The Afternoon Tea Book, by Michael Smith (TPB, 1986, $2.50)
Back in yonder days, the British drank coffee, not tea, and you poured coffee from a cup into the saucer, and drank from the saucer. In order to make sure you would be served in a timely manner, you'd put a coin into the "tip" (To Insure Promptness) box.
Tea was eventually brought to Europe by the Dutch. It was expensive, and taxed, so only the rich could afford it. Women never drank it. (Both tea and coffee were known to stimulate the senses, making it unhealthy for women to drink.) Not until 1717 was tea drinking more popular than coffee drinking, and only in the 1750s was tea exported to the colonies. So when the Boston Tea Party pushed tea into the harbor, tea had been in Boston for less than 20 years. I had always imagined Boston Harbor awash in tea leaves, but really what was floating were large black blocks of tea. Individual tea leaves would not be available till much, much later.
Green tea usually is from China. Oolong tea is green tea that is partially fermented. Black tea is green tea that has completed the fermenting process. Who would have guessed!
Included here are both the history of teas, and tea drinking, as well as directions on how to brew tea, and what to serve with it. (I was shocked to find that High Tea was not an afternoon tea with cakes, but an early evening meal.) So check out this book, on the new non-fiction table, available 1/4. (Later placement: cookbooks.)
