Tea set

“ While the tea set illustrated in Family Group appears to have all the basic pieces, it can hardly be considered a “complete” tea set when compared with the following porcelain sets listed in the 1747 inventory of James Pemberton of Boston:
In addition, the Pemberton inventory lists a silver tea pot and “1 pr. Tea Tongs & Strainer,” items that were undoubtedly used with the ceramic sets. ”

“ Tea drinkers were extremely conscious of fashion changes and, whenever possible, set their tea tables with stylish equipment in the prevailing fashion. Newspaper advertisements, journals, letters, and other written materials indicate that utensils in the “best and newest taste” were available, desired, purchased, and used in this country.
Figure 6.—Part of a child’s tea set of Chinese export porcelain, or “painted China,” made about 1790. The painted decoration is of pink roses and rose buds with green leaves; the border is orange, with blue flowers. ”

“ An earthern tea pot made of Minton, Doulton, or Satsuma ware, is the best kind of vessel to prepare Tea in, but it must first be scalded out with boiling water before putting the Tea leaves in and then set on the range or stove to dry and keep hot for a few minutes. ”

“ A fluted edge is a most uncomfortable finish for a drinking vessel. The wafer-basket may be silver, china or cut glass.
For the winter months many hostesses have introduced a variety on the menu of the five o’clock tea table. Tea is a doubtful beverage in many hands, and is wholly abjured by many women as injurious to the complexion, hence a big, egg-shaped urn, beneath which a tiny alcohol jet burns, is set up in the corner of the drawing-room. The urn is filled with chicken bouillon, served piping hot in small silver cups, and with an invigorating dash of sherry for those who prefer it so. ”

“ Provide a place for ladies to dress their hair, with a glass, pins, and combs. A pitcher of cold water and a tumbler should be added. When the company is small, it is becoming a common method for the table to be set at one end of the room, the lady of the house to pour out tea, and the gentlemen of the party to wait on the ladies and themselves. When tea is sent round, always send a tea-pot of hot water to weaken it, and a slop-bowl, or else many persons will drink their tea much stronger than they wish. ”

“ In the center of this is a tall vase holding a miscellaneous bouquet, and at the corners of the centerpiece are small vases of similar design holding similar bouquets. All edibles are on the table at once, there is no removing of courses. The teacups, silver teapot with satin cosey, silver or china hot water pitcher and sugar and cream are placed in front of the hostess. The hostess asks the taste of the guest as to sugar and cream and fixes the tea herself. The maid passes the tea and then retires, and the service becomes informal, the guests assisting. ”

“ Once on a time no confectioner, railway-station, or refreshment-house could rival the home-made brew, made under the eye of the mistress of the household, with the kettle on the hob and the ingredients at hand; but now that the good old custom of tea-making is considered unladylike, and the manufacture has been handed over to the servants, the great charm of the beverage has virtually departed. No one can conscientiously say that they like English tea as at present administered, for the very good reason that it is no longer prepared scientifically. ”

“ Oranges were changed into pots of marmalade, and given away to the boys, and a chest of tea was converted into a tray carrying a steaming teapot, sugar, milk, cups of tea, and handed by the attendants to the ladies in the reserved seats only—such is the blighting influence of cash, which caused the one-shilling people to be neglected and the eighteenpenny-reserved-seat folks to have their teas. ”

“ But it is an egregious mistake to imagine that the successful or profitable blending of teas consists solely in the indiscriminate or injudicious heaping together carelessly and indifferently of two or more varieties or grades of tea in one homogeneous mass without the slightest regard to quantity, quality, affinity, affiliation or assimilation of leaf, liquor, character or flavor of the component parts. ”

“ It must therefore follow that by the skillful and judicious mixing or blending of a number of Teas, each differing in variety or grade, a more uniform, pleasing and palatable Tea, that is, one richer in liquor, heavier in body and more aromatic in flavor, can be produced by this now acknowledged principle at a more moderate cost to dealer and consumer than can otherwise be obtained from any single variety or grade of Tea. ”

“ Knowing this, the housewife should be able to detect readily the stems and other foreign material sometimes found in teas, especially the cheaper varieties. Such teas should be avoided, for they are lacking not only in flavor but also in strength. If economy must be practiced, the moderately expensive grades will prove to be the best ones to buy.
50. METHODS OF MAKING TEA.--Upon steeping tea in hot water, a very pleasant beverage results. If this is properly made, a gentle stimulant that can be indulged in occasionally by normal adults without harmful results can be expected. ”

“ For moderate strength it requires one heaping teaspoonful of good tea to each half-pint of boiling water or an ordinary tea-cup half-full to a quart of water will make a sufficiently strong infusion for five persons. No metal vessel, not even one of silver, is fit to make tea in, nothing being better adapted for the purpose than the old-fashioned tea-pot of heavy, glazed, brown earthenware, covered with a tea-cosy—a tufted cushion, cap-shaped, which envelopes the tea-pot, keeping the tea warm and the aroma from escaping. ”

“ To one side near the fireplace a man and two women drinking tea are seated at an ornately carved, square tea table with a matching stand for the hot water kettle. On a dish or circular stand in the center of the table is a squat teapot with matching cups and saucers arranged in parallel rows on either side.
Tea-drinking guests seem to have been free to sit or stand according to their own pleasure or the number of chairs available, and Barbé-Marbois noted that at American tea parties “people change seats, some go, others come.” ”

“ The faults of tea, as too commonly found at our hotels and boarding-houses, are that it is made in every way the reverse of what it should be. The water is hot, perhaps, but not boiling; the tea has a general flat, stale, smoky taste, devoid of life or spirit; and it is served, usually, with thin milk, instead of cream. Cream is as essential to the richness of tea as of coffee. We could wish that the English fashion might generally prevail, of giving the traveller his own kettle of boiling water and his own tea-chest, and letting him make tea for himself. ”

“ It would be fortunate if happiness were always attainable with equal ease.
The pieces of tea equipage could be purchased individually. For instance, teacups and saucers, which are differentiated in advertisements from both coffee and chocolate cups, regularly appear in lists of ceramic wares offered for sale, such as “very handsome Setts of blue and white China Tea-Cups and Saucers,” or “enamell’d, pencill’d and gilt (fig. 12) , red and white, blue and white, enamell’d and scallop’d (fig. 13) , teacups and saucers.” ”

“ The one wanting quality is the strength, sometimes, by-the-bye, the flavour is a little different. It may have the greenish, greyish blackish leaf (though generally the green leaves are distinct from black ones, the Tea thus being composed of greyish blackish leaves with a few green ones intermixed) , always has the pale liquor, generally the greenish infused leaf; but sometimes it is sadly intermingled with black leaves, as it is a Tea whose flavour is frequently burnt out, though its weakness and green appearance are no doubt often caused by deficient firing. ”

“ By putting a small sample of the Tea leaves in a wine-glass or thin goblet and pouring in clear cold water on them, and then stirring up or shaking well for a few minutes so that the Tea, if pure, will only slightly color the water, but if adulterated in any form a dark, muddy-looking liquor is quickly yielded, which, if next boiled and allowed to stand until cold, will, if spurious leaves are contained, become very bitter to the taste and almost transparent as it cools, while if the sample is composed of pure Tea only, it will be dark in color and pleasing in flavor under the same conditions. ”

“ Palms, ferns, mignonette, mosses and clusters of leaves lend themselves to the nicest effects against the whites of the table-cloth and china. If color is preferred, there are tulips and daffodils of gorgeous beauty, and good for a week's wear.
Nothing but white damask is used by gentlewomen. The woman who gives a tea never pours it. There are other things she can do to please her callers. Tea is usually served with candlelight, and to be a success [Pg 51] need cost next to nothing, for nothing need be served that is substantial enough to dislocate the appetite for dinner. ”

“ Firing and Colouring.—When the teas are half roasted, powdered Prussian blue, plumbago, gypsum, and turmeric are added, except to that tea ordered pure and free from all mineral facing powder.
That all classes of the community in this country have derived much benefit from the persistent use of Tea, is placed beyond dispute. It has proved, and still proves, a highly prized boon to millions. ”

“ Again, as to how much liquor an equal quantity of the former will yield in comparison with a similar weight of the latter, is another mooted question. As far as quantity, color and body are concerned, it must be admitted that India and Ceylon teas are once and a half greater. But in flavor and aroma, the essential qualities that constitute and are most appreciated in tea, China and Japan teas far excel them. ”

“ It must be admitted that inexperienced judges of the pure leaf, upon their first purchase are surprised at the colour of the leaf. They pronounce the black Tea to be dark brown, and the green Tea, a dark olive. The exquisite flavour of the “supreme59 beverage” at once opens their eyes to the truth. No doubt it is reassuring to be aware that a Firm which, by common consent of their customers, consistently and persistently act up to their business formula, “Always good alike,” find meet reward in a yearly augmentation of their business ”

“ One needs not the expensive craft of the cha-sze to know how neatly a little skilful manipulation, and a little heat applied secundum artem, can transform these willow leaves into genuine and delicate85 tea leaves. Whether the mercantile result be intended to astonish the palates of old ladies in London or Glasgow, or to pass as genuine Souchong with skippers, who have little knowledge of Tea, we know not; but the fact remains, that the trade thrives well and pays. ”

“ A Blend like the following will be found to give universal satisfaction in any locality, being full, strong, round, smooth and fragrant, one entirely foreign in flavor and aroma to that of any single tea in common use: Base 10 pounds choice “third crop” Formosa at 35 cents, 1 pound fine Ning-chow Congou at 30 cents and 1 pound Yamashiro Basket-fired Japan at 30 cents, for which an equal quantity of Nankin Imperial may be substituted when it becomes necessary to vary the combination, or, better still, added to it if a Green tea is desired in it by the customer. ”

“ Yet there are strong reasons for stating that many dealers in our own and other tea-drinking countries have become expert imitators of their methods, especially in the minor forms of coloring, mixing, repacking and refacing. The sophistications in our own country being chiefly confined to the admixture of damaged, stained and tainted teas with sound, pure or high-grade goods, with the object of concealing or disguising their defects, and the substitution of one variety for another by repacking and relabeling. ”

“ The quality and grade are dependent upon flavor, and, with the strength of the infusion, are determined by tasting. This work is rapidly done by the trained tea taster. The out-turn should be of one color; no bright green leaves should be present; evenness of make is judged by the out-turn. The flavor of a tea is largely a matter of personal judgment, but from a physiological point of view black teas are given the preference. ”

“ Tea drinking ever since the days of the garrulous Pepys, who speaks of it as a new custom, down to the modern "pink tea," has been a sacred rite of hospitality, to be celebrated in one's best clothes, and with one's finest household silver and china. ”

“ TEA Tea is used by more than one-half the human race; and, although the United States is not a tea-drinking country, one and one-half pounds are consumed per capita per annum.
All tea is grown from one species of shrub, Thea, the leaves of which constitute the tea of commerce. Climate, elevation, soil, cultivation, and care in picking and curing all go to make up the differences. First-quality tea is made from young, whole leaves. ”

“ The first article of her faith is, that the water must not merely be hot, not merely have boiled a few moments since, but be actually boiling at the moment it touches the tea. Hence, though servants in England are vastly better trained than with us, this delicate mystery is seldom left to their hands. Tea-making belongs to the drawing-room, and high-born ladies preside at "the bubbling and loud hissing urn," and see that all due rites and solemnities are properly performed—that the cups are hot, and that the infused tea waits the exact time before the libations commence. ”