The English way of drinking tea?

"Andy Dingley" wrote

And why do Marxists only drink herbal tea? Because proper tea is theft!

(sorry)

ROTFL!

... this is NHS Tea, consisting of poorly steeped "Senator" bags.

Cheers

Blippie

-- Visit the alt.aviation.safety FAQ online at

"Jon Nossen" wrote in news:N3BJb.229 $ snipped-for-privacy@news2.e.nsc.no:

Why should that be true? I don't know if more herbal tea is consumed by women than men, but there are plenty of women who drink real (not herbal) tea.

Debbie

It is not too late for someone to reply to this...?

"Jon Nossen" wrote in news:...

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Yes Jon, these teas are indeed less fermented "greenish blacks". There are several ways to make a "green" tea (which is essentially a tea without oxidation) or a "greenish tea" which is a tea with minimal oxidation. In a tea factory some of these are purposeful methods, others the results of poor processing.

The main ways are:

1. Inactivate oxidising enzymes before rolling using steam (Japanese method)= green tea
2. Inactivate oxidising enzymes using dry heat (Chinese panning or roasting method) = green tea
3. Avoid initiating oxidation by very gentle handling and drying white tea (a variant of green).
4. Oxidise for a very short time (minimal rolling, or CTC cutting) - dry as soon as short rolling or CTC cutting is complete = insufficient time for full oxidation to black = anything from a green to a greenish black tea.
5. Oxidise at low temperature - this slows down enzyme action partial oxidation only = greenish black.
6. Hard wither (to a very low leaf moisture content) - this inhibits enzyme action = partial oxidation only = greenish black
7. Insufficient oxygen present during oxidation (fermenting layers too thick) = partial oxidation only = anything from green to greenish black

The partially oxidised oolongs fall into group 4. above though they have other processing inputs (sun withering and leaf agitation and high firing) that give their unique character.

The "greenish blacks" you find at high elevations in Sri Lanka and Darjeeling are the result of partial oxidation due to very hard withers and cool ambient temperature. It is perfectly possible to make a fully oxidised (black) Uva or Darjeeling, and in fact during the rains in Darjeeling when a hard wither cannot be achieved, this is exactly what happens (but these are not exported). Similarly we had to heat up fermenter air to 90 deg F in early spring in Turkey as the cool weather gave us a greenish tea - not at all what the Turks like to drink.

The type of tea and degree of oxidation required is driven by the market (or the producer's perception of the market). As increasingly Darjeelings and flavoury high grown Ceylons are bought by non-milked tea markets, so the dark srong liquors required in the English market have given way to lighter ones, and the dry leaf shows green colour rather than jet black . Producers could revert if the market required

- the process is flexible and a skilled manager can alter his teas at will.

My point (in my previous posting) was to remind tea lovers that a tea's characteristics may change with time even if the names stay the same.

Nigel at Teacraft

That's quite shocking!

I just tasted PG Tips tea bags and I have to admit, it was very much better than German tea bag teas, but in contrast to a normal loose Assam, it was quite disgusting. [...]

Well, it seems, that this is e.g. the tea, described in some books (Ishiguro or also in the Sherlock Holmes Stories -- ok, maybe less 'posh' at all). [...]

Hm, but there seems to be an old English (non posh) way of preparing and drinking tea with loose tea. I looked some further and found some interesting points (mostly referred to the essay on tea by G. Orwell). So, the old way was, to take an Indian or Ceylon tea (I suppose, Indian tea means Assam), put six spoons into a pot, add one litre of boiling water and ... well, ... as I understand it, don't use a strainer and just leave the tea there in the pot. So, after some cups, the tea must be really strong?! Maybe this is much like the Irish tea you mentioned later?!

I also read about a more Builder's like way: put one or two tea bags (e.g. PG Tips) in a pot, add one litre boiling water and let the tea infuse for ten minutes, leave the bag(s) in the pot and add some other half a litre of boiling water after some time. [...]

[...]

So, after all that, I think I stay with the "continental way". That is, drinking loose tea, nearly all of it in a light, often more half-fermented way, drank without milk and, of course, using a strainer (after app. three minutes infusion time). Maybe the tea more likely the English way is, using a good Assam, which is strong enough to drink with milk.

There are also Twinings and Fortnum & Mason teas to buy here, but as I remember it (I tasted the Breakfast blends and the Assam blends), they are high priced and of low quality (compared to loose teas you can buy at the same price in a real tea shop).

I think the point, that nearly all teas despite of Assam are more half-fermented and lighter nowadays is a good explanation, why you can't drink them with milk. And I for myself never saw a full fermented Darjeeling and also never a Darjeeling BOP, which, I suppose, would be a good idea to take with some milk.

For that, drinking Assam is the only way to come near to "the English way", because, there aren't the right teas available here.

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Thanks for a very interesting explanation. Let me just see if I understand what you are saying.

1) The greenish black teas from Darjeeling, Nuwara Eliya, Uva (and possibly other high elevations) are less fermented than other black tea because of hard withers and low temperature during fermentation, which inhibits or slows down enzyme action. 2) The producers in these districts make greenish black teas on purpose because of market demands.

Even if this is true for Darjeeling teas, I doubt that it is for Ceylon teas. In general, Ceylon teas are fully black, which seems to be what the markets want, and to a large extent of small particle size (BOP, Fannings and Dust). The highest elevation districts (Nuwara Eliya and parts of Uva) produce almost only small particle size, which I assume is because of market demands. And the market statistics I have seen show that these days the high elevation districts fetch *lower* prices than the lowgrown districts. So it's a puzzle to me why they should make greenish teas on purpose.

Sherlock Holmes was a long time ago, Ishiguro not much less. I'd also point out that both described tea made by servants for their employer. Perhaps less formally so for Mrs. Hudson, but it's still not the self-serving laziness that leads to the "bag in the mug" approach.

OK, you've had the joke. Now the serious response.

There was a time when English tea was brewed in The Proper Way. Everyone knew the rules, most people stuck to them.

The utensils began with a kettle and a teapot. Kettles were electric and powerful, for a very long time (an innovation which has yet to reach America). The mid-century kitchen contained an electric cooker, an electric kettle and perhaps an electric fridge. The fridge was wired in through a typical house socket of varying capacity and a steam iron might have to borrow a light socket, but the kettle would have its own high-current socket supplied directly from the cooker supply.

Water came from the tap, but it was freshly drawn.

Teapots were the heavy earthenware spheroids we still see as the Yorkshire "brown betty". Although glazed on the inside, it wasn't regarded as properly ready for use until coated with a thick layer of tannins. It would be regularly cleaned by "scalding" out with boiling water, but never scrubbed.

Whilst boiling, the teapot would be warmed with a little water from the kettle.

The the tea would be measured in. Tea was stored in a caddy, a rather reduced artefact compared to its Bramah-locked Victorian splendour, but still a utensil of some status in the kitchen. If Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" had been made in England, Mrs. Pott's consort would have been the tea caddy (probably echoing something of Anthony Hopkins' role in Ishiguro). The variety was of the household's regular blend. With one caddy, there was one blend of tea. What could be simpler ? English tea (of its mass acceptance) was always blended, but Assams figured highly. The English cook was as likely to select it for the grocer's brand as they were for some far-off geography. The tea itself would be measured with a tea-spoon or caddy-spoon. Not the slim stirrer of the serving tray, this is a near-circular shallow measuring spoon. Frequently they'd be decorated with a thistle as a handle (Scottish themes were always popular in England, so long as they didn't involve actual Scots) or some other enamelled gewgaw as a momento of some early-wedded holiday in Aberystwyth.

There was one golden rule for tea measuring; one per cup, and one for the pot. If poverty tightened your caddy, then you used a smaller spoon - but there was always one for the pot.

Whilst still boiling, the tea would be "wetted" from the kettle and the teapot placed on the table. Most kitchens would have some form of pot stand - once Victorian cast iron, these later became another manifestation of the English passion for twee holiday souvenirs - often a printed ceramic tile, set in a metal holder.

Most well-dressed teapots would also wear a tea-cosy, always knitted by someone's granny. The purpose of the cosy is not for its insulating properties, but to make the lid hard to remove and thus keep the impatient menfolk from poking at it with a spoon.

Whilst the tea was brewing, the cups would be laid out. Teacups _and_ saucers, I'll have you know. Not using a saucer is only one step from the workhouse (*).

Milk would be poured in a round, whilst brewing. Milk jugs are essential, even in the days of glass bottles. When the first American films and sit-coms appeared on TV, I was literally amazed to see milk cartoons publically displayed on the breakfast table. Even that nice Alan Alda, who even my Mother liked, ate his breakfast with _a_milk_carton_ in the room ! For some reason, the English middle classes are ashamed of milk, or at least the industrial parts of its obtaining. We'll go to insane lengths (see Wodehouse's "The Code of the Woosters") to obtain that ridiculous device, the "cow creamer", yet we'll live the lie that there are neither shops nor dairies involved in supplying our daily milk. Presumably we all keep a cow in the scullery and milk her directly into the milk jug.

Shortly before the tea was brewed, Father would attempt to pour a cup. This was simply repressed impatience at having been foiled in his stirring attempts by the impenetrable tea-cosy. A wrist would be slapped and the usual fussing made. The precise shade of the tea at this point is best described by the traditional term of "peely-wally".

No one, outside of an Ealing Comedy, has ever asked "Shall I be Mother?" before pouring. Tea is poured by She Who Made It, or else there will be repercussions. If there is an order to pouring, then I'm afraid I missed it in my ethology.

Strainers are rarely used, only when indulging in posh tea. After all, how would one read other's fortunes without the leaves ?

I understand that in Georgian times, polite society allowed tea to be sipped from the saucer. By the mid-20th century this was still practiced, but only by the uncouth. Toothless crones might even do it into the '70s, even practicing such bizarre habits as mixing it with Epsom salts or Andrews liver salts. Now it's just a term of disdain for in-laws who are rustic farmers.

After drinking the first cup, the pot is frequently topped up. However an empty pot is _never_ refilled, once emptied. The tea remains quite drinkable by this technique, the pot retains heat and the unstirred leaves sit at the bottom of the pot and don't brew enough to become bitter.

An over-aged pot is described as "stewed". Traditionally stewing is determined by the precise moment at which tardy men return from the mill, foundry or pit bottom, too late for the tea which was announced hours ago (7.5 minutes is the usual metric equivalent unit to the "hours").

Pre-war, and possibly into the '50s, cold tea was taken from the breakfast pot and poured into a whisky bottle (conveniently flat) for consumption cold at lunchtime. Whether it was drunk with or without milk in this state seems to be a regional variation, but it would always have been sweetened. The great social historian Orwell describes the use of jam as a cheaper sweetener.

(*) The teacup and saucer is now extinct, surviving only as a ceremonial fetish in the ritualistic Posh Tea. I date its demise to the rise of instant c*ff*e in the '70s, and the warm immediacy of the mug.

-- Socialism: Eric, not Tony

Hi Andy,

Thank you for these very very interesting informations. But I still have some questions.

[...]

Are there such traditional blends today? Now, we mostly have "blends" of a single sort of tea (e.g. Darjeeling First Flush) or even single estate teas. I only know "blends" from East Frisian tea or from some Twinings and Fortnum & Mason which nowadays is the crap you find in standard English tea bags (which are at least better than the German bags, of course).

I saw photos of such spoons on the web (seems to be nice collector's stuff today). But I suppose, it brings the same amount of tea in the pot as a normal modern tea spoon, doesn't it?

By the way, it seems then, that English tea making meens also to brew a much stronger tea than (nowadays) on the continent. We use (depending on the tea) 12 to 13 gr. tea per litre water (for some Darjeeling often only 10 gr.) to brew our tea (with 2 to 3 minutes of infusion time). With "one spoon for each cup and one extra for the pot" it has to be at least about 7 or even 8 spoons per litre, which must be about 17,5 gr. to 20 gr. tea per litre water?!

So, it is true that the tea leafes were in the pot all the time. Today we strain the tea completely into another (serving) tea pot after the convenient infusion time (or we even use permanent tea infusers which are removed from the pot when the tea is ready).

[...]

That's true, but to me it seems a little bit odd (not to say a kind of distgusting to imagine having tea leafes in the mouth).

I Don't understand that? sipping from the sauer? Does this mean, you put tea out of your cup onto the saucer and drink it from it then? Why??? That's a strange thing!

That is also a point I don't understand. So, you put tea into a pot, add boiling water, let the tea infuse for let's say for 3 minutes and then you pour out the tea into the cups (with this, some tea leafes go into the cups, maybe a strainer, and are not replaced in the pot)? BUT at this time, the pot isn't empty? It is, let's say, just half-empty? And then, you add hot water to fill the pot up again (and you let the tea infuse again for 3 minutes?)? And know you empty the pot completely or do you add some more water after each time, the pot gets half-empty? I still can't imagine, how this tea tastes then? I imagine it tasting like a second infusion, which is quite disgusting ... and: I also can't imagine, that there is not a point at which the tea gets very bitter -- at least, the last cup must be?!

After an infusion of 7.5 minutes, the tea is stewed? So, referring to the practice decribed above, Emglish tea is / was always stewed tea? [...]

Yes. You'd better ask those in the tea trade around here what's in them, but the British are much more likely to buy a regular brand of tea on the basis of a brand name, or shop's name.

At least one of these brands (Taylor's) makes a virtue of selling different blends in different regions, to account for water differences - yet the box barely mentions which one you have, or what's in it. Nice tea though - it's my regular.

If you go to a traditional tea and coffee seller, like Pumphrey's (Grainger market, Newcastle) then you'll see a range of teas identified by location and type. In a grocer's though, the most you're likely to see is either "breakfast blend" or "red label" and "blue label" (you'd have to taste both to establish your preference).

The tea market is being shaken up a little by the TradeFair movement. In parallel with this, we're also starting to see some single estate teas. They're worth trying

They're much bigger - usually the diameter is a little bigger than the length of a teaspoon bowl, but they're shallow and not heaped highly. The amount is about one heaped teaspoon.

I've no idea what "grams" of tea look like, or how they relate to my own eyeball measures. But we certainly make our tea quite strong.

Yes, very much so. Careful pouring keeps them in the pot. Careful drinking keeps them out of your mouth (it's polite to not drain a cup of tea)

I have a glass Bodum pot with one of those. I never use it.

In Georgian times, I believe that "saucer" meant something larger and used without a cup. It was like a Scottish tassie, or the French morning coffee bowl.

I think the coarse use of saucers gets a mention in Dickens somewhere. They're the English equivalent of Mason jars in Kentucky 8-)

A pot is usually sized to serve two cups to everyone around the table. After serving the first one (pot half full) it's left for a while, then later the kettle is reboiled and the pot topped up. Shortly afterwards a second cup is poured. Some time later, there's a third cup for thoe who want it.

It would be unusual to pour the second cup before refilling. The tea is over-strong at this point and needs dilution, but it's not so stewed or over-brewed that it's not drinkable.

The tea certainly doesn't taste like leaves that are brewed, drained, then brewed again. I think the key is that leaves only brew effectively when they're swirling freely in plenty of water. A pot that's half-drained and left to sit has the leaves settle out and they stop brewing.

I'm joking a little here. The question of whether the tea is stewed or not is a traditional way of chivvying along those who are slow when called to the table.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Perhaps this isn't known east of the Atlantic, but Mason jars are well known in Brooklyn tea circles. Whether this antedates jarrage in Kentucky is, I believe, presently unknown.

/Lew

Well, I just learned, that in the bourgeois-philitinistic German Biedermeier (1815?1848), it was very "posh" and common in those bourgeois circles (during a "Theegesellschaft"), to drop the hot tea from the cup onto the saucer and then sip the tea from it.

Indeed, Andy. From a sometime Pumphrey's- (and Lagavulin- ) drinking geordie, a somewhat belated "welcome to the group!"

I am also a born to tea drinking Englishman.

-- Dave Croft Warrington England