Tea, for the Commonplace Book

I like Chai and some herbal teas.  I don't generally like tea in America at all.  I did enjoy iced-tea in the Philippines.  They have a better grade of leaves, I think.  I liked the tea a British friend used to make for me, but she had her family mail tea to her in the States.  But I do like reading about tea.

Tea

"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, 
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, 
And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn 
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups, 
That cheer, but not inebriate, wait on each, 
So let us welcome peaceful evening in." 
~Cowper

[There is a] "country lady mentioned by Southey, who, on receiving a pound of tea as a present from a town-friend, boiled the whole of it in a kettle, and served up the leaves with salt and butter, to her expectant neighbours, who had been invited specially to give their opinions on the novelty! They unanimously voted it detestable, and were astonished that even fashion could make such a dish palatable." The Book of Days, Robert Chambers, 1878

"Who does not enjoy a cup of tea ? "When at least the chief part of the day's lahour is over, and quiet eventide closes around us, and flesh and spirit are alike weary, how invigorating

"The cups
That cheer, but not inebriate !"

The numberless petty annoyances and difficulties we have met with are forgotten under its genial influences. The day's accumulated bitterness melts away. The temper may have been soured, the patience sorely tried, the brain hardly worked; but at the tea-table the brow clears, and the heart gets lighter—for many of our troubles evaporate in the steam from the fragrant cups. A good and useful thing is a cup of tea! It deserves to be ranked not among our smallest blessings. Many an aspiration has been born, many a resolution strengthened by it. We can persuade ourselves that after all we need not despair—that hope may be still ours—that we can and will succeed—-when a cup of tea has cheered us. No matter, then, how dark and gloomy the day has been. We learn to think more gently of the friend who has seemed to fail us—more charitably of those who have tried to injure us. Many a noble thought of "good will to man" has started from the softening heart of the tea-drinker. Many a bright thought, bearing the high stamp of genius, has received an impetus from the same souree. We never inquired, but, doubtless, philanthropists, orators, artists, authors, inventors, and all good and great people have been patrons of the tea-cup.

And what a very comfortable thing is the social cup of tea ! Don't the eyes get bright, and the cheeks rosy, and the lips friendly then? Witty sentences and happy thoughts may have been scarce before the introduction of the tray; but a little while after, can't we talk ? Doesn't all the news get retailed ? Arc not brilliant ideas brilliantly expressed then ? Haven't we opinions of our own, and good reasons for them, at once? Are we not on extraordinarily friendly terms with everybody, and especially ourselves, directly— willing to be allured into every good work that solicits workers? And haven't we a great deal to say about our neighbours?—such interesting matter too, and such agreeable and attentive listeners! People will say that there is some scandal gossiped over the tea-cups; but they must be very ill-disposed people; for, of course it isn't true—at least, of us.
Life Sketches, by Marrianne Farningham, 1867

 
 

THE FRIENDLY CUP OP TEA.

When in the west the sun retires,

Veiling his golden beams
With clouds, which glow like heaven-lit fires,

Gorgeous as fairy scenes;
Till mountains seem on mountains piled,

Tinted with every hue—
Here dazzling rich, there blushing mild,

Enchanting to the view ;
How pleasant 'tis, as day thus ends,

In spirit blithe and free,
To join and drink, with merry friends,

A friendly cup of tea !

The poets sing of paradise,

And tell of Eden's bloom,
But this is lost to mortal eyes,

O'erveiled with clouds of gloom.
And earth is cursed with grief and care,

At least so people say,
But there's an antidote to cheer,

And soothe our griefs away.

...

A Book for the Wayside by Edwin Davis, 1861

 

 

If you are tired, take a cup of tea. If you have a headache, take a cup of tea. If you have a journey to take, take a cup of tea. A cup of tea is always refreshing.
Eliza Stephenson, When Papa Comes Home, 1882

m

We have only to hark back to our rudimentary nursery education to remember that the temper of Cross Patch was so improved after drinking a civilizing cup of tea—tradition says it was nothing else—that she put out the latch-string hoping it would call in a neighbor to share and double the pleasure of her second cup. Fortunately the genial spirit of hospitality hovers as willingly over a three-legged stool covered with a snowy napkin as she does over the most magnificent specimen of Indian lacquer mounted on an elaborately carved standard. But the fad of having a tea table crowded with a conglomeration of articles which it needs a great stretch of the imagination to see the possible use for—too often a collection of dusty embroidery and china, and tarnished silver—has caused not a few housekeepers to remove the sitting room tea service in disgust. With those, however, who have come under the spell of the virtues and charms of the simply appointed tea tray or table, and who know that everything worth having exacts its proportionate amount of labor, the daily use of the few necessary appurtenances amply repays the attention they require, and Queen Oolong still reigns.

The tea table habit is a gracious one to cultivate. The influence of this tiny board makes for rest and meditation, for hospitality, for friendship and cheer, in the daily journey. If madam comes in late from shopping or calling, cold and tired, what is so refreshing and comforting as a cup of the hot amber liquid? (The foregoing positively not stolen from a tea advertisement!) If the witching tea hour is the appointed time for the meeting of a refractory committee, do not the ideas flow with the tea, and under the graceinspiring influence of the goodly aroma do not differences and irritations steal away? If the day is dark and dreary, and duties press, and you feel that your doll is indeed stuffed with bran, try a cup, my dear! 'Tis a great restorer of serenity, soothing in effect likeunto a man's after-dinner cigar. But—alas, there are always "buts"—do not rush through the ceremony in a "one more thing done" fashion. Let the busiest woman lay aside her work; relax, body and mind; take an easy chair between the softly crackling fire and the little table; and whether alone or in the company of family, friend or book, sip a tranquillizing cup of the orient's best. It is blessed "lost time"!

From The Cup that Cheers, by Anne Warner

Dr Johnson gives Earls Arlington and Ossory the credit of being the first to import tea into England. He says that they brought it from Holland in 1666, and that their ladies taught women of quality how to use it. Pepys, however, records having sent for a cup of tea, a China drink of which he had never drunk before, on the 25th of September 1660; and by an act of parliament of the same year, a duty of eightpence a gallon was levied on all sherbert, chocolate, and tea made for sale. Waller, writing on some tea commended by Catherine of Braganza, says :

' The best of herbs and best of queens we owe
To that bold nation, which the way did Bhew
To the fair region where the sun does rise.

The Muses' friend, Tea, does our fancy aid,
Hepress the vapours which the head invade,
And keeps the palace of the soul serene.'

Her majesty may have helped to render tea-drinking fashionable, but the beverage was well known in London before the Restoration. The Mercuriu* Politieus of September 30, 1658, contains the following advertisement:—'That excellent, and by all physicians approved, China drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head Coffee-House, in Sweeting's Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.' Possibly this announcement prompted the founder of Garraway's to issue the broadsheet, preserved in the British Museum Library, in which he thu3 runs riot in exaltation of tea : ' The. quality is moderately hot, proper for winter or summer. The drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until extreme old age....

The Book of Days, Robert Chambers