Saberi, H. Tea: A Global History, Reaktion, 2010.
Carroll, L. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Penguin Classics, 1998.
Wilde, O. The Importance of being Earnest, Nick Hern Books Limited, 2007.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
'A Mad Tea Party'
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Possibly the most iconic scene from Lewis Carroll's, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is the tea party, once regarded as the bastion of polite society here it is turned on its' head becoming an absurd mix of manners rudeness and riddles, a perpetual tea party where time is not measured in seconds and hours but by the mood of Time himself and hence it is always tea time, "'Is that the reason so many tea things are here?' she asked. Yes that's it, said the Hatter with a sigh: it's always tea time, and we've no time to wash things between the whiles." One could be forgiven for thinking a child thought this up in a dream, however Carroll is more insightful than that, tea has long been known for its medicinal properties and the fact that the two of the four people at the table are called mad by the Cheshire Cat, their act of drinking tea is ironic as they obviously won't be cured by the simple beverage that is coveted in polite society.
'A decent cup of tea', Tea and emotions through music and film and books
I was listening to a song just now by Frank Turner called 'A decent Cup of Tea' It's from the album Sleep is for the Week, check it out he has many awesome songs.
A decent Cup of Tea - Frank Turner
The song is about unrequited love and loneliness and heartbreak and life really, and tea somehow seems to fit with these moments where we need comfort. The lyrics go;
It hadn’t been a day when everything had turned out right –
She called me up and asked me to come over in the night,
To make her cups of tea and listen quietly as she starts
To list the latest list of bastards who have trampled on her heart.
I see her in the nightclubs, I see her in the bars,
At rooftop after-parties, or crammed into friends’ cars,
And we talk about the weather, and how she drowns her pain in drink,
And I nod and never ever dare to tell her what I think.
She summers by my seas
But winters without me,
And she cries into her tea
That she’s secretly lonely.
And oh me, what am I to do?
It’s obvious to me,
But she never seems to see
That it’s not about the days when everything has turned out right,
No it’s more about the moments when she calls me in the night
To make her cups of tea and wash the weary worries from her head
And then to draw the pain out slowly as I put her into bed.
And I slip this information
Into all our conversations
But she never seems to listen
And she never seems to see.
CECILY May i offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax?
GWENDOLEN (with elaborate politeness). Thank you. (Aside.) Detestable girl! But I require tea!
CECILY (sweetly). Sugar?
GWENDOLEN (superciliously). No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.
CECILY looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts four lumps of sugar into the cup.
Gwendolen is trying to out class Cecily and make her feel like she is socially lower then her by saying that sugar is no longer fashionable and later that, "Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays." When afternoon tea was invented by the Duchess of Bedford tea and sugar were both rare luxuries only available to the rich upper classes to give your guests tea and as much sugar as they like showed how wealthy you were. However fashions change and at some point it became fashionable to not have sugar in your tea and to not know this would damage your social standing just as today we might judge someone if they weren't wearing the newest fashion in clothes. This scene is about one-upmanship as both the girls think that Ernest has proposed to them they want to prove they are the better option. The scene is hence very comedic, one of the best using physical props, asides and secret actions that the audience see but Gwendolen doesn't Cecily comes across as quite childish playing a joke and it makes Gwendolen seems stuck up and vain.
A decent Cup of Tea - Frank Turner
The song is about unrequited love and loneliness and heartbreak and life really, and tea somehow seems to fit with these moments where we need comfort. The lyrics go;
It hadn’t been a day when everything had turned out right –
She called me up and asked me to come over in the night,
To make her cups of tea and listen quietly as she starts
To list the latest list of bastards who have trampled on her heart.
I see her in the nightclubs, I see her in the bars,
At rooftop after-parties, or crammed into friends’ cars,
And we talk about the weather, and how she drowns her pain in drink,
And I nod and never ever dare to tell her what I think.
She summers by my seas
But winters without me,
And she cries into her tea
That she’s secretly lonely.
And oh me, what am I to do?
It’s obvious to me,
But she never seems to see
That it’s not about the days when everything has turned out right,
No it’s more about the moments when she calls me in the night
To make her cups of tea and wash the weary worries from her head
And then to draw the pain out slowly as I put her into bed.
And I slip this information
Into all our conversations
But she never seems to listen
And she never seems to see.
This lead me to think of moments in films and books that combine tea with relationships. Tea is often featured in a scene when at a pivotal part in the film for example in Atonement, based on the book by Ian MacEwan.
Robbie and Cecelia meet in a tearoom after he is released from prison and before leaving for the war. There is an awkward moment when Cecelia forgets how many sugars Robbie has and whilst stirring the tea they touch hands, trying to reconnect.Tea used to be such a symbol of the British 'stiff upper lip' and this is used to great advantage in the film where they try to keep it together but their emotions overwhelm them and in the situation they are i.e. a smart cafe this emotion seems if possible even more heightened, as it is at odds with the people around them.
Tea can be touching and romantic but it can also be a prop for comedy as in the hilarious play 'The Importance of being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde. I will examine the text but if you have not read it before then here is the film version of the scene i'm talking about.
CECILY May i offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax?
GWENDOLEN (with elaborate politeness). Thank you. (Aside.) Detestable girl! But I require tea!
CECILY (sweetly). Sugar?
GWENDOLEN (superciliously). No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.
CECILY looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts four lumps of sugar into the cup.
Gwendolen is trying to out class Cecily and make her feel like she is socially lower then her by saying that sugar is no longer fashionable and later that, "Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays." When afternoon tea was invented by the Duchess of Bedford tea and sugar were both rare luxuries only available to the rich upper classes to give your guests tea and as much sugar as they like showed how wealthy you were. However fashions change and at some point it became fashionable to not have sugar in your tea and to not know this would damage your social standing just as today we might judge someone if they weren't wearing the newest fashion in clothes. This scene is about one-upmanship as both the girls think that Ernest has proposed to them they want to prove they are the better option. The scene is hence very comedic, one of the best using physical props, asides and secret actions that the audience see but Gwendolen doesn't Cecily comes across as quite childish playing a joke and it makes Gwendolen seems stuck up and vain.
Sunday 22 April 2012
History of the tea bag
The Tea bag as we know it today was invented in 1944 however they originally became popular in the early 1900's after tea merchant Thomas Sullivan would send samples to his customers in small bags. It was intended to be removed from the bags before brewing however his customers found it easier to let the tea brew in the bag as it was more convenient. This was in America unsurprisingly and it took us Brits a long time to stop using loose leaf tea, so long in fact tea bags were a rarity in England until after the second world war. Partially though this was due to tea being rationed, it was so important to the moral of the British that it was stockpiled outside of London to avoid the Blitz and soldiers got a bigger allowance than ordinary folks to keep their spirits up.
Nowadays tea bags account for 96% of all tea consumption in the UK, they are so popular there was even a coffee bag using the same method, this never caught on but then neither did 'instant' tea. The first tea bags were oblong or square in shape and came with a string which enabled you to retrieve it without a spoon and had the makers label on the end to identify what type of tea was enclosed. Today we still have this type but it mostly relegated to places where teaspoons are lacking aka hotels and the bags have a drawstring so that the bag can be squeezed dry. more common are bags with no string they can be square,oblong, circle or recently pyramid shaped, (it is claimed this gives the tea more room to brew.)
Nowadays tea bags account for 96% of all tea consumption in the UK, they are so popular there was even a coffee bag using the same method, this never caught on but then neither did 'instant' tea. The first tea bags were oblong or square in shape and came with a string which enabled you to retrieve it without a spoon and had the makers label on the end to identify what type of tea was enclosed. Today we still have this type but it mostly relegated to places where teaspoons are lacking aka hotels and the bags have a drawstring so that the bag can be squeezed dry. more common are bags with no string they can be square,oblong, circle or recently pyramid shaped, (it is claimed this gives the tea more room to brew.)
Thursday 19 April 2012
A Nice Cup of Tea
One should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste. Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
- George Orwell ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’
First published: Evening Standard. — GB, London. — January 12, 1946.
I try to do a taste test .... with proper tea terms!
PG Tips vs. Yorkshire Tea!!
The History bit:
In the 1930s Arthur Brooke of Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the UK tea market under the name of Pre-Gest-Tee. The name implied that the tea could be drunk prior to food being digested. Grocers abbreviated it to PG.
After the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion a property previously attributed to tea and by 1950/1 the PG name was officially adopted. The company added "Tips" referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend.
Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, one of the few remaining family tea and coffee merchants in the United Kingdom. Bettys is also a famous tearoom in Harrogate that my twin raved about when she went there.The company was founded in 1886 by Yorkshire tea merchant Charles Taylor.
Now i'm going to make some tea! to see how to make your tea the English way please see How to be English aka how to make tea a video by youtuber charlie who actually earns a living now making videos hmm back to the point below are tea terms borrowed from, 'Tea a Global History' by Helen Saberi.
TEA TERMS
Body: with a strong liquor.
Brassy: With a bright taste.
Bright: With a good pronounced colour, usually orange or coppery.
Brisk: Refreshing or lively.
Clean : A pure neutral aroma.
Coarse: With a a harsh and vegetable aroma.
Dull: An infusion that lacks aroma.
Earthy: With an unpleasant taste, (usually caused by storing tea in damp conditions.)
Flaky : Badly manufactured, producing flat or badly rolled leaves.
Flowery: High quality.
Golden : A term used to describe tea containing light tips.
It may be useful to start by saying PG Tips comes in a pyramid bag and Yorkshire Tea comes in a rectangular bag. Now it is claimed that the pyramid bag gives extra room to help the tea brew, however this is debatable and anyway i'll be doing a post on tea bags in a bit so go look at that.
First I popped the tea bags into the mugs full of boiling water without stirring for ten seconds, and i found that the PG tips pyramid bag certainly did get a head start as the tea coloured the bottom of the mug easily within that time. The Yorkshire tea bag didn't quite manage that but hey who makes tea without a teaspoon!?
Next I stirred the tea each five times then left for 30 seconds to brew, I guess they'd already had a while after I appraised their non-stirred spreading abilities so then I squeezed the bags with the spoon and took them out, now comes the jargon bit.
Colour: The colour of both of the teas was predictably similar seeing as they are both types of black tea. When tilted so that the tea was see through against the white of the inside of the mug they certainly could not be classed as bright, in fact more pale with a yellowy colour that screamed end of the barrel. Also PG Tips created a bit of oily scum on the top of the water which wasn't very pleasant, its well known that Yorkshire tea is better brewed in harder water and did not give a scummy look to the water.
Smell: PG Tips gives a vague chemically smell which is coarse compared to the Yorkshire tea even perhaps a little dull. Whereas Yorkshire tea has a more homely smell a slightly cleaner aroma than PG Tips and which in general is kinder to the nostril.
Taste: PG Tips gives a very tangy taste on first sip, a strong even acrid taste that seems to coat the tongue. Yorkshire Tea is somewhat less acrid and less strong a taste although it still coats the tongue which doesn't make it very appetizing.
Conclusion: Fortunately for us it seems both teas were made with the English in mind, Saberi lists ways in which tea is combined with different things in her book, "In America they serve it iced. The Tibetans add butter. The Russians serve with lemon. Mint is added in North Africa. Afghans flavour it with cardamom. The Irish and British drink it by the gallon with milk and sugar. The Indians boil it with condensed milk." We like milk and sugar in our tea, both things which combined with the taste of plain tea actually accompany it and accentuate its unique taste very well, and that's just fine for our moderate climate! I enjoyed using new terms to describe tea and comparing two seemingly different brands although i think i might go make myself a cup of coffee after all that.
The History bit:
In the 1930s Arthur Brooke of Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the UK tea market under the name of Pre-Gest-Tee. The name implied that the tea could be drunk prior to food being digested. Grocers abbreviated it to PG.After the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion a property previously attributed to tea and by 1950/1 the PG name was officially adopted. The company added "Tips" referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend.
Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, one of the few remaining family tea and coffee merchants in the United Kingdom. Bettys is also a famous tearoom in Harrogate that my twin raved about when she went there.The company was founded in 1886 by Yorkshire tea merchant Charles Taylor.
Now i'm going to make some tea! to see how to make your tea the English way please see How to be English aka how to make tea a video by youtuber charlie who actually earns a living now making videos hmm back to the point below are tea terms borrowed from, 'Tea a Global History' by Helen Saberi.
TEA TERMS
Body: with a strong liquor.
Brassy: With a bright taste.
Bright: With a good pronounced colour, usually orange or coppery.
Brisk: Refreshing or lively.
Clean : A pure neutral aroma.
Coarse: With a a harsh and vegetable aroma.
Dull: An infusion that lacks aroma.
Earthy: With an unpleasant taste, (usually caused by storing tea in damp conditions.)
Flaky : Badly manufactured, producing flat or badly rolled leaves.
Flowery: High quality.
Golden : A term used to describe tea containing light tips.
It may be useful to start by saying PG Tips comes in a pyramid bag and Yorkshire Tea comes in a rectangular bag. Now it is claimed that the pyramid bag gives extra room to help the tea brew, however this is debatable and anyway i'll be doing a post on tea bags in a bit so go look at that.
First I popped the tea bags into the mugs full of boiling water without stirring for ten seconds, and i found that the PG tips pyramid bag certainly did get a head start as the tea coloured the bottom of the mug easily within that time. The Yorkshire tea bag didn't quite manage that but hey who makes tea without a teaspoon!?
Next I stirred the tea each five times then left for 30 seconds to brew, I guess they'd already had a while after I appraised their non-stirred spreading abilities so then I squeezed the bags with the spoon and took them out, now comes the jargon bit.
Colour: The colour of both of the teas was predictably similar seeing as they are both types of black tea. When tilted so that the tea was see through against the white of the inside of the mug they certainly could not be classed as bright, in fact more pale with a yellowy colour that screamed end of the barrel. Also PG Tips created a bit of oily scum on the top of the water which wasn't very pleasant, its well known that Yorkshire tea is better brewed in harder water and did not give a scummy look to the water.
Smell: PG Tips gives a vague chemically smell which is coarse compared to the Yorkshire tea even perhaps a little dull. Whereas Yorkshire tea has a more homely smell a slightly cleaner aroma than PG Tips and which in general is kinder to the nostril.
Taste: PG Tips gives a very tangy taste on first sip, a strong even acrid taste that seems to coat the tongue. Yorkshire Tea is somewhat less acrid and less strong a taste although it still coats the tongue which doesn't make it very appetizing.
Conclusion: Fortunately for us it seems both teas were made with the English in mind, Saberi lists ways in which tea is combined with different things in her book, "In America they serve it iced. The Tibetans add butter. The Russians serve with lemon. Mint is added in North Africa. Afghans flavour it with cardamom. The Irish and British drink it by the gallon with milk and sugar. The Indians boil it with condensed milk." We like milk and sugar in our tea, both things which combined with the taste of plain tea actually accompany it and accentuate its unique taste very well, and that's just fine for our moderate climate! I enjoyed using new terms to describe tea and comparing two seemingly different brands although i think i might go make myself a cup of coffee after all that.
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