early days of tea planting, living conditions both to the planter and the labourer would have been dreadful. Nevertheless, the European planters did not shirk their responsibilities by not teaching the Indians the true way of observing tea time.

The planters enjoyed the luxury of having his tea accompanied by spice buns' cakes and sandwiches. The unfortunate labourer however could not afford such luxuries, but nevertheless enjoyed his cut of tea in his own style.

India is a foremost producer of tea but her position as an exporter has suffered considerably in the recent past. India has established herself as one of the largest tea drinking countries in the world. The consumption of tea in the country however is discouraged, as India is determines to maintain her exports at least at a reasonable level.

Tea is a very popular drink in the North, and small tea kiosks line the streets. Patronage at these way-side tea shops is very high, and you will find dozens of people seated on small benches savouring the hotly brewed tea. The tea is served very hot, with plenty of sugar and milk. Hurried customers are often seen pouring the tea on to the saucer to cool it before drinking it. Tea serves as a meal to the plantation labourers. Bread dipped in hot sweetened plain tea helps to survive instant hunger.

In more public places such as railway stations, tea is kept hot in large kettles and served in small clay cups that are broken after use. That is done to ensure that the cup had not been used previously by a low cast person.

To the Indians, a warm cup of tea favours human contact, and provides the spark needed to make an acquaintance and inaugurate a bond of friendship.

Chinese As Connoisseurs Of Tea

The Chinese, who are regarded as the inventors of the tea drinking habit, adopted their own inexplicable style that has remained with them even today. It is strange that this elegant manner of drinking tea has not been followed by any other tea- drinking nation in the world. As connoisseurs of tea for many centuries, the Chinese way of drinking tea is considered unique.

They do not use teapot as a rule, but simply infuse the tea with water kept much below the boiling point in the very cups from which they are drunk. It is consumed without milk or sugar. The cups that hold the tea do not have handles. Once the cups are filled with water they are covered. This resembles an inverted saucer that is used to strain the tea.

The partaking of the liquid from the cup has been perfected to a fine art. The covered cup is raised gently to the mouth, and with the fingers of the hand holding the cup, the lid is carefully raised by the forefinger, just enough to permit the tea to flow into the mouth as the cup is tilted. This whole procedure is carried out with the minimum of fuss and noise, and with grace and charm.

Tea is drunk in China by high and low. It is taken at all occasions, and all hours of the day and night. It is served on receiving guests, making purchases, transacting business and at all ceremonies. For the Chinese, tea has always been more than the sum of its chemical and mineral components, and much more than just a hot beverage. To them it is a symbol of hospitality and entertainment, whether this occurs in the home or in the more formal atmosphere of a restaurant or hotel. Tea has traditionally been closely associated with good taste, sophistication, and genteel society, as well as being an integral part of everyday life of the ordinary person.

Invariably, one’s manners and social standing are tested by the way the tea is drunk. Drinking the whole of the cup at one time is considered rude. The host plays an important part in the tea ceremony, and is expected politely to invite each of the guests in turn, to partake in the drink. The host drinks his tea last.

It is a common practice among the upper class of Chinese to add dried flower blossoms into the cup of tea to make the infusion brighter. The most universal custom among the Chinese in higher societies who drink black tea, is to keep it in sealed earthen jars for a couple of years before use. In the western world however, an old tea will not have any trade value, and would be described as “old and flat."

The equivalent of the Continental tea cafes is found in most Chinese cities today. They provide a convenient place for public resort. Shanghai alone can boast of over four hundred such tea houses, all ready to cater to the needs of the different groups of customers that frequent these places at different times of the day.
In the modern home or business office, tea is brewed in teapots and poured into individual cups, often without handles. Due to foreign influence, teahouses along the coast usually follow the western style, and tea is served according to the western style, with proper cups and saucers.

Strong tea is preferred in New Zealand

Tea is another beverage that is heavily consumed in New Zealand, and accounts for almost seven cups a day. They follow much the same way of brewing tea, but a fixation on tea bags can be identified now. Those living in remote areas known as “black blocks” are known to follow some way off methods of brewing their tea. They stew the tea leaves for a strong cup of tea. Plenty of sugar is used.

After his breakfast, his “billy can” a standard implement used by the bush man on the sheep farms, is left to simmer. When he returns to his tent in the evening, he rekindles the fire, warms up the black brew that has steeped all day, and drinks it with the utmost delight.

In the more urban areas, tea is served along with a pot of hot water. This permits the strength of the brew to be adjusted to suit the taste of the individual. The is generally brewed strong and taken with milk. Bed tea is served in a large cup, the size of an English breakfast cup in comparison, usually accompanied by a piece of buttered bread, or a biscuit. Another similar cup follows breakfast, and the morning tea at eleven O clock, regardless of whether at home or in office, has become a necessity, and it has become a feature and developed as a part of their culture. Lunch is followed with tea, and at four O clock tea is served again, at home, in hotels, restaurants, tea-rooms, and offices. The last feast for the day, which is referred to as supper, is only an apology for another cup of tea.

Bush-man stew tea in Australia

The workers of the great Australian sheep farms in the black blocks, the bush men of the wild-open spaces, who indulge in four meat-fed meals, are said to consume the strongest kind of tea at every possible occasion.

In the city's tea is brewed more or less in the same manner as the British. In many homes and in most hotels, tea is served seven times a day -- before breakfast, at breakfast, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, at lunch, at four o'clock in the evening, at dinner and just prior to retiring. It is customary for all offices to serve tea to their employers at least twice a day.

British way of preparing tea is followed in the urban areas, but in the black blocks the bush-man makes it differently. A handful of tea is thrown into his smoke blackened tin can, as he crawls of his bunt in the morning.

Water is added and made to stew. Once breakfast is over, the can is left to simmer, and when he returns to the cabin at nightfall, he rekindles the fire, warms the black concoction that had stewed all day, and drinks it with utmost enjoyment.

This ‘billy” can used by the bush-man throughout the centuries has been given the name of “Matilda” for reasons unknown. Under this pet name it has been famed in an almost a national song entitled “Waltzing Matilda”

Canadians have their tea light

Tea drinking is fast catching up in Canada. Indian and Sri Lanka blends are preferred, but a small quantity of Japanese greens is imported for those in the lumber regions. They follow very much the same way as the British, but they extend a spoonful of tea for two cups, and have it light. Further, their brewing time is extended. The liquor is poured off the leaves into another tea pot to serve. Tea is served with all the meals commencing with breakfast, and the last at bedtime. Lemon is usually taken with tea, but some prefer it with cream and sugar. The use of tea bags is on the rise.

The afternoon tea is gaining favour at the summer resorts, and it is becoming a fashionable task for ladies to be seen enjoying an afternoon tea in the more exclusive departmental stores, most stores are equipped with tea rooms, and brisk business is carried out during winter. Unlike in England, exclusive coffee shops are seldom seen.


Tea drinking matured slowly in Sri Lanka

Although Sri Lanka had been a pioneer in the cultivation of tea in the world, the habit of tea drinking took a long time to catch on with the general populace. The Tea Propaganda Board vans were seen distributing free tea at village gatherings in the days of yore. They were often seen in the suburbs, publishing the health giving properties of tea.

It took a long time for this fixation to spread, but once the pleasing qualities were discovered, tea drinking became a regular ingredient for leisure. As much as the Russians discovered the samovar for the easy dispensing of tea, Sri Lanka is proud to have discovered their own apparatus for the same use. Tea customs in the small villages are less British.

During the initial stages, large copper containers were used to carry sweetened plain tea to places of gathering in the villages. It had a built in fire-pot at the base to keep the tea warm. Tea was served out through a long-necked spout, into small glasses.

Next outfit that became very popular in the tea kiosks out in the rural areas was the tea boiler. A cluster of bananas in front of the village shop identifies it as a tea boutique. It was built on very much the same lines as the Russian samovar. This large vessel containing boiling water was usually of copper, heated by charcoal in a metal pipe extending vertically through its centre. Tea leaves are separately brewed in a small tea pot placed on top of the pipe, where it is kept hot. Tea is served in small glasses, in the combination of a quarter of the strong tea to three quarters of boiling water from the boiler.

To the people working on the tea plantations, tea is not only a drink, but goes to serve as a meal. Bread is dipped in a strong solution of sugared tea, and they gorge themselves in this simple spread during mealtime. The average villager relishes a cup or bowl of tea without milk, but enjoys a little sugar on the palm, which is licked with every sip of tea. More often, jaggery, the coarse sugar of the coconut palm is preferred. The leisure hours are spent chatting with friends, sipping tea followed with a chew of betel leaf, and this they have found to be the best way to dispel fatigue and tension.

For the elite, tea drinking habit was the natural reaction to a foreign culture, which was imported from England. It however had its own odd traits. Except for breakfast, tea was never served with meals, but when guests arrive, the silver service is always available, and tea served in the typical British way.

What for the future?

Tea has in no way completely replaced alcoholic beverages, but it is fair to say that the burden of refreshing in general is mainly borne by tea. During the depression of the 1930’s, the average British had very few alternatives in their choice of a beverage. For the poorest, it was beer or tea, and they pinned their hopes on tea, with the result the national consumption of tea increased to nine pounds of tea per head per year.

Tea for a long time had been proclaimed a heath drink. This remained so until about the mid twentieth century, when suddenly the world remained close-mouthed about tea’s intrinsic health benefits. It was only during the latter part of the last millennium that tea was once again pushed to the forefront as a health drink.

After the Second World War, tea in Britain faced stiff competition from a variety of sources, particularly from the soft drink market. Fruit juices and fizzy drinks soon became the popular staples in American and British office and factory canteens.

Tea like all other beverages has been put to the test, but it is improbable that tea will be lightly brushed aside. Unlike most other beverages, tea is not taken mainly for its agreeable taste, but on its effect upon its consumer. It is a warming drink in cold weather, and a cooling drink in the hot weather, as it has the capacity to stimulate the blood vessels. It provides various stimulants in happy combinations to provide beneficial effects upon the inner man.

Ample scientific research has gone into the composition of tea, and they have now found out that small quantities of caffeine and tannin in tea formed an ideal partnership that gave an immediate stimulation without any harmful effects. It relieves fatigue and increases speed and clearness of thought. Tea has much to offer, and an opportunity exists today to address these problems using tea’s emergence as a healthy lifestyle product.

Today, extensive work is being carried out to consider new motivations to stimulate the demand for tea. During the past few years there has been a noticeable world-wide increase in consumer appreciation of a healthy lifestyle, and tea fits superbly to this new concept in living.
Dietary habits are constantly changing in keeping with known linkages between nutrition and health, and the latest findings that tea contains certain components that may help prevent heart disease and some cancers.

Fortunately, considerable evidence is now emerging that tea possesses many of the beneficial properties regard to several areas of human health, the most important of them all are the prevention of heart disease, stroke and cancer, and the promotion of oral health. Tea is now been accepted as the suitable choice within a healthy lifestyle.