Apalachin Community Press, August 1999

Tea

by Jane Vest

The word calls up a scene - late afternoon, women dressed in their best clothes, seated around a table. There are little cucumber watercress sandwiches on thin crustless bread, and several varieties of small cakes displayed on the snowy linen tablecloth. One woman pours tea from a silver teapot and offers sugar or cream. Idyllic?

How about a "cuppa" tea whenever the need arises - just you, or whenever someone drops in for a visit?

My earliest introduction to real tea was at the home of my Aunt Bridget. There was always a pot of tea brewing on the back of the iron stove. Walk into an Irish household and the first thing after the greeting was "Will you have a cup of tea?" And what tea that was! If you put a silver spoon into it, I'm sure the spoon would have disintegrated! My aunt always watered it down for me and with the milk and sugar, it wasn't all that bitter.

How did we get to be such tea drinkers? Initially it may have been the lure of something new and exotic brought in the ships of the British East India Company. Tea was said to have medicinal properties, good for all sorts of ailments. It was also a stimulant.

As tea became more popular in the 1700's, tea houses became common and served as a club where businessmen and the literary figures and artists congregated. One of the most famous tea parties was the Boston Tea Party of our Revolutionary War. Tea was presumably dumped into Boston Harbor in protest of the English tax on tea imported in the colony.

About the same time in Japan, the tea ceremony was invented by the Samurai. Because of the gravity of the elaborate ceremony, it was to have brought peace and tranquility to those militant men. Eventually, the ritual was taken up by others but performed only on occasion.

Strangely enough, the early medicinal claims of tea have been substantiated by modern medical science. Tea, whether it be black or green, contains antioxidants. The antioxidants help protect the body from the formation of free radicals which cause damage to the cells of our bodies. Herb teas do not have any antioxidants.

There are so many varieties of tea available. If you prefer a smokey taste, there is Irish Breakfast tea, Russian Caravan, or Lapsang Soochang; a different texture - Earl Grey with oil of bergamot; Darjeeling with a peach-like flavor; Oolong, the China restaurant tea; fragrant Jasmine; and green tea.

With such a wide choice, and I haven't listed all the varieties, why not try something else besides orange-pekoe?