Picture by the Author. |
There
is nothing better on a cold morning, in the wild parts of the world than a hot
cup coffee, tea or chocolate. In last
week’s article (HERE), I discussed drinking chocolate and next week I am going
to talk about coffee. During the late 18th
and early 19th centuries drinking chocolate was the most commonly
drank hot drink with coffee as the third most popular choice. This week I am going to talk about tea, which
was the second most popular hot drink during this time.
I
had a lot of questions about tea-time during the late 18th
to the early 19th centuries.
Like, what teas did people drink?
Are there modern teas which are like them? And how did they make a pot of tea during the
late 18th to the early 19th centuries?
Here
is what I discovered.
The
tea that was sold and drank during the late 18th and early 19th
centuries was both the same and different from what we drink today. During the 18th century most tea
came from China and only some came from Japan.
It wasn’t until the 1820's that tea began to be produced in Assam, which
is a state in northeastern India. Today
tea is harvested in Kenya, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Malawi, Rwanda
and China.
All
tea comes from the leaves of camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub that
is sometimes called the tea plant or tea tree.
To make black tea the leaves are plucked, tumbled or macerated to start
oxidation, allowed to fully oxidize, wither and brown, before being panned (or
heated) to stop oxidation, then they are rolled and dried. This curing process gives the black tea it’s
deep red-brown color and flavor. Black
teas have the most caffeine of all the teas; however, it is still less than
what is in a cup of coffee. What is
called black tea by modern Westerners, is called “hung chá” in China,
and was most likely not developed until the 19th century1. Green tea is made of leaves that have been
plucked, allowed to wither, and are then panned to stop the oxidation before
they are rolled and dried. Since they
have not cured and oxidized, they have a green color and the least amount of
caffeine of all the teas. When making
oolong tea, the harvested leaves are first allowed to wilt slowly in the sun,
which allows some oxidation to take place before it is panned to stop the
oxidation, then the leaves are rolled and dried. The semi-oxidized flavors and colors of
oolong tea are somewhere between the flavors and colors of the modern black tea
and modern green tea.
During
the early 18th century, the tea trade only recognized three
different types of tea; Bohea (a black tea), Singlo or soumlo (a green tea),
and bing or imperial (also a green tea).
Bohea
tea takes its name from the anglicized pronunciation of Wu-i and was
named for the mountains, in the Fujian (anglicized to Fuhkien) province of
China, where, during the 18th century, it was picked. The people who live in this part of China
call their tea “wu-i chá”, with the word “chá”
meaning tea. Since the dialect spoken in
Fujian province pronounces a “w” as a “b”, the 18th century English
traders wrote “wu-i chá” as “bo-hea”.
18th century Bohea was most likely a form of oolong tea or as
it is written in china, “wu lung”2.
In
the 1720’s Thomas Twining began to sell “pekoe” tea which is tea leaves picked
as two leaves and a bud.3
Excerpts from Encyclopaedia
Britannica Or a Dictionary, Vol. XX, Fourth Edition, 1810, p. 229 and 230
By
early 19th century, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1810,
there were eight recognized types of tea, three kinds of green tea and five
kinds bohea or black tea.
So,
what does all of this mean to someone who is interested in accurately
portraying person living during the late 18th to the early19th
centuries? What it means is that you should
choose either a modern green tea or a modern oolong tea, which is the most
similar modern black tea to the bohea teas of the time. Also, since tea was shipped loose and packed
in chests, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
you should choose loose tea to be period correct – no tea bags!
Now
that we know what tea to drink, how do we make tea, like they did during the
late 18th and early 19th centuries?
The
book Domestic Management Or The Art Of Conducting A Family, published in
1800, had some very good tips on pages 94 to 97 on how to make tea to serve to guests
in the parlour (for a reproduction of pages 94 to 97, see note4). If you boil the tips down, you are left with
the following two recipes.
Based on tips from the Domestic Management Or The Art Of Conducting A Family, 1800, pages 94 to 97, graphics by the Author. |
So
that is the correct way to make tea for guests in the parlour, but what about
making tea over a campfire in the wilderness?
Horace
Kephart, in Camp Cookery has some suggestions for making tea over the
campfire. It is interesting to note that
Mr. Kephart’s recipe for making tea makes 16 ounces (473 ml or one US pint) of
tea which is almost the same amount of tea that Parlour Tea Recipe One, which will
make about 15 ounces, or 450 ml, of tea per person, assuming that the six-ounce
(almost 180 ml) tea cup is filled to just below the rim.
Incidentally,
while Horace Kephart brought loose tea on his journeys through the wilderness,
today we can choose between loose tea or teabags.
I
hope that the next time you are out in the woods, you stop long enough to brew
up a nice cup of tea and sit and enjoy the peace and quiet around your fire.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
Canton Tea; “Teas of the eighteenth century English tea trade”
2
Baker, Mark A.; Muzzleloader Magazine’s A Pilgrim’s Journey, Volume One:
1986-1995, p. 277-278
3 Canton
Tea; “Teas of the eighteenth century English tea trade”
4 Excerpts
from Domestic Management Or The Art Of Conducting A Family, 1800, pages
94 to 97
Sources
Baker, Mark A.; “Corrections, Confessions and Challenges”, Muzzleloader Magazine’s
A Pilgrim’s Journey, Volume One: 1986-1995,
[Scurlock Publishing Co., Inc. Texarkana, TX, 2004], p. 274-279
Canton Tea; “Teas of the eighteenth
century English tea trade” [© Canton Tea 2018], https://cantontea.com/blogs/tea-stories/teas-of-the-eighteenth-century-english-tea-trade,
accessed 1/2/20
Domestic Management Or
The Art Of Conducting A Family, [Printed for H. D.
Symonds, London, 1800] p. 94 - 97, https://books.google.com/books?id=FrJcAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=%22domestic+management%22+%22as+it+frequently+falls+to+upper+maids%22&source=bl&ots=PwxHlu5__m&sig=ACfU3U0DIKmTFUQg61HsG_gchhaHAZhf8g&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqz-_Wq-bmAhXBQc0KHZplCy8Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22domestic%20management%22%20%22as%20it%20frequently%20falls%20to%20upper%20maids%22&f=false,
accessed 1/2/20
Encyclopaedia
Britannica Or a Dictionary,
Vol. XX, Fourth Edition, [Printed by Andrew Bell, Edinburgh,
1810], p. 226-230
Frontier
Co-op, “Types and Grades of Tea” [© 2018 Frontier Co-op], https://www.frontiercoop.com/community/tea-guide/types-and-grades-of-tea,
accessed 1/4/20
Kephart,
Horace; Camp Cookery, [Outing Publishing Company, New York, 1910], pages
11 and 135-136, https://archive.org/details/campcookery01keph/page/n7,
accessed 12/28/19
Tea
Epicure; “Tea Processing Step: Oxidation”, [© Copyright 2020], https://teaepicure.com/tea-leaves-oxidation/,
accessed 1/4/20
The
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
Vol. XXVI, [New York, 1911] p. 172, https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabrit26ed11arch/page/n6,
accessed 1/2/20
woods tea, or infusions were common, sassafras , pine needle, n other herbs to make hot drinks goes way back before dutch brought china tea to main stream
ReplyDeleteThanks you for your comment. Yes this is true. Pine needle tea has been drank for centuries (millennia?) by the Native Americans because it was rich in vitamin c, something which would have been scarce in their diet in the winter months. And both sassafras and pine needle tea are delicious and I regularly drink both. However, the thrust of the article was about commercial drinks, sold to long-hunters or Native Americans at trading posts, or to soldiers at sutler's tents, unfortunately not drinks made foraged materials. Perhaps that will be the thrust of a future article?
ReplyDelete