HOW TO MAKE TEA.
The Siamese method of making tea--A three-legged teapot--Advice of
a Chinese poet--How tea should be made--How Abernethy made tea for
his guests--The "bubbling and loud-hissing urn"--Tate's description
of a tea-table--The tea of public institutions--Rev. Dr. Lansdell on
Russian tea--The art of tea-making described--The kind of water to
be used. The Chinese method of making tea--Invalids' tea--Words to
nurses, by Miss Nightingale.
The mode of preparation of tea for the table has always given rise
to discussion. Different nations have different methods. In Siam one
method was thus described in a book entitled "Relation of the Voyage
to Siam by Six Jesuits," which was published in 1685. "In the East
they prepare tea in this manner: when the water is well boiled,
they pour it upon the tea, which they have put into an earthen pot,
proportionally to what they intend to take (the ordinary proportion
is as much as one can take up with the finger and thumb for a pint of
water); then they cover the pot until the leaves are sunk to the bottom
of it, and afterwards serve it about in china dishes to be drunk as
hot as can be, without sugar, or else with a little sugar-candy in the
mouth; and upon that tea more boiling water may be poured, and so it
may be made to serve twice. These people drink of it several times a
day, but do not think it wholesome to take it fasting."
In "Recreative Science" (vol. i., 1821) there appears a very curious
note relating to the translation of a Chinese poem. The editor
says,--"Kien Lung, the Emperor of the Celestial Empire, which is in the
vernacular China, was also a poet, and he has been good enough to give
us a receipt also--would that all didactic poetry meddled with what its
author understood. The poet Kien did, and he has left the following
recipe how to make tea, which, for the benefit of the ladies who study
the domestic cookery, is inserted: 'set an old three-legged teapot over
a slow fire; fill it with water of melted snow; boil it just as long as
is necessary to turn fish white or lobsters red; pour it on the leaves
of choice, in a cup of Youe. Let it remain till the vapour subsides
into a thin mist, floating on the surface. Drink this precious liquor
at your leisure, and thus drive away the five causes of sorrow.'"
Poets, as everybody knows, are allowed a good deal of licence, and
tea-maids may be pardoned if they are sceptical of the value of the
advice of the Chinese poet. How, then, should tea be made? First and
foremost, remarks Dr. Joseph Pope, it should be remembered that tea is
an infusion, not an extract. An old verse runs thus:--
"The fragrant shrub in China grows,
The leaves are all we see,
And these, when water o'er them flows,
Make what we call our tea."
Dr. Pope lays emphasis on the word _flows_; it does not say _soak_.
There is, he contends, an instantaneous graciousness, a momentary
flavour that must be caught if we would rightly enjoy tea. Assuredly
Dr. Abernethy, the celebrated surgeon, must be credited with the
possession of this "instantaneous graciousness." "Abernethy," said
Dr. Carlyon, in his "Early Years and Late Reflections," "never drank
tea himself, but he frequently asked a few friends to come and
take tea at his rooms. Upon such occasions, as I infer from what I
myself witnessed, his custom was to walk about the room and talk
most agreeably upon such topics as he thought likely to interest his
company, which did not often consist of more than two or three persons.
As soon as the tea-table was set in order, and the boiling water ready
for making the infusion, the fragrant herb was taken, not from an
ordinary tea-caddy, but from a packet consisting of several envelopes
curiously put together, in the centre of which was the tea. Of this
he used at first as much as would make a good cup for each of the
party; and to meet fresh demands I observed that he invariably put an
additional tea-spoonful into the teapot; the excellence of the beverage
thus prepared insuring him custom. He had likewise a singular knack of
supplying each cup with sugar from a considerable distance, by a jerk
of the hand, which discharged it from the sugar-tongs into the cup with
unerring certainty, as he continued his walk around the table, scarcely
seeming to stop whilst he performed these and the other requisite
evolutions of the entertainment."
If every woman had treated her guests in the same manner, there would
have been little outcry against tea. The innovation of a "bubbling and
loud-hissing urn" was strongly condemned by Dr. Sigmond, who, writing
in 1839, after quoting Cowper, remarked: "Thus sang one of our most
admired poets, who was feelingly alive to the charms of social life;
but, alas! for the domestic happiness of many of our family circles,
this meal has lost its character, and many of those innovations which
despotic fashion has introduced have changed one of the most agreeable
of our daily enjoyments. It is indeed a question amongst the devotees
to the tea-table, whether the bubbling urn has been practically an
improvement upon our habits; it has driven from us the old national
kettle, once the pride of the fireside. The urn may be fairly called
the offspring of indolence; it has deprived us, too, of many of those
felicitous opportunities of which the gallant forefathers of the
present race availed themselves to render them amiable in the eyes of
the fair sex, when presiding over the distribution
"Of the Soumblo, the Imperial tea,
Names not unknown, and sanative Bohea."
The consequence of this injudicious change is, that one great enjoyment
is lost to the tea-drinker--that which consists in having the tea
infused in water actually hot, and securing an equal temperature when a
fresh supply is required. Such, too, is what those who have preceded us
would have called the degeneracy of the period in which we live, that
now the tea-making is carried on in the housekeeper's room, or in the
kitchen--
"For monstrous novelty, and strange disguise,
We sacrifice our tea, till household joys
And comforts cease."
What, he asks, can be more delightful than those social days described
by Tate, the poet-laureate?
"When in discourse of nature's mystic powers
And noblest themes we pass the well-spent hours,
Whilst all around the virtues--sacred band,
And listening graces, pleased attendants stand.
Thus our tea-conversations we employ.
Where, with delight, instructions we enjoy,
Quaffing, without the waste of time or wealth,
The sovereign drink of pleasure and of health."
Fortunately for the lovers of the teapot and the kettle, a change in
the fashion of making tea is taking place, the "loud-hissing urn"
being now confined almost exclusively to a public tea-party and the
coffee tavern. The quality of tea and coffee supplied by the latter
institution has long been considered _the_ blot upon an otherwise
excellent movement. Not too severely did the _Daily Telegraph_ speak a
short time ago against the atrocious stuff supplied under the name of
tea in public institutions. The editor said,--
"The very look of it is no longer encouraging. It is either a
pale, half-chilled, unsatisfactory beverage, or it contains a dark
black-brown settlement from over-boiled tea-leaves. The consumption
of tea, no doubt, in England is enormous, and we boast to foreigners
that we are fond of our tea; the fashion of tea-drinking, owing mainly
to our example, has extended to France, once extremely heretical on
the point; and yet where is the foreigner to find a good cup of tea
in England? At the railway stations? Very rarely. At the restaurants?
Scarcely ever. And at the newly-started tea and coffee palaces,
which are to promote sobriety, the great and crying complaint is
that the tea and coffee are so poor that the best-intentioned people
are forced back to the dangerous public-house, in order to obtain a
little stimulant, for it is idle to deny that both tea and coffee
are stimulating to the constitution. Everywhere a great reform in
tea is required. Once on a time no confectioner, railway-station, or
refreshment-house could rival the home-made brew, made under the eye
of the mistress of the household, with the kettle on the hob and the
ingredients at hand; but now that the good old custom of tea-making
is considered unladylike, and the manufacture has been handed over to
the servants, the great charm of the beverage has virtually departed.
No one can conscientiously say that they like English tea as at
present administered, for the very good reason that it is no longer
prepared scientifically. The English fashion of drinking tea would be
laughed to scorn by the educated Chinaman or the accomplished Russian.
Indeed, it is surprising in how few houses a good cup of tea can be
obtained now that it has become unfashionable for the mistress of the
establishment, not only to preside over her own tea-table, but to have
complete sway over that most necessary article, a kettle of boiling
water. The Chinese never dream of stewing their tea, as we too often
do in England. They do not drown it with milk or cream, or alter its
taste with sugar, but lightly pour boiling water on a small portion
of the leaves. It is then instantly poured off again, by which the
Chinaman obtains only the more volatile and stimulating portion of
its principle. The most delicious of all tea, however, can be tasted
in Russia--supposed to import the best of the Chinese leaves, as it
imports the best of French champagne."
[Illustration: GATHERING TEA-LEAVES.]
According to the Rev. Dr. Lansdell, however, the Russians do not pay
extravagantly for their tea, "When crossing the Pacific," he says, "I
fell in with a tea-merchant homeward bound from China, and from him I
gathered that three-fourths of the Russian trade is done in medium and
common teas, such as are sold in London in bond from 1_s._ 2_d._ down
to 8_d._ per English pound, exclusive of the home duty. The remaining
fourth of their trade includes some of the very best teas grown in the
Ning Chou districts--teas which the Russians will have at any price,
and for which in a bad year they may have to pay as much as 3_s._ a
pound in China, though in ordinary years they cost from 2_s._ upwards.
The flowery Pekoe, or blossom tea, costs also about 3_s._ in China."
But Dr. Lansdell heard of some kind of yellow tea which cost as much as
five guineas a pound, the Emperor of China being supposed to enjoy its
monopoly; but a friend of the doctor told him that he did not think it
distinguishable from that sold at 5_s._ a pound.
The excellence of the Russian tea is attributed, in part, to the fact
that it is carried overland. "Whilst travelling eastwards," says Dr.
Lansdell, "we had frequently met caravans or carts carrying tea. These
caravans sometimes reach to upwards of 100 horses; and as they go at
walking pace, and when they come to a river are taken over by ferry,
it is not matter for surprise that merchandise should be three months
in coming from Irkutsk to Moscow." Whatever the cause, all travellers
eulogize the Russians as tea-makers. Dr. Sigmond, for instance, says,--
"My own experience of the excellence of tea in Russia arose out of a
curious incident, which occurred to me during a hasty visit I made to
that highly-interesting country. Previous to this adventure, I had
been in the habit of taking coffee as my ordinary beverage, and was
by no means satisfied with it. I had no idea of the prevailing habit
of tea-drinking, previous to my arrival, at Moscow. In the course of
the afternoon I left my hotel alone, obtaining from my servant a card,
with the name of the street, La Rue de Demetrius, written upon it. I
wandered about that magnificent citadel, the Kremlin, until dark, and
I found myself at some distance from the point from which I started,
and I endeavoured to return to it, and asked several persons the way
to my street, of which they all appeared ignorant. I therefore got
into one of the drotzskies, and intimated to my Cossack driver that
I should be enabled to point out my own street. Although we could
not understand each other, we did our mutual signs; and with the
greatest cheerfulness and good-nature this man drove me through every
street, but I could nowhere recognize my hotel. He therefore drove me
to his humble abode in the environs; he infused the finest tea that
I had ever seen in a peculiarly-shaped saucepan, set it on a stove,
and this, when nearly boiled, he poured out; and a more delicious
beverage, nor one more acceptable after a hard day's fatigue and
anxiety, I have not tasted."
Other travellers refer to the excellence of tea in Russia. If we could
have an improvement in the quality of tea made in England, we feel sure
that a decrease in the consumption of intoxicating drinks would result.
Some reform has already taken place at railway-stations. For the
reduction of the price of a cup of tea from sixpence to fourpence on
the Great Northern Railway the public are indebted to the Hon. Reginald
Capel, Chairman of the Refreshment-Rooms and Hotels' Committee of
that company. On the Midland Railway, also, a reduction in the price
of non-intoxicating beverages has been made. At the present time the
coffee taverns stand most in need of reform.
With the object of inducing our tea-makers to reform their methods
of tea-making, we quote some important recommendations of leading
physicians. Dr. King Chambers, in his valuable manual of "Diet in
Health and Disease," remarks that the uses of tea are (1) to give an
agreeable flavour to warm water required as a drink; (2) to soothe
the nervous system when it is in an uncomfortable state from hunger,
fatigue, or mental excitement. The best tea therefore is, he contends,
that which is pleasantest to the taste of the educated consumer, and
which contains most of the characteristic sedative principles. As Dr.
Poore has pointed out, tannic acid, which is one of the dangers as
well as one of the pleasures of tea, is largely present in the common
teas used by the poor. "The rich man," he says, "who wishes to avoid
an excess of tannic acid in the 'cup that cheers,' does not allow
the water to stand on the tea for more than five, or at most eight
minutes, and the resulting beverage is aromatic, not too astringent,
and wholesome. The poor man or poor woman allows the tea to simmer
on the hob for indefinite periods, with the result that a highly
astringent and unwholesome beverage is obtained. There can be no doubt
that the habit of drinking excessive quantities of strong astringent
tea is a not uncommon cause of that atonic dyspepsia, which seems to
be the rule rather than the exception among poor women of the class
of sempstresses." The late Dr. Edward Smith devoted considerable
attention to this subject, and we cannot do better than quote his
observations:--"The aim should be to extract all the aroma and dried
juices containing theine, with only so much of the substance of the
leaf as may give fulness, or, as it is called, _body_ to the infusion.
If the former be defective, the respiratory action of the tea and the
agreeableness of the flavour will be lessened, whilst if the latter
be in excess there will be a degree of bitterness which will mash
the aromatic flavour. As the theine is without flavour, its presence
or absence cannot be determined by the taste of the tea. All agree,
therefore, that the tea should be cooked in water, and that the water
should be at the boiling-point when used; but there is not an agreement
as to the duration of the infusing process. If the tea be scented or
artificially flavoured, the aroma may be extracted in two minutes,
but the proper aromatic oil of the tea requires at least five minutes
for its removal. If flavour is to be considered, it is clear that an
inferior tea should not be infused so long as a fine tea.
"The kind of water is believed to have great influence over the
process; soft water is preferred. The Chinese direction is, 'Take it
from a running stream; that from mill-springs is the best, river-water
is the next, and well-water is the worst;' that is to say, take water
well mixed with air. Hence avoid hard water, but prefer tap-water or
running water to well-water. It is the practice of a good housewife in
the country to send to a brook for water to make tea, whilst she will
use the well water for drinking." The mode of making tea in China is to
put the tea into a cup, to pour hot water upon it, and then to drink
the infusion off the leaves. While wandering over the tea-districts
of China, Mr. Fortune only once met with sugar and a tea-spoon. "The
merchant invited us to drink tea," writes the Rev. Dr. Lansdell, who
recently visited the Mongolian frontier at Maimatchin, "and told us
that the Chinese use this beverage without sugar or milk three times a
day; namely, at rising, at noon, and at seven in the evening. They have
substantial meals at nine in the morning and four in the afternoon."
Dr. King Chambers considers tea most refreshing to the dyspeptic if
made in the Russian fashion, with a slice of lemon on which a little
sugar-candy has been sprinkled, instead of milk or cream. One small
cup of an evening is enough. He also gives the following receipt for
making invalids' tea:--
"Pour into a small china or earthenware teapot a cup of quite boiling
water, empty it out, and while it is still hot and steaming put in the
tea and enough boiling water to wet it thoroughly, and set it close
to the fire to steam three or four minutes. Then pour in the quantity
of water required, boiling from the kettle, and it is ready for use."
Miss Nightingale offers a word of advice to nurses upon the amount of
tea which should be given. "A great deal too much against tea is,"
she remarks, "said by wise people, and a great deal too much of it
is given to the sick by foolish people. When you see the natural and
almost universal craving in English sick for their tea, you cannot but
feel that Nature knows what she is about. But a little tea or coffee
restores them quite as much as a great deal; and a great deal of tea,
and especially of coffee, impairs the little power of digestion they
have; yet a nurse, because she sees how one or two cups of tea or
coffee restore her patient, thinks three or four cups will do twice as
much. This is not the case at all: it is, however, certain that there
is nothing yet discovered which is a substitute to the English patient
for his cup of tea."