It’s time for tea (books)! The first of the three that I plan to read is A Social History of Tea by Jane Pettigrew and Bruce Richardson! So far, I’ve read up to the 17th and 18th centuries.

I’m going to be pausing my reading of The Tale of Tea for the time being because I don’t want to be confused with what information is in which book! Especially since I’m at the same period in time for both books. But, I do have a post planned based on what I’ve learned from The Tale of Tea so hopefully I have not sabotaged myself! (The post will probably be out sometime next week – I was a bit too ambitious in trying to get it ready tomorrow. As it is, the partially written draft + remaining outline is 1.2k words!)

The edition of the The Social History of Tea that I own focuses on Britain and America (apparently it did not at first) and it’s pretty interesting just taking a narrow look at the two countries! I’m enjoying the fact that they dug through household account books to look at the status of tea – when it was first introduced to England in the 17th century, it was so expensive that only those of high wealth (aka high status) could buy it and it was the lady of the house or a high-ranking servant that would take charge of the tea! That’s how precious it was.

But by the 18th century, tea had spread to the rest of the British public and a tea allowance was often included for household servants! Another interesting tidbit: if you were poor, you may not be able to afford a full tea set so there were groups of families that would pool their resources together to be able to take tea!

In America, tea was also very popular but as Britain became unpopular, tea also became unpopular (and they had to be contented with liberty teas instead). I thought the role of women played in boycotting tea was interesting. But my attention was also caught by the sad fact that one of the propaganda campaigns to discourage Americans from drinking tea was based on hygiene (aka the ‘Dirty Chinese’ stereotype).

The book covers a bit more, but these were my main takeaways.

Tea of the Day

I have finally opened my first tea from Lupicia’s The Book of Tea and it’s the Karakoro blend! I’ve actually tried this before and it’s the reason I chose it as my first tea – I wanted to drink something I knew I would like. Love the yuzu and plum in this.

The picture on the teabag is called Gion and it’s one of the spring designs (the designs are divided into four seasons). It’s inspired by Kyoto and the Maikos!