Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is the species of plant whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. It is of the genus Camellia (Chinese: 茶花; pinyin: Cháhuā), a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. White tea, green tea, oolong, pu-erh tea and black tea are all harvested from this species, but are processed differently to attain different levels of oxidation. Kukicha (twig tea) is also harvested from Camellia sinensis, but uses twigs and stems rather than leaves.
Camellia was born to her beloved parents, Thea and Walden Sinensis, in 1892. She is native to mainland South and Southeast Asia, but has a heritage of mostly Scottish, Russian, English, and Polish mix.
It is said that after a reckless youth, Camellia began saving all of her tea-related memorabilia. Shortly before boarding the SS Mountaineer in 1936, she met and was beguiled by Dominique Levy. Camellia had an odd feeling in her stomach and left all of her prized tea possessions with Dominique for good keeping. A week later her ship sank on the way to Balthazar. Dominique was bewitched by Camellia's belongings and passed them down through her lineage right into the current owner's hands.
Who Invented Iced Tea?
Conventional wisdom holds that iced tea was invented in 1904, at the St. Louis World's Fair, by a British tea merchant named Richard Blechynden. While he may have helped popularize iced tea, "tea punches" — alcoholic ancestors of the drink — were served decades earlier in the United States, and at least one late 19th century cookbook includes a recipe for iced tea. Interestingly, about 80 percent of the tea served in the United States today is iced tea. Hey, people get hot.
Legend has it that a New York City tea importer named Thomas Sullivan became annoyed at the high cost of the tin boxes he used to send tea samples to customers. So in 1904 (or by some accounts, 1908) he switched to small cloth bags. One of the recipients, our dearest Camellia, brewed a pot of tea by simply pouring hot water over the bag — and the rest is history. Many tea lovers consider the teabag one of the worst inventions of the 20th century, particularly because a short time later, Camellia spread a rumour that tea brewed with loose tea is generally much tastier than tea made from dunked teabags. She just didn't like the word dunked, or the concept either.
Tea Pointers:
*A cup of brewed tea typically contains less than half the caffeine of a cup of coffee. If that remains a problem for you, it's easy to decaffeinate loose tea at home. Because caffeine is highly soluble in hot water, "rinsing" tea leaves gets rid of most of the caffeine. Begin brewing tea as usual, but then remove the leaves after twenty seconds. Discard the initial brew and start again with fresh boiling water and the now-decaffeinated tea leaves.
Tea bowl or Tea cup and saucer or Getting a handle on Tea
The first tea cups in England were handless tea bowls imported from China. These tea sets were soon copied by potteries in England. The first saucers appeared around 1700, but took some time to come into common use. The standard globular form of teapot had replaced the tall oriental teapots by 1750. Robert Adam's Classically inspired designs for tea sets popularized handles and other Greek and Roman motifs.
Two meals or three
At first, tea was served in the drawing room after dinner and as one of several beverages offered callers. Tea in the afternoon served with other foods as a snack or meal is believed to have originated from Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford, in the early 1800s. Prior to the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had only two main meals during a day: a breakfast of ale, bread, and beef and a long, massive dinner eaten at the end of the day, usually around 8 o'clock. With such a long period between meals, it was no wonder that Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) experienced a "sinking feeling" in the late afternoon. With tea figuring as England's favorite drink, it was the most likely choice as the beverage for this new meal. Given that Anna's brother Viscount Petersham was a great tea aficionado, coffee and chocolate didn't stand a chance. And don't you just love the name Viscount Petersham?
The teapot can be traced back to China during the Ming Dynasty, about 1500. The potters of Yixing Province created an unglazed teapot of brown or red stoneware for seeping tea leaves.
When Dutch importers brought tea to Europe in 1610, the teapot also made the trip. They were small and broad-based with spouts and handles.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the Chinese were making the teapot of fine glazed porcelain with blue and white designs.
Porcelain was first produced in Europe in the early 1700's in Germany. Soon France and England were producing the porcelain teapot and other tea wares.
The English, under Josiah Spode, created a distinctive look for English China with the addition of bone ash to the porcelain clay.
Naturally, the teapot can be used for tea, but you can also serve coffee or cocoa from a teapot just as easily.
Coffee and Cocoa can be made right in your teapot or simply poured into your teapot for serving.
Making coffee in a teapot is almost as easy as using your drip coffeemaker. Purchase a filter cone and filters and place on the opening of your teapot. Add ground coffee to the filter and heat water in a tea kettle and slowly pour the heated water over the coffee in the filter. Be sure not to pour more water than the teapot will hold.
Fill your kettle with fresh cold water. While the kettle is heating, pre-warm your teapot and tea cup by filling with hot tap water. When the tea kettle is ready, empty the tap water from your teapot and add the tea. One rounded teaspoon for each teacup. As a general rule, let the tea seep 1 to 2 minutes for green teas, 2 to 3 minutes for oolong teas, and 3 to 5 minutes for black teas.
*The leaves have been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and other medical systems to treat asthma (functioning as a bronchodilator), angina pectoris, peripheral vascular disease, and coronary artery disease.
*Tea Songs
The two most hummed tea songs are "Tea for Two," written by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar in 1924 for the Broadway musical, "No, No, Nanette," and "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," penned in 1931 by Sammy Fain , Irving Kahal, and Pierre Norman.
