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About a year ago, while wandering around the South Embankment district of London, I came upon the Bramah Museum of Tea & Coffee on Maguire Street. Curious about all the 18th-century custom and etiquette surrounding the beverage, I stepped inside and sat down to have a pot in proper English style, and learn something.
Mr. Edward Bramah himself was there--a keen gentlemanly man, former owner of a plantation--and as I waited, we got into conversation. I was surprised to hear him say that tea-drinking had been a custom in New York (then New Amsterdam) well before it caught on in England. My surprise must have been obvious, because he disappeared upstairs, soon returning with an impressive 2 volumes titled All About Tea, by William H. Ukers, published in New York in 1935 by the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Co.
Tea finished, I began reading and copying all I could find relating to 18th-century tea-customs, and earlier.
First, this interesting recipe: take a pint of tea and 2 "youlks" of fresh eggs, beat it up with fine sugar to sweeten, then steep long enough to chant the Miseriere Psalm in a leisurely fashion. (What you do afterward, I didn't record.)
In America
Tea-drinking was established in Dutch America before it took hold in Britain, having been imported from the Netherlands sometime in the mid-17th century. Therefore, New York was probably one of the first regions to adopt it. With tea from Holland came also a considerable amount of tea paraphernalia: the New Amsterdam board included pots, cups, saucers, sugar bowl, silver spoons, strainer, and sometimes "bite & stir" boxes, which had a partition in the middle, and two compartments, one for lump sugar and one for powdered. A guest therefore had the option of tucking a lump of sugar in his/her mouth to nibble while drinking, or stirring the powdered sugar directly into the tea. An "Ooma" (sifter) also appeared on the table, filled with cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling on the hot "puffets", waffles or wafers served with tea. Milk with tea was a later French innovation, and not used at this time -- however, saffron or peach leaves were occasionally added for flavor. A proper tea board offered several different types of tea in different pots, to suit the taste of the guests presen.
Tea leaves were drawn several times, as they were very expensive in the latter 17th and early 18th centuries. High-quality tea could be used 4-7 times, poor-quality tea only once. At this time, Bohea (black tea) was popular, and could yeild 3 pots before it was exhausted.
Because New Amsterdam water was notoriously bad, people bought spring water for the purpose of tea-making from street vendors who sold from special "tea-water pumps". The cry of "Tea water! Come out and get your Tea water!" was heard until well into the middle of the 18th century.
Massachusetts probably used tea from 1670 onward, and it is known to have been sold in Boston in 1690. According to Alice Morse Earle in Customs & Fashions in Old New England, folks in Salem would boil the leaves for a long time and drink the resulting bitter infusion without milk or sugar. The leftover leaves were then salted and eaten with butter.
In England
First introduced into London coffee houses sometime in the late 17th century, tea was offered as an altenative to chocolate, sherbert and the then-very-popular coffee. Queen Anne popularized it as a beverage, but it remained expensive at 40 shillings/pound, and was served out of tiny pots holding not more than half a pint, into cups that held scarcely more than a large teaspoon (table teaspoon, I assume). These were often made of costly china. Infusions were weak, to conserve the leaves.
It wasn't until green tea entered the British market sometime between 1714-1727, and brought the price down to 15 shillings/pound, that the drink's popularity began to soar. Pleasure gardens like Vauxhall and Ranelagh sprang up, featuring tearooms and light refreshment in a setting of flowered lantern-lit walks, arbors, skittle grounds, bowling greens, outdoor concerts and dances. Here tea was served along with cheese, cakes, bread & butter, syllabubs, ale and coffee. Like other English fashions, this was quickly copied in the colonies. New York had its own "Vauxhall", built on Greenwich St., between Warren and Chambers, and there tea, coffee and hot rolls were served, with dances occasionally held in the hall.
Cups became larger, and infusions stronger.
In the 1770s, when the political situation triggered by the British East India tea tax led to boycotting the drink, Americans found substitutes. "Liberty Tea", a brew of four-leafed loose strife was touted, as well as Hyperion Tea (raspberry leaf), ribwort, sage, currant and strawberry leaf tea. Coffee also caught on, and never let go again. Thus it was that by the end of the century, Britain and America had swapped favorite beverages.
How-To
In 1722, Humphrey Broadbent's The Domestick Coffee Man describes the English style of brewing tea: half-fill a teapot with boiling water and enough tea to allow for the instant serving of one or more dishes. Let it infuse "a brief space", fill the pot with more boiling water and continue to use the leaves "so long you see it is good".
The handleless cups and bowl-like saucers were used together, the latter to catch any spills that escaped the former. One did NOT drink out of the saucer, but would pour any spillage back into the cup; and when finished, cup and saucer were set down, and a spoon laid across the the top of the cup, or used to gently tap it to invite some gentleman to carry it away. Alternately, the cup could be turned upside down on the saucer.
"Dear Mrs. Hoggins, what? Your cup turned in your saucer, bottom up! Dear me, how soon you've had your fill!"
© 2008 Gene Tozzi, First Ulster County Militia, Inc All Rights Reserved
