Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Political impact of tea (article)

Valerie Sartor, "All the Tea in China: The Political Impact of Tea,"American Journal of Chinese Studies 14/2 (2007): 185-188. Also see blog, here.

Tea bag to celebrate hundred years

The tea bag was invented by a New York merchant Thomas Sullivan in June 1908 but didn't become widely popular until the 1950s. For more, see here.

Barack Obama and Honest Tea

According to the conservative Weekly Standard, Barack Obama prefers as a drink Honest Tea, a bottled flavored tea. For details, including a mention of Karl Rove also being a drinker of Honest Tea, see here.

Interview with Cindi Bigelow, CEO of Bigelow tea

The New York Times, 31 May 2008, interviewed Cindi Bigelow, head of the family-owned R.C. Bigelow, one of the USA's largest tea companies. Reporter Patricia R. Olsen provides context: "Tea is the second most popular beverage among consumers around the world after water, according to the Tea Association of the United States of America, and is found in almost 80 percent of American homes." Over the last 15 years tea sales in the United States have grown steadily. Bigelow reports that her own company grew by at least 5% in the current year ending June 30. As Bigelow advertises little, the price at the grocery store is modest. Bigelow had a revenue of more than $110 million in 2007. Bigelow formed an alliance with Arizona Beverage which makes Bigelow's ready-to-drink products such as vanilla chai, while Bigelow makes tea bags for Arizona. For more, see here.

Britain's best tea shop is Japanese-owned and managed

Britain's Tea Guild has honored Juri's--the Old Bakery Tea Shoppe in the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe as the country's best tea room. Interestingly, the couple who own Juri's and their daughter who manages it were born in another country with a tea heritage, Japan. Manager Juri Miyawaki, the woman after whom the tea shop has been named, is Cordon Bleu trained. For more, see here. For details about Juri's, see here.

Coffee replacing tea as preferred Moscow hot drink

Coffee is replacing tea as the preferred hot drink in Moscow in part because of growing incomes, in part because of fashionable coffee house chains. For more, see here.

Rare books about coffee, tea, and chocolate at Berkeley

Bransten Coffee and Tea Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

This is one of the most complete collections in existence on the subject. It also includes many books on chocolate. The works included range in date from the 16th century to the present.

n 1972, Robert Bransten (the B in MJB Coffee) donated his collection of 81 rare books on the history of coffee and tea and an endowment to maintain the collection, which now numbers nearly 400 titles. Thanks to his generosity, Bancroft's collection is among the best coffee collections and is widely used.

[These are excerpts from the Bancroft website]

Tea history (book)

Vicor H. Mair and Erling Hoh, The True History of Tea (Thames and Hudson, forthcoming 2009).

In 1950s UK government worried that nuclear war would cause a tea shortage

In the 1950s the British government worried that nuclear war might reduce the supply of tea to almost nil. For more, see here.

Iraqis drink more tea than the British

Despite their troubles, the Iraqis drink 1219 cups of tea per capita, slightly more than the Irish at 1214 cups and considerably more than the British at 994 cups. Although the British remain big tea drinkers, they now consume only 5% of the world's tea. In 1955 they drank, along with the Irish, a third of the world's tea. For more, see here.

Tea and technology in Paris

Carol Negiar credits the Internet with the success of her Eighth Arrondissement tea shop; some of her customers spend as much as a thousand euros for a single order of her teas. For more, see here.

Canadians drink more coffee than tea

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians drink 52 liters of tea each year as compared with 86 liters of coffee.

India's tea auctions go digital

The New York Times reports: India's tea auctions go digital.  For details, see here.

Tea planter in Sri Lanka [Ceylon] (book)

Derrick Nugawela, Tea and sympathy: memoirs of a tea planter, army officer, and banker (Kurunegala : International Book House, 2008).

Tea-pickers don't like tea from Pu'er plantations

Tea from Pu'er plantations in Yunnan, China, is increasingly prized by outsiders, but tea-pickers prefer wild tea. For more, see here.

Victorian lower orders: Manchester tea parties

Tamara Ketabgian, "Foreign Tastes and 'Manchester Tea-Parties': Eating and Drinking with the Victorian Lower Orders," in Tamara S. Wagner and Narin Hassan, eds., Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century: Narratives of Consumption (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2007).

History of tea (article)

Rothermunnd, Dietmar:
"Tee." In: Thomas Hengartner / Christoph M. Merki (eds.), Genussmittel. Eine Kulturgeschichte, Frankfurt a.M./Leipzig 2001, pp. 161-190
(History of tea)

Problems for Indonesian tea industry

The Indonesia tea industry suffers from low productivity, low quality, slowness in replanting, and outmoded processing machinery. The result is that exported Indonesia tea can be sold only at a low price. For more, see here.

Tea in Manhattan

The focus in this New York Times article is on places to drink tea, mostly what the article calls European-style tea--what others might call English-style--with scones, finger-sandwiches and the like, but there also is mention of Asian-style tea places including those that serve the faddishly popular bubble-tea. For more, see here. The article cheerfully looks down upon mere coffee drinkers, somewhat uncouth folk always in search of a caffeine high. By the way, worldwide more people drink tea than coffee, a statistic helped by East Asia, South Asia, Russia, and the countries that made up the British Empire.

Tea in Tang China (thesis)

Jason Allen Fuqua, "The essence of tea: The effects of Lu Yu's 'Ch'a Ching' on the extent of changes in tea drinking and the material culture of Yue ware in Tang China after 780 A.D" (M.A. thesis, Stephen F. Austin State University, 2007).

Afternoon tea at the Plaza: choice between $60 and $100 per person

Afternoon tea has returned to the refurbished Plaza Hotel in New York City with a choice of menus, $60 or $100 per person. For more, see here.

Tea in Seattle

Tea has begun to challenge coffee in Seattle or at least has begun to begin to challenge coffee in the headquarters for coffee giants like Starbucks and Tully's (both of which recently have encountered a spot of trouble). Ritual is part of the appeal for the rival hot drink. Although most of Seattle's tea shops are Asian, a few British-styles ones are well established too. For more, see here.

Over 30,000 have a cup as India hosts the world's largest tea party

In order to break the record of Japan in the Guinness book of world records, an Indian newspaper arranged the world's largest tea party with over 30,000 drinking tea together. For more, see here.

Colonial groceries: tea, coffee, sugar, and tobacco (article)

The subject line refers to a section in an article by Anne E.C. McCants, "Exotic Goods, Popular Consumption, and the Standard of Living: Thinking about Globalization in the Early Modern World," Journal of World History 18/4 (December 2007): 433-62.

China's growing taste for black tea

China's growing taste for black tea may force prices in Britain to rise 10%. For the first time in recent history China now consumes more tea than India. (China is also the world's largest producer, with India second.) Another factor forcing prices higher is the unrest in Kenya. The Chinese favor a black tea called Pu-erh which is fermented for three weeks, has a musty taste, and is supposed to help drinkers lose weight. All this is from a (London) Times, 16 February 2008, article that also says that 70% of the British drink tea daily, typically three cups. By the way, supposedly there are 1500 varieties of tea. For more, see here.

Premium coffee for the price-conscious in South Africa

Premium coffee has become popular in South Africa even at price-conscious fast-food restaurants. For instance, Wimpy introduced premium coffee in 2006. In this context premium coffee has a modest meaning: only fresh ground Arabica beans and not instant. Although the opportunity for growth of premium coffee in South Africa seems limited, it appears to have acquired drinkers at the expense of tea. For more, see here.

Tease from the Bay State's Tea Guys

A newspaper article about a Massachusetts tea company called the Tea Guys that blends teas into something called Tease makes a few assertions that may be of interest. In the West the most discriminating palate for tea belongs to Germany. The USA rarely had access to first-rate teas until 1999. By 2015 the tea business in the USA will be worth $15 billions. For more, see here.

India hopes to fight Argentina for the American iced tea market

For success in the American market, India's tea exporters must compete in the category of bottled, canned, and packeted (iced) teas, 20% of the USA consumption, and growing even more rapidly than bottled water. Surprisingly Argentina provides nearly half of American tea, while China and Indonesia also sell more tea to the USA than does India. [It is not clear when the statement about Argentina applies only to tea sold in containers or to all imported tea in America.] The problem for India is that its tea becomes cloudy when chilled and smokes when refrigerated. For more, see here. By the way, apparently the only tea plantation is the USA is in South Carolina.

Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee

The Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee, located in London, claims to be the oldest museum devoted to the two beverages. For more, see here.

Britain, China, and tea (book)

Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Sercret Formula of the World's Favourite Drink (Hutchinson, forthcoming 2009). Robert Fortune, Scottish adventurer, in China in 1840s.

Vietnam promotes cocoa production

Mostly tea-drinking Vietnam has become a major coffee producer and exporter in recent years. Now the Vietnamese government, seeking diversity and security against price swings, is promoting cocoa as an export crop. For more, see here. In the emerging globalized economy the traditional geographical distribution for these commodities has shifted from South America (coffee) and West Africa (cocoa) to parts of the world not identified with them.

Tea and world theory

World History Association, Milwaukee, June 2007, session:

Liquid Jade or Afternoon Tea? Commodities and World Theory
CHAIR: Jerry Bentley (University of Hawai'i, Mānoa)

1. An Appreciation of Style: Tea and Cultural Changes in Pre-Modern Asia Adam
Fong (University of Hawai'i, Mānoa)
2. World History and the Commodity Form: Some Preliminaries
Joel Tannenbaum (University of Hawai'i, Mānoa)
3. The Adventures of Robert Fortune: Botanical Piracy and the Establishment of the
India Tea Plantations in the Nineteenth Century
Jerome Klena (University of Hawai'i, Mānoa)

Diversity of Chinese tea flavors and rituals

Chinese tea flavors and rituals are diverse. The article includes a visit to Shanghai's Da Ning tea city. For more, see here.

Tea: drink that changed the world (book)

Laura C. Martin, Tea: the drink that changed the world (Tokyo ; Rutland, VT: Tuttle Pub., 2007).

Introduction
Chapter 1: An Overview of Tea
Tea's Natural History: How It Grows
Sidebar: How to Grow Tea Yourself
Tea Harvesting and Processing
Grades of Tea
Chapter 2: The First Cup
Prehistory and Legend
Sidebar: Dragonwell Tea
Sidebar: The Iron Goddess of Mercy
T'u? Ch'a? Tea?: Deciphering the Earliest References to Tea
Early Medicinal Uses
The First Cultivation
Sidebar: The Legend of Prince Bodhidharma
Buddhism and Tea: A Perfect Union
Chapter 3: All the Tea in Chinaand Beyond
Tea in the Tang (Dynasty)
Lu Yu, First Tea Master
Lu Yu's Tea Classic
Sidebar: How Tea Influenced Chinese Ceramics
The Imperial Tea Tribute
The Song (Dynasty) of Tea
Sidebar: White Tea
Tea as a Trade Item
Tea in Korea
Chapter 4: "Frothy Jade"
Zen and the Art of Tea
Tea Flows Back to Japan
Tea and the Japanese Samurai
Tocha: Tea Games and Contests
Chapter 5: The Japanese Tea Ceremony, Cha-no-yu
Tea, Spirit and Symbolism
The Age of the Japanese Tea Masters
Ikkyu
Murata Shuko
Takeno Joo
Sen Rikyu
The Japanese Tea Ceremony, Cha-no-yu
Preparing for the Ceremony
Dogu: Utensils
Chashitsu: The Tea Room
Decoration: Flowers
Kakemono: A Scroll
Tea Gardens, Then and Now
Chapter 6: The First Steeping: A World Change in Brewing
Method
Tea in the Ming Dynasty
Sidebar: The History of Processing Tea
Tea as Inspiration for the Arts
Yixing Pots
Asian Decorative Arts in the 16th and 17th Centuries
Korean Potters and Tea
Raku Ware
Oribe
Sidebar: Tea in Russia
Chapter 7: What Would the World Do Without Tea?
China Isolates Herself
European Trade Routes to Asia
Tea in Europe
Tea in England
Catherine of Braganza
Coffee Houses and Tea Gardens
From China Mountaintop to English Tabletop
The Eight Regulations
Only in China
Sidebar: Types of Tea in 18th-century England
Taxes and Smuggling
Tea and European Decorative Arts
Teapots and Other Teaware
Tea in Colonial America
Chapter 8: The British in India: The Vintage of Assam
Indian Poppies for Chinese Tea
Growing Addiction in China
The Opium Wars
Growing Tea in India
Sidebar: All the Names for Tea
The Question: How to Grow It?
Robert Fortune
Tea Plantations in India
Sidebar: The Essential Elephant
Mechanization and Tea
Tea in Ceylon
Sidebar: Clipper Ships
Half a World Away: Tea in 19th-century England
High and Low Tea
Tea for Everyone
Tea Merchants
Chapter 9: Half a World Away
Tea in the United States
Sidebar: Caffeine in Tea
Tea Rooms
Innovations through the 20th Century
Sidebar: Disease Fighting Properties
Tea Today in the U.S.A.
Chapter 10: Tea Today and Tomorrow
The Plight of the Worker
Responsible Consumerism
Sidebar: Speaking of Taste

Appendix A: Tea-Growing Countries

China
Taiwan (Formosa )
India
Japan
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Indonesia
East Africa
South America
United States

Appendix B: The Professional's Terms for Describing Tea
Appendix C: Choice Teas from Around the World
Appendix D: Tisanes, or Herbal "Teas"
Rooibos
Yerba Mate
25 Time-Honored Herbal "Teas" and Blends

Appendix E: Best Times of Day for Different Tea Selections
Appendix F: Tea with Food
Appendix G: How to Brew a Perfect Cup ofTtea
Appendix H: Cooking with Tea: The Possibilities
Appendix I: Tea and Health
Useful Websites
Selected Bibliography

Afternoon tea and workingclass tea in Victorian England (book chapters)

Andrea Broomfield, Food and cooking in Victorian England: a history (Westport, Conn. : Praeger Publishers, 2007). Includes chapters "'An invention of comparatively recent date': afternoon tea" and "'The chief meal of the day': the Victorian working-class tea."

Tea, espionage, and empire (book)

Sarah Rose, For all the tea in China:espionage, empire and the secret formula for the world's favourite drink (London: Hutchinson, 2008).

Tea in Australian culture (article)

Susie Khamis, "A Taste for Tea: How Tea Travelled to (and through) Australian Culture," ACH: Journal of the History of Culture in Australia 24 (2006): 57-79.

Muslim graveyard in Indian tea shop

The New Lucky tea shop in Ahmadabad, India, is built over a Muslim graveyard. Painted green, the burial sites are shin-high and scattered throughout the restaurant. It grew from a simple tea stall at the edge of the cemetery. For more, see here.

Teahouses come and go

The New York Times, 9 December 2007, reviews and recommends several suburban teahouses near New York City and speculates a bit about this kind of restaurant (sometimes an aftenoon service at a hotel). Teahouses can be British-style or Asian-style. A sense of ritual makes afternoon tea (often miscalled "high tea") important. Unfortunately, even with sandwiches and sweets, teahouses seldom are as profitable as restaurants that serve alcohol and entrees. As a result, teahouses come and go, the victim of high hopes and low profit margins. For more, see here.

India's Tata tea as a global player

Tata tea is the most global segment of India's Tata business group, particularly since 2000 when it acquired a much larger British tea company, Tetley. Tata is now the second largest company in the global branded tea market. It is shifting from loose tea and tea bags to ready-to-drink teas. In India itself Tata now occupies over 19% of the tea market as compared with only 3% in 1974.

Tea's history (book)

John Griffiths, Tea: The Drink That Changed the World (Carlton/Andre Deutsch, forthcoming May 2008). Published in the UK in 2007. Another commodity history with an excitable subtitle.

From coffee to tea in Ceylon, 1880-1900 (book)

Roland Wenzlhuemer, From Coffee to Tea Cultivation in Ceylon, 1880-1900: An Economic and Social History (Brill's Indological Library) (Bill, forthcoming January 2008).

Tea in Kansas

Maybe it's a sign of the growing popularity of tea in America when a thirteen-year-old small family business in Liberty, Kansas, has dropped the gift shop side of that business to focus on tea (as well as a bed and breakfast). The mother and her two daughters who run the business will, among other things, offer special tea parties for adults and for children and sell tea and tea-related stuff over the Internet . For more, see here.

Kenya: world's largest tea exporter

Based on the first seven months of 2007, Kenya has become the world's largest tea exporter, surpassing China and Sri Lanka.  For details, see here.

Vietnam, the world's second largest coffee exporter, prefers tea

In recent years Vietnam has become the world's second largest coffee exporter, but it consumes only about 5% of its coffee harvest. Vietnamese, including coffee growers, prefer tea. For more, see here.

Rajasthan limits government expenditures on tea, coffee, and cold beverages

The Indian state of Rajasthan has put restrictions (depending on the rank of the government official) for consuming tea, coffee or cold drinks at government expense. Tea can't be served at meetings of less than two hours. For more, see here.

Resurgence of teahouses in coffeehouse-rich Seattle

English-style teahouses and Asian-style ones now compete with coffeehouses in Seattle. See here.

Women tea plantation workers in India

Piya Chatterjee, A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post-Colonial Politics on an Indian Tea Plantation (Duke UP, 2001).

Coffee or tea?

An article in a University of California, Irvine, newspaper answers the question with a mixture of student interviews and summaries of medical research. For more, see here.

Tea in 17th cent. Europe (dissertation)

Carin Smith Muskiet, "The Wondrous Leaf: Tea in Seventeenth-Century Europe" (Ph.D. dissertation in progress, University of Pennsylvania).

Brewed tea struggles in 21st century Asia

Young people in Asia are more likely to slurp canned flavored tea than show the patience to brew their own cup. For more about this generational cultural crisis, see here.

High tea, India style

The title refers to visiting the tea gardens in the Himalayas. For details, see here.

Buddhism, alcohol, and tea in medieval China (article)

James A. Benn, "Buddhism, Alcohol, and Tea in Medieval China," in Roel Sterckx, ed., Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005): 213-236.

India's tea growers struggle against globalization and insurgency

India produces more tea than any country other than China, but brutal competition resulting from globalization (for instance, cheap tea from Kenya and Vietnam) and an insurgency in Assam that targets the owners of tea-gardens, as the plantations are called, have left the business only marginally profitable and dangerous. For more, see here.

Chicago tea houses

A few years ago two Armenian-American partners started a Chicago-based chain of tea houses, Argo Tea, that features a variety of hot and iced teas as well as the luxury coffee brand Illy. Apparently they hope to replicate at least modestly what Starbucks did for coffee house chains. One distinctive feature for Argo Tea is that its furnishings include long library-style tables for wireless users. For more, see here.

Mocha: Selling coffee or addiction?

Mocha, a small upscale coffee chain in India, is under police investigation for mixing some coffee drinks with alcohol. Writing in MeriNews, 22 September 2007, Archana Roy contrasts tea-drinking Northeast Asia, including much of India, with coffee-drinking Southeast Asia, also including much of India such as the city of Chandigarh. Roy describes the kind of coffee drinks popular among affluent young people there: "mixtures of coffee, ice, chocolate or vanilla and milk blended together and then topped with whipped cream." For more, see here.

Alfred Peet dies at 87; popularized high-quality coffee on West Coast

Dutch-born Alfred Peet recently died at age 87. He popularized high quality coffee on the West Coast after he started his first coffee and tea shop in Berkeley in 1966. He mentored the founders of Starbucks (let them work in his shops to learn the business and sold them their first year's supply of coffee beans). Peet sold his business in 1979. Today the company that bears his name is much smaller than Starbucks, 151 coffee shops (nearly all of them in northern California), as well as online sale of coffees and teas. For more, see here. Also see the New York Times obituary here that calls Peet "the grandfather of speciality coffee."

Tibetan butter tea or "po cha" updated

Tibetan butter tea or "po cha" combines black tea, salt, milk, and butter. For those who would like to try it--and lack ready access to yak butter and the churn traditionally used to mix the ingredients--here is an updated recipe.

Tea loses its stodgy image in the USA

According to AP writer J.M. Hirsch "tea has mimicked coffee's almost comedic transformation" from working-class caffeine jolt with minimal choice to a fashionable middle-class beverage available in enormous variety. Although American tea consumption has been stable (except for a slight increase drunk at breakfast), spending on tea has increased enormously, from $1.8 billion in 1990 to $6.5 billion in 2006. Tea has gone upscale, encouraged by favorable medical reports and the American search for novelty. Surprisingly, a majority of the tea consumed in the USA takes the form of bottled tea drinks. For hot tea there are now red, white, and green teas and many herbals as well as the black tea (with a decaffeinated option) that for generations was the American standard. Old-fashioned tea bags have been joined by "spacious conical sacks, perforated foil tubes, loose leaves, [and] ... whole dried flowers that 'bloom' as they unfurl." Reporter Hirsch also notes the modest entry of organic and fair-trade teas into the market place. For more, see here. Curiously, the AP story doesn't mention iced tea explicitly, a year round beverage for many Americans who prefer chilled beverages in all seasons. (I have observed that Dixie-style "sweet tea," that is, tea brewed with sugar before being iced, has crossed to the north shore of the Ohio River.) Furthermore, the AP story doesn't mention the many ethnic restaurants that sell their version of tea, as for example, sweet Thai tea. The story also doesn't discuss whether milk/cream or a substitute "creamer" and sugar or a substitute sweetener are stirred into the typical American tea cup. Finally, there is no mention of the contrast between the plethora of coffee shops and the scarcity of free-standing tea rooms. In the USA tea room retains a feminine connotation unlike the uni-sex coffee shop.

Tea-shop in Brighton, England, bans "dunking"

A tea-shop in Brighton, England, has banned "dunking" biscuits (cookies in the USA), as well as using cell phones, i.e., mobile phones in the UK. There are other rules such as not insulting the Queen or clinking tea spoons. For more, see here.

Finally, quality coffee for Kenyans to drink

As in many other coffee-growing countries, Kenya has lacked a tradition of coffee drinking. Coffee was for export. In fact, for a time the government made it illegal to roast and sell coffee for consumption by local people. Kenya was a tea-drinking country. To drink good Kenyan coffee, one had to go the USA or Europe. This has begun to change. The capital Nairobi now has twenty coffee shops, the best known being Java House. Coffee has acquired an elite reputation in Kenya, something for professionals, successful business entrepreneurs, and high-ranking government officials to drink. For more, see here.

Tea-drinking and urbanization: a debate (fowarded from HNN's Cliopatria)

From HNN's Cliopatria blog, 26 July 07.

Did Tea Drinking Lead to Urbanization?" Mike, the Mad Biologist, 23 July, excerpts Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map. He argues that, when the price of tea dropped in the 18th century, it led to a "microbial holocaust." M,tMB is skeptical of the thesis, suggesting that boiling the water in preparing the drink may have had a greater salutary effect than the tea's tannic acids. Hat tip.

Tea and empire (book)

Roy Maxham, Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire (Carroll and Graf, 2003).

History of tea

For a short history of tea, see here. Published in an Indian newspaper, the article note that India consumes considerably more tea than China where the beverage began.

Teas and tea shops in Portland, Oregon

In the New York Times, 8 July 2007, Cecil Miller Bouchet sips tea in Portland, Oregon, "one of the most distinctive tea scenes" in the USA. At one tea shop, he tries kombrucha, often but erroneously called mushroom tea. For more, see here.

"Sweet tea" in the American South

The AP notes the distinction between iced tea brewed without sugar in the northern and western states of the US (which later may have sugar added to the glass) and "sweet tea" brewed with sugar in the American southeast and Texas. The article quotes a representative of Lipton's as saying that Americans consume 85% of their tea iced and that the USA is the only place where "sweet tea" is consumed (that is, iced tea brewed with sugar). According to the AP, southerners often drink "sweet tea" throughout the year, while northerners favor iced tea particularly during the summer. For more, see here. A comment: I notice northerners increasingly drinking iced tea throughout the year, perhaps part of the American fondness for chilled beverages. Recently fast food restaurants have promoted iced coffee, traditionally a New England beverage.

Tea in 17th-century Japan (dissertation)

Paul E. Demura-Devore, "The Political Institutionalization of Tea Specialists in Seventeenth-Century Tokugawa Japan: The Case of Sen Sotan and Sons" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawai`i, 2005).

Wolf Wissotzky and tea in tsarist Russia, Palestine, and Israel

Klonimus Wolf Wissotzky (1824-1904) acquired a reputation as the "king of Russian tea" after he established the Wissotzky Tea company in 1849. In 1936, Wissotzky Tea became the first tea company in Palestine and now is the leading tea company in Israel. For more, see here.

Does "fairtrade" hurt coffee, tea, and cocoa produced in underdeveloped countries?

Two University of Melbourne academics claim that "fairtrade" benefits the "fairtrade" branding organization and those producers who pay fees to it while hurting the bulk of producers of coffee, tea, and cocoa in underdeveloped countries. The professors recommend "free trade" competition as the only sustainable alternative. See the article in the Australian, April 28, 2007, here. By the way, the Australian newspaper makes "fairtrade" one word in contrast to the American usage "fair trade."

Tea, sugar, and imperialism in the 17th, 18th centuries

Woodruff D. Smith, "Complications of the Commonplace: Tea, Sugar, and Imperialism," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23/2 (Fall 1992).  Although fairly old, this article contributes to the now fashionable study of commodities.

How to charge £30 for tea and cakes

In the Publican Chris Maclean describes having tea, sandwiches, and cakes at London's Ritz hotel. Despite the price, thirty pounds per person, it seemed worth the experience. For more, see here.

Selling coffee and tea at the side of the road in Jordan

Aziz Suwair, aged 20, makes and sells about 300 cups of coffee and 50 cups of tea a day at his portable roadside shop about ten miles from Jordan's capital Amman. He works at his little cafe or sleeps at a nearby shack except for a brief home visit every couple of weeks. For the Washington Post story, see here.

Tea in history (book)

Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid jade: the story of tea from east to west (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006).

India fails to name tea as national drink

The Government of India withdrew a proposal to name tea as the national drink. Several unnamed Indian states, probably in the coffee growing and consuming south, had objected. For more, see here. India has grown coffee since the mid-1600s and tea (chai) since the mid-1800s.

Afternoon tea is not (historically) the same as high tea

Contrary to common usage today, afternoon "cream" tea (elegant light snacks) is not the same as "high tea" in its historical meaning, a substantial working-class meal that ordinarily includes a meat dish. For more, see here. Australians and working-class Britons use the word tea for their evening meal.

Turning over a New Leaf: Tea Bars in New York City

An architectural firm reports on how it created ambience for two new tea bars in New York City. For more, see here.

Dutch tea trade with China (book)

Yong Liu, The Dutch East India Company's tea trade with China, 1757-1781 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007).

China exports record quantity of tea

In 2006 China exported a record quantity of tea. Accounting for about a quarter of the world's exported tea, China is second only to India. Other major exporters are Sri Lanka and Kenya. China sells most of its tea to Morocco, the United States, Russia, and Japan. For the world as a whole, other major tea importers include the United Kingdom, Egypt, and Pakistan. For more, see here.

Canisters, Caddies and Chests: Fashionable Tea Containers of the 18th Century

Colonial Williamsburg's DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum is holding an exhibit of fashionable, mostly silver tea containers from colonial America. They were luxury products for the rich to display their wealth. For more, see here.

International Tea Day on behalf of plantation workers

Religious and humanitarian groups have organized an International Tea Day, 16 December 2006, to bring attention to the low wages and arduous working conditions that are the lot of tea plantation laborers. On the 15th there will be a rally at Hatten in the heart of Sri Lanka's tea plantation district. For more, see here.

Rebellions in Assam, India's tea center

The (London) Times, 14 November 2006, reports on the violence in the northeast Indian state of Assam. Separatist groups sometimes extort money from tea plantations. There are 30 separatist groups including the United Liberation Front of Asom (variant spelling of Assam), founded in 1979. Assam produces a little over half of the tea grown in India, and India in turn is the world's third largest tea exporter (although it consumers more tea than it produces). For more, see here. Other major tea producers include Sri Lanka (Ceylon), China, Vietnam, Kenya, and Indonesia.

Sherry, weak tea, and women critics (article)

Meaghan Clarke, "'Bribery with sherry' and 'the influence of weak tea': Women Critics as Arbiters of Taste in the Late-Victorian and Edwardian Press," Visual Culture in Britain 6/2 (2005): 139-56.

Tea house with "speciality" teas

The Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 October 2006, reports on a new tea house in a Cincinnati (Ohio)neighborhood which features "speciality" teas, that is, tea grown at a single estate. In the United States tea houses have increased in number from 200 in 1996 to 2000 in 2006. The more obvious growth in American coffee houses obscures this even more dramatic growth in tea houses. For more, see here.

Tea-room craze in 1920s America (book)

Jan Whitaker, Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn : a social history of the tea room craze in America (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002).

Coca-Cola Coffee

The Coca-Cola Company has debuted a "Far Coast" high-end brand of premium coffee and tea beverages; it also unveiled a complimentary brand for convenience stores and quick-service restaurants called "Chaqwa."

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

Drinks and drugs at North American Conference on British Studies, 17-19 Nov. 2006

A number of papers related to drinks and drugs will be presented at the meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies, in conjunction with the Northeast Conference on British Studies, 17-19 November 2006, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Session:

Intoxicating Drink in Early Modern English Society: Three Commodities
(Chair and commentator: Keith Wrightson, Yale University)

Wine and Citizenship in Restoration England (Philip Withington, University of Leeds)

Beyond Queen Gin: Spirits in the Eighteenth Century (John Chartres, University of Leeds)

"Most Cherishing to Poor Labouring People": Beer as a Foodstuff in Early Modern England (Craig Muldrew, Queen's College, Cambridge University)

Other sessions: 

Non-Governmental Organizations, the State and Illegal Drugs, 1967-1977 (Alex Mold, London School Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

Social Drinking and Disaffection during the Interregnum (Caroline Boswell, Brown University)

British Planters, Cheap Tea and New Markets: Creating a Taste for Indian Tea in North America and South Asia (Erika Rappaport, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Tea in China (book)

John C. Evans, Tea in China: the History of China's National Drink (Greenwood Press, 1992).

from coffee to tea in Iran (article)

Rudi Matthee, “From Coffee to Tea: Shifting Patterns of Consumption in Qajar Iran," Journal of World History 7.2 (1996): 199-230

premium tea in bags

According to the New York Times, 14 September 2006, both large and small companies are beginning to market premium teas in bags, so the tea bag no longer means mediocrity. For more, see here.

tea in Turkey (book)

Mustafa Duman, Çay kitabi : Türk kültüründe çay (Istanbul: Kitabevi, 2005).

Asian drinks, change and continuity

Economic and cultural globalization challenges Asia's traditional beverages. An article in the (London) Observer "All the Tea in China" is framed around the challenge posed by coffee (there are 47 Starbucks in Shanghai), but the article in fact focuses on tea, both Chinese and South African rooibos. For details, see here. The (London) Sunday Times looks at the taste of youthful middle-class Indians for wine, "Clink of a Wine Revolution in Kingfisher Land." (Kingfisher is India's major beer and spirits company.) For details, see here.

tea in Russia (article)

Mikhail Ivanov, "Steeped in Tradition," Russian Life 44/5 (Sept.-Oct. 2001): 58-63. Tea in Russia.

mid-Victorian tea party (article)

Erika Diane Rappaport, "Packaging China: Foreign Articles and Dangerous Tastes in the Mid-Victorian Tea Party," in Frank Trentmann, ed., The Making of the Consumer: Knowledge, Power and Identity in the Modern World (Oxford: Berg, 2006), 125-146.

Chinese Tea Culture (article)

Li Xiusong. "Chinese Tea Culture." Journal of Popular Culture 27, no. 2 (1993): 75-89.

Tea and Fantasy (article)

Goodheart, Adam. "Tea and Fantasy." American Scholar 74, no. 4 (2005): 21-34.

Indian tea industry (article)

Gupta, Bishnupriya. "Collusion in the Indian tea industry in the Great Depression: An analysis of panel data." Explorations in Economic History 34, no. 2 (1997): 155.

FDA: No medical green tea

The green tea industry applied to the FDA for "heart-healthy" status and were rejected. Andrew Bridges reports for the AP here.

Tea in northern Kenya (article)

Holtzman, Jon D. "In A Cup Of Tea: Commodities and history among Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya." American Ethnologist 30, no. 1 (2003): 136-155.

Cadbury-Schweppes news

Cadbury-Schweppes has made the business news for its recent buy-up of Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group. Ireland Online is one outlet reporting details today. Cadbury, now "the world's biggest selling confectioner," is now poised to "demerger" their drinks business from their sweets business. Their drinks now include ownership or licensure of Deja Blue water, Big Red and Monster energy drinks, Sunkist and Snapple, a bottled sweet tea.

Pakistan, Egypt eye India's tea

Drought in Kenyan is forcing the Pakistan and Egyptian markets to look to India for tea, and a Pakistani delegation is likely to visit India in mid-April to look at options for importing Indian tea.

Read more.

Sea of pink and white

The mountains of northern Laos have changed colour. In the past five years, the opium poppy fields that for the last two centuries lent splashes of colour to the pervading green of the jungle have become a thing of the past.

In their stead, small plantations of tea, peach trees and even asparagus are springing up in the heart of the “Golden Triangle”, the lawless opium-producing region at the junction of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

The Khaleej Times reports.

Pantyhose milk tea

Pantyhose tea is regarded as the smoothest, silkiest version of Hong Kong's favorite drink -- creamy milk tea, which is made with evaporated milk and a heavy dose of tea leaves. It's nothing like watered-down English tea.

The intriguingly named brew is so called because it's prepared by repeatedly straining the drink through long, brown filters that look like pantyhose. Making the tea, a traditional and elaborate process, is revered almost as a work of art in this former British colony.

CNN reports.

Marks & Spencer switches to fairtrade-only coffee

Retailer Marks & Spencer is changing all the coffee and tea sold in its stores to fairtrade, it said on Monday. The switch, due to be completed in a few weeks' time for coffee and from April for tea, follows a recent survey that found 59 percent of consumers say they already buy fairtrade products and 18 percent would do the same if such goods were more widely available.

Reuters reports.

Coffee table book on tea

The latest window to Assam’s tea gardens promises an insider’s view into what drives the industry which brews 53 per cent of the country’s morning cuppa. Tea — Legend, Life and Livelihood of India, a coffee-table book, has been written by one of the most well-known faces in Assam’s tea circles, Gautam Prasad Baroowah.

The Telegraph (India) reports.

Oh, in that case, right this way...

A MAN who broke into Holyrood Palace told security guards he wanted to have tea with the Queen.

Craig Renz, 34, of Lochend House, Restalrig Gardens, Edinburgh, had been drinking when he climbed over a fence and entered the palace after dark. He walked free from Edinburgh Sheriff Court after being charged with entering the palace with intent to steal.

The Scotsman reports.

Let me get this straight...

Green tea may reduce breast cancer risk, but black tea may increase it?

Drinking five cups of green tea a day can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 22 per cent, claims a meta-analysis of previous studies, the same studies that the FDA recently said contained very little science to support the claims.

Read more.

Spirituality or Illegal Drug Use?

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.  ABC News reports.

Healthier storm in a teacup

THE CUPPA has always been a beloved treat of Scots. What better solution to life's dramas than a feelgood brew? But it seems the traditional mug of bright orange tea and its humble ambition to refresh will no longer cut it in cool company. Today's smart brews claim to make their drinkers slimmer, happier, or just generally healthier. Should we believe the hype? The Scotsman put the kettle on to find out.

Tea stall bomb kills 8 workers in Baghdad

The Scotsman reports that a bomb exploded alongside a group of Iraqi men waiting for work in eastern Baghdad today, killing at least eight and wounding more than 50, police officials said. Colonel Ahmed Abboud, chief of police in the New Baghdad area where the explosion happened, cited eyewitnesses saying that a man placed a bag full of explosives near a cart that sold tea to the workers. The attack happened at about 7am at an intersection crowded with bystanders near to the Sunni Muslim al-Samaraei mosque in the New Baghdad neighbourhood.

Angel's Trumpet

A teen in Titusville, Fla., who nearly died after drinking a batch of tea made from a common flower is out of the hospital Friday, according to Local 6 News.

David O'Bryan Taylor, known as Bryan, reportedly used an Internet recipe to make Angel's Trumpet flowers into a tea to get high. After drinking the tea, Taylor's heart gave out and he remained on life support for five days. Doctors said Taylor's heart beat is still erratic and he may need a pacemaker. He will also need to see a cardiologist for the remainder of his life.

The shrub-tree with trumpet-like flowers is common in Florida and occasionally has been controversial because of its use as a hallucinogen. In 1995, the city of Maitland banned planting Angel's Trumpet after two teens there died after ingesting it. Locally, in 2000, two teens from Indian Harbour Beach were hospitalized after drinking the poisonous tea, according to the report.

Five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 230 people had died in one year from psychotropic drugs of all types in Florida, including Angel's Trumpet.

Wales reclaims tea, and bevy of other items, from England's list of national treasures

The Westminster Government has come up with a definitive list of English icons which it says best represent England. So far there are 12 icons on the list and it is hoped more will be added in the coming months, with people nominating what they think should be included via a special website. The Welsh insist, however, that the English are taking all the glory for themselves:

"...because many of the items are arguably more British than English. They say the cup of tea is an iconic representation of England, but the Welsh drink more tea per head of population than anywhere else in the world. If there were to be a Tea Drinking World Cup then Wales would win it hands down. So why are the English claiming this as an icon of their national identity. Chinese? Indian? Definitely. British? Yes? English? Certainly not."

Read more.

Yerba mate

A weight-loss tea that's full of antioxidants but gives you a caffeine buzz? Catherine Townsend gives up coffee to find out if yerba mate really is the top tip. Find the full story at The Independent.

Green tea might be cancer aid

A green tea extract may help patients with a form of leukaemia, a study says. The BBC reports.

Iraq's teahouses a haven of apple-scented civility

At the Karrada Nights teahouse in central Baghdad, old men and government workers sip tea and smoke a fragrant apple-flavored tobacco with tall pipes, as they lean over to move their dominos. The men gather in groups to talk politics and sports, and to complain about everyday problems. Teahouses are an old Iraqi tradition. The cafes are scattered throughout Iraq's cities, at least a few in each neighborhood.

Read more at USA Today.

Empire of Tea (Review)

Claire Hopley, review of The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant that Took over the World (by Alan and Iris Macfarlane), in  Gastronomica: the Journal of Food and Culture 5/3 (2005): 136-137.  The Empire of Tea was published in the USA in 2004 and under the title Green Gold in Britain in 2003.

Tea cuts ovarian cancer risk

Many newspaper reports today about an article in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association describing the research of Susanna Larsson and Professor Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. For example.

Tea: the new 'healthy soft drink'

The cuppa that cheers is soon going to hit the market in attractive containers – bottles, cans, who knows, even tetra-packs – as a “healthy soft drink” to win over youngsters who have turned their back on the brew. After hogging the headlines for their innovative “tea tablet,” scientists at the Jorhat-based Tocklai Experimental Station (TES) of the Tea Research Association (TRA) have evolved a formula for a tea-based soft drink. The Statesman reports.

Woman, whose husband apparently has no sense of taste, spikes his tea with anti-freeze

A Lake Mary, Florida, woman has been arrested on suspicion she tried to kill her husband by putting anti-freeze in his green tea.

Seminole County Sheriff's Office investigators accused Alisa Freeburn, 38, of giving her husband the anti-freeze-laced drink on Nov. 4. She told him that it was green tea, according to the report. After drinking the green tea, the man became ill and was hospitalized.

After tests on Freeburn's husband, it was determined that he was gi