More About Tea

We've gathered together some fascinating info for you all about tea. Click on a link below to read more.



Who Discovered Tea?

The Boston Tea Party

The Nation's Favourite

Afternoon Tea and Cakes

How to make the perfect brew!

Recommended Brewing Times

A poem about Tea

Why tea is good for You!

Reading Tea Leaves

George Orwell on Tea

Tea Quotes

Who discovered tea?

There are various legends surrounding the origins of tea. Perhaps the most famous is the Chinese story of Shen Nung, the emperor and renowned herbalist, who was boiling his drinking water when leaves from a nearby tea shrub blew into the cauldron. He tasted the resulting brew, and the beverage of tea was born. Probably wasn’t the best brew but it was a start!

The Boston Tea Party

Nowadays tea is thoroughly associated with us British, and taking time for a cup of tea is considered by millions, quite rightly, I’d say, to be a moment of calm and enjoyment in our loopy lives. It seems a little incongruous to remember that a little over 250 years ago, tea was such a hot political issue in America that it led to an event that changed history forever. This was the infamous Boston Tea Party, a protest against tea duties in December 1773 that sparked off the American War of Independence and so eventually led to the U.S.A becoming an independent nation instead of a group of British colonies. See how important tea is! Do not mess with the humble tea leaf!!

The Nation's Favourite Drink

A cup of tea is a vital part of everyday life for the majority of people in modern Britain – so much for that strong smelling brown stuff called coffee that is apparently popular! Tea is so integral to our routine, that it is difficult, actually IMPOSSIBLE to imagine life without it! But it was not always so; tea was once a luxury product that only the rich could afford, and at one time there was even a debate about whether it might be bad for the health! Now of course tea has gained its place as our national drink, and its health-giving properties have finally been given the credit they deserve.

Afternoon Tea...............and cakes!

Loopy’s afternoon teas are set to become legendary as the true taste and grandeur of this wonderful British tradition. Delicious home baking and top quality teas are served in fine china tea cups, Anna Maria ‘the inventor’ of the afternoon tea tradition would be thrilled to attend...... if she was still alive that is!

Anna Maria, was the wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford, who in 1841 started drinking tea and having a bite to eat in the mid-afternoon, to tide her over during the long gap between lunch and dinner (no rush to be size zero in those days!). This swiftly developed into a social occasion, and soon the Duchess was inviting guests to join her for afternoon tea at 5 o'clock. By the 1860s the fashion for afternoon tea had become widespread. Such teas were elegant affairs, with tea drunk from the best china and small amounts of food presented perfectly on little china plates. On offer might be bread and butter, scones and cakes, and sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Loopy Lorna’s does, of course, have cake stands overflowing with these delicacies as the word ‘diet’ is banned from our fine establishment! Why not add a little extra pizzazz to the occasion and bring along your own bubbly?!

Henry James (1843-1916) Portrait of a Lady

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Hugo Drax, villian of Moonraker (1979), to James Bond

"You have arrived at a propitious moment, coincident with your country's one indisputable contribution to Western civilisation - afternoon tea".

How to make the perfect brew!

At Loopy Lorna’s Tea House we’ve all been trained to know how to make the perfect pot of tea – it’s an art you know! Here’s some tips (not PG!) to help you make your Loopy Tea at home.

• Use a good quality loose leaf so really you should use one of Loopy’s own
   blend  teas which really are truly magnificent!
• The tea must be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature . When
   you’re as special as tea you can afford to be fussy!
• Always use freshly drawn boiling water as this will give the best flavour. Tea
   needs oxygen and boiling the water more than once depletes this very
   necessary life force!
• Measure the tea carefully, it’s precious you know.
• Use 1 rounded teaspoon of loose tea for each cup to be served.
• Allow the tea to brew for the recommended time before pouring. Don’t rush it
   now but then don’t leave it too long or it’ll wonder what you’re waiting for!

Just be sure you only use great tea!

Lu Yu (d. 804), Chinese sage, hermit said

“The best quality tea must have creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like a fine earth newly swept by rain.”

And..............

Thich Nat Hahn.....(who???).

"Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future". ~Thich Nat Hahn

There you go!

How long to infuse?! Milk or no milk? Lemon? Anything else?!

Recommended brewing times and whether to put anything in it....

Afternoon Teas by Patricia Winchester

Read this my dears, and you will see
how to make a nice cup of tea
take teapot to kettle, not t'other way round
and when you hear that whistling sound
pour a little in the pot
just make it nice and hot.

Pour that out and put in the tea,
loose or in bags, your choice, you see.
One bag for each two cups will do
with one extra bag to make a fine brew.
Steep 3-5 minutes then pour a cup.
Then sit right down and drink it up!

Tea is oh so good for you!

Now you can relax with that fourth cup of tea and know that you're helping to look after yourself.

Health Facts and Nutrition Data

• Approximately 40% of the nation's fluid intake today will be tea. Let’s make it
   more!
• Tea without milk has no calories. Using semi-skimmed milk adds around 13
   calories per cup, but you also benefit from valuable minerals and calcium. Not
   that we’re worried  about such things, of course!
• Tea with milk provides 21% of daily calcium requirement in 4 cups. Good
   strong bones!
• Tea contains some zinc and folic acid. Very useful especially when trying to get
   pregnant and being pregnant! Please take advice from a family planning
   specialist though!
• Tea with milk contains Vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2 and Thiamin B1. Forget 
   those factory made vitamin pills!
• Tea is a source of the minerals manganese, essential for bone growth and body
   development, and potassium, vital for maintaining body fluid levels .
   Happy bodies,   happy people!
• The average cup of tea contains less than half the level of caffeine than coffee.
   Now we’re   talking, sorry coffee but you really are inferior if not dangerous!
• Tea is a natural source of fluoride and drinking four cups makes a significant 
   contribution to your daily intake. Keep smiling honey bunches. Good for your
   pearly white teeth!
• Green and black teas are from the same plant, Camelia sinensis, and contain
   similar amounts of antioxidants and caffeine. That’s why we have both and
   don’t discriminate!

Tea is also good for your inner beauty!

Japanese Proverb

"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."

Chinese Proverb

"Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. "

Tea can help you plan your life! What about some tea leaf reading?

What to do first!

Have a nice cup of tea with the tea leaves left in! Drink all of it, mustn't waste it, but leave the leaves! Hold the cup in your left hand and turn it three times anticlockwise. This spreads the tea leaves around the cup. The cup is read clockwise from the handle. The symbols near the handle show recent events or events about to happen. Symbols at the bottom of the cup represent your emotions. Around the rim of the cup is the happy zone indicating social plans and possibilities. 

All right, but the meaning?

..... the major symbols are the following:

Alligator: is a warning

Arrow: pointing up means your luck is improving; pointing down means your luck is bad; Chin up! Have another cuppa.

Bag: predicts a gift

Bed: emotional contentment

Bell: you will hear news about a problem

Boat: money is arriving

Bone: be careful

Cake: a party; A trip to Loopy is called for!

Car: a new job or a powerful sexual symbol; A car! How macho.

Circle: complete shows that a project will be finished; broken shows that a project is unfinished

Compass: a change of direction in your life

Ear: listen for unexpected opportunities

Lamp: an unexpected celebration; Champagne afternoon tea perhaps?

Palm tree: you are in a creative period

Pear: good sign for love

Pirate: forecasts adventures

Question mark: warns you must be careful

Triangle: (upside down) means bad luck.

A NICE CUP OF TEA BY GEORGE ORWELL

Taken from Soc.culture.british, May 28th 1994

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the mainstays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays - it is economical, and one can drink it without milk - but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it.

Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea. Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities - that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash.

The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad. Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes - a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle. Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup - that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste. Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Lastly, tea - unless one is drinking it in the Russian style - should be drunk - without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.

So that was very interesting.............how about some tea quotes? It’s only when you read these that you will realise just how important and significant tea is!

Tea can save lives!

Quote from "A bridge too Far"

Corporal Hancock: Sir. [Offers mug of tea.]

Major General Urquhart: Hancock. I've got lunatics laughing at me from the woods. My original plan has been scuppered now that the jeeps haven't arrived. My communications are completely broken down. Do you really believe any of that can be helped by a cup of tea?

Corporal Hancock: Couldn't hurt, sir. [Urquhart accepts his mug of tea.]

And from Monty Pythons Flying circus (hells grannies sketch)

"Make tea not war"

Senior Tea Buyer at Harrods, Knightsbridge in London - Mr H. Rahman International Tea Convention - Kochin September 5 2000

"Tea is such a magical product - perhaps even the eighth wonder of the world..."

Lu T'ung

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea."

Eric Pringle~The Doctor Who story "The Awakening"

Turlough:"I quite miss that brown liquid they drink here."
Will Chandler:"Ale?"
Turlough:"No. Tea."
Will Chandler:"What be tea?"
The Doctor:"Oh, a noxious infusion of oriental leaves containing a high percentage of toxic acid."
Will Chandler:"Sounds an evil brew, don't it?"
The Doctor:"True. Personally, I rather like it."

Marlene Dietrich

"The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly.
It is curious to watch them in times of sudden horror, tragedy or disaster.
The pulse stops apparently, and nothing can be done, and no move made, until "a nice cup of tea" is quickly made.
There is no question that it brings solace and does steady the mind. What a pity all countries are not so tea-conscious.
World-peace conferences would run more smoothly if "a nice cup of tea", or indeed, a samovar were available at the proper time."

Bernard-Paul Heroux

“There is no trouble so great or grave
that cannot be much diminished
by a nice cup of tea.”

Attributed to both Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan

“Women are like tea bags. They don't know how strong they are until they get into hot water.”

Samuel Johnson (1709).

“Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.”

Nonetheless, Johnson confessed in the article to being "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."

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

"The privileges of the side-table included the small prerogatives of sitting next to the toast, and taking two cups of tea to other people's one."

From the 1986 movie 'Mona Lisa'

Hotel Waiter: What would you like?
George: Tea.
Hotel Waiter: Earl Grey or Lapsang Souchong?
George: No, tea.

Honore De Balzac

"Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane."

Noel Coward

Wouldn't it be dreadfull to live in a country where they didn't have tea?"

Aleksandr Pushkin

"Ecstasy is a glass full of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth."

An exchange between Lady Astor and Winston Churchill that took place in the Houses of Parliament one day.

Lady Astor (infuriated): Mister Churchill, if I were your wife, I'd put poison in your tea.
Churchill: Madam, were I your husband, I would surely drink it.

T'ien Yiheng

"Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world."

Anonymous!

"Kissing is like drinking tea with a tea strainer, you can never get enough."

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) "Love in Several Masques"

“Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.”

Lu Tung (Chinese poet during T'ang Dynasty) "Tea-Drinking"

The first cup moistens my lips and throat;
The second cup breaks my loneliness;
The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs;
The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores;
At the fifth cup I am purified;
The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.
The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.
Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) "Natural Theology"

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.

Gladstone (1865) Victorian British Prime Minister

If you are cold, tea will warm you;
If you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) Letter, 1912

“My experience...convinced me that tea was better than brandy, and during the last six months in Africa I took no brandy, even when sick taking tea instead.”

Samuel Johnson

“Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.”

J.B. Priestly

Our trouble is that we drink too much tea.  I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats.”

Author unknown

“Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!”

Astrid Alauda

“Tea is instant wisdom - just add water!”

C.S. Lewis

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” 

Tea for Children – all fun and games!

I'm a Little Tea-Pot

I'm a little tea-pot, short and stout.
Here's my handle. Here's my spout.
Do you want a cup of tea?
Tip me up and pour me out!"

Pussy to Tea

Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What are you at?
Where are your manners,
You bad little cat?"

"Miou," said the pussy;
"Please, may I stay
To afternoon tea, ma'am,
For once in a way?"

"Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What can I do?
There's no cup and saucer,
There's no tea for you."

"Miou," said the pussy;
"Miou, ma'am," said she.
"I don't need a tea-cup,
I never take tea;
Some milk in a saucer,
Is better for me."

Pooh's Little Instruction Book

"A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards."

Lewis Caroll

Twinkle, twinkle little bat
How I wonder what you're at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Barnaby Rudge

"Polly put the kettle on, we'll all have tea."                 

T.S. Eliot ~ The Naming of Cats

The naming of teas is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your everyday games-
Some might think you as mad as a hatter
Should you tell them each goes by several names.
For starters each tea in this world must belong
To the families Black or Green or Oolong;
Then look more closely as these family trees-
Some include Indians along with Chinese.

J.K. Rowling

“Harry found the [tea]... seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest.”