Time for Tea

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Dick Kirrin
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Dick Kirrin »

I wouldn't be too sure about the blends being used back in the days of Jane Austen being that much different from the ones we use today. Yet on the other hand, the ink maker Diamine offers two versions of Blue-Black ink, one the standard Blue-Black, which has a beautiful blue-greenish shade and the other one called the 1864, which is a real blue-black.
So there may be slight differences in tea as well as in ink - not that too many people would use ink these days.

Interesting bit about tea being kept locked up.
When I do my annual stint of Hostel Warden, we actually encourage guests to raid our stores of tea bags (in my case it will be Barry's Gold Blend) and cereal. And it's not that tea was dirt cheap these days - well, compared to what the tea pickers are getting for their work it is too cheap... but any price raise would stop and stay in the pockets of the tea houses.
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Courtenay »

Dick Kirrin wrote:I wouldn't be too sure about the blends being used back in the days of Jane Austen being that much different from the ones we use today.
Well, according to the menu (I've just revisited it online), their "Jane Austen Blend" is "A light blend of China black teas — popular in Regency times when Indian teas were not readily available." Today's standard "English Breakfast" tea blends are usually based on Assam and Ceylon teas rather than Chinese.
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

A while ago I visited Dr. Samuel Johnson's house in Gough Square, London, and learnt that he was an exceedingly enthusiastic drinker of tea. Friends would invite him round for "a cup of tea" and look on in amazement as he drank 20-odd cups at a sitting. He described himself as "a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning."

I've just enjoyed a mug of tea which probably equates to at least two old-fashioned cups - but I don't think I'll be boiling the kettle again just yet!
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Dick Kirrin
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Dick Kirrin »

Courtenay, fair point about tea back then being mainly Chinese. Just did some reading and found that the British actually encouraged and fostered the growing to tea in India as a way to become independent from the Chinese trading houses.
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Machupicchu14 »

Last year, my friend invited me some tea from Asia. The taste was delicious, the smell was magical, it looked more like a soup than a tea and when I drank it I had the most strange sensations, like I was vanishing and entering an Asian world of fantasy. It was weird... :P
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Daisy »

Are you sure it was just tea? :?
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Domino »

Perhaps it was Texas tea! :shock:

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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Machupicchu14 »

Daisy wrote:Are you sure it was just tea? :?
Yes, I believe it was..
Edit: Yes, it was just tea. But you know, trying other food or drink from another country is quite strange at first.
After that we had some plain Indian food, so it was a bit weird but very nice.
Last edited by Machupicchu14 on 08 Dec 2016, 18:01, edited 2 times in total.
"All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."
(все, что я понимаю, я понимаю только потому, что люблю)
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by floragord »

Courtenay wrote:Now that sounds interesting — Twinings does have a "chai" that is pleasant but fairly ordinary, but this is obviously something more elaborate. I'll be interested to hear what you think, Floragord. :wink:

I did try "Jane Austen's Blend" today at the Regency Tea Room in Bath, but didn't like it nearly as much as I like her books!! :lol: (It wasn't Jane's actual recipe, of course, just a blend that was supposed to be similar to the kind of tea that was most commonly drunk in her era. But they do say Jane Austen, while at home with her mother and sister in Chawton, was the official keeper of the key to the family tea caddy — tea being expensive then, it was usually kept under lock and key so that servants couldn't help themselves to it.)
I found the flavour not nearly as pronounced as freshly boiled spices in with leaf tea and milk, but very aromatic, soothing to throat and quite calming, just the job after a plunge into Marks & Spencer at Ravenside Shopping Centre 8)

I was interested to read of "Jane Austen's Blend" at the Regency Tea Room, we haven't tried that yet, tended to stick to the Pump Room in the past but will no doubt try fresh fields and pastures new visiting Bath over Xmas, as a cousin has recently moved to Bathampton. My Grandmother inherited a lockable tea caddy from her Mama, shades of the days when the help was kept at bay from indulging in a cuppa - or presented with the used tea leaves to try and extract the last drop of flavour!
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Moonraker »

Daisy, your comment went way over the top of a certain head! :wink:
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Courtenay »

I was thinking of phrasing it as "Are you sure all the ingredients were legal...? :shock: " :wink:
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Machupicchu14 »

Courtenay wrote:I was thinking of phrasing it as "Are you sure all the ingredients were legal...? :shock: " :wink:
Yes,of course!! So it's basically the same as mint, English tea, etc, but with a different flavour.
It was just that I had never tasted something like that before.
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Daisy »

Moonraker wrote:Daisy, your comment went way over the top of a certain head! :wink:
Yes, I guessed it might. :)
Last edited by Daisy on 08 Dec 2016, 23:12, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Courtenay »

If you two are suggesting that María Esther didn't "get" the insinuation that there was some mind-altering ingredient in her unusual Asian tea, it looks very much like she did, from what she's written. I still wouldn't mind knowing what kind of tea it was, though!! :wink:
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Re: Favourite brand of tea?

Post by Machupicchu14 »

Of course I got the insinuation, that's why I felt bad for the person who bought the tea.:(

Courtenay, I have no idea what type of tea it was.
"All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."
(все, что я понимаю, я понимаю только потому, что люблю)
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