Friendship and a Cup of Tea

Reading the Tea Leaves

My friends all love to take tea.  For many, it is a daily habit which they wouldn't miss.  For me, it is a study in etiquette, cultures and history.  It is also something I rarely do myself, unless it is chrysanthemum tea.  My winters see me drinking chrysanthemum tea often.  

Perhaps if I had started when I was younger, I would have taken it up as a regular pastime.  For now though, I will simply enjoy some wonderful tea quotes and may brew some tea later today, so I can read the leaves of what the week has hold in store for me.    

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.  ~Chinese Proverb

We had a kettle; we let it leak: Our not repairing made it worse.  We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
~Rudyard Kipling

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
~ C.S. Lewis

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.  ~T'ien Yiheng


There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Odd Tea Facts

Coffee houses in London were responsible for first introducing tea to England.  An early promoter of tea was Thomas Garway.  He owned an establishment in Exchange Alley and was one of the first coffee house merchants to offer tea, in both liquid and dry, to the public.  

In 1660 he was advertising tea and  touting its virtues as a health beverage.  His advertisements claimed tea was good for "making the body active and lusty", and "preserving perfect health until extreme old age".

Strange as it sounds, as so many associate the British upper classes with tea, it was the favoured drink of Britain's lower classes very early on.   As the popularity increased the government soon decided to get involved and began taxing tea.  The heavy taxation on tea had reached 119% by the mid~18th century, thus creating an entirely new  industry; Tea smuggling.

 

Old Post Card from 1906 of the "Ladies Tea Room" on a Holland~ American Lines Ship