Tea 101 Iced Tea

National Iced tea month

Have you watched the President Obama's version of "Call me Maybe" yet? check it out here!! Whether you like him or not, he is actually not a bad singer! He should consider to be a singer as a backup plan!

Tea 101-"tea bag is tea bag, your body can not tell the difference" huh? (part 1)

photo from fashionlover.com

I have many friends who drink tea daily but do not care much if tea bags or loose leaf tea. Like a commercial says: sugar are sugar, your body can not tell the difference!

Really? Your mouth, nose and brain can!!!!!;))) and your body can as well!!

 Tea bags have a bad reputation in the senese the tea in tea bags is not good quality! Don't you agree?;)) If you drink tea, do you use tea bags vs loose leaf teas? Will you tell your friends you use tea bags instead of loose leaf tea?;))

Actually when tea bags (found a patented tea bag design in 1903 -click here) were invented, I believe they were used to hold loose leaf teas, not tea dust or CTC tea. There's a reason for that: tea was originally exported from China and all Chinese teas were whole leaf tea. Even when tea plantations were established in mid 19th centuries in India, all teas drunk around the world were loose leaf teas at that time.

Tea 101-"tea bag is tea bag, your body can not tell the difference" huh? (part 2)
Tea 101-How to care for teapots
Tea Lifestyle: 5 cool ways to use your teapots-party favors (part 5)
Part 4: Tea lifestyle-5 cool ways to use your teapots-Home decor

Part 3 Tea lifestyle-5 cool ways to use your teapots-Candle holders/Lights

Part 2 Tea lifestyle-5 cool ways to use your teapots-Kitchen devices

Part 1: Tea lifestyle-5 cool ways to use your teapots-Glass vase for flower arrangement

 The CTC (crush, tear, & curl) tea was invented roughly in 1930s, far later than the time tea bags were invented.

Photo from ip.com


Based on the patent I found online, US Patent 723287, dated Mar 24th, 1903, this patent was filed in 1901. It's called Tea leaf Holders, not tea bags.

So Tea bags were not invented to hold "tea dust", at least not in the beginning!


PS. You probably can find tons of "records" saying "in 1908 when Thomas Sullivan invented tea bags in New York, sending tea to clients in silk bags, which they began to mistakenly steep without opening."

photo from fashionlover

Thomas Sullivan definitely was a very successful and brilliant business man regardless in that his story was well carried on by generations!!! Now it's by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing ( bing bing bing;))), sounds like the sound of metal;))

Do you use tea bags or loose leaf tea to make your cuppa each day?;))

Tea 101-The mystery of Iced Tea

I remember I read an article posted on The Tea Association of USA-Iced Tea: The Distinctively American Beverage by Steven Smith and Steven Wright. This is not the first time I read articles which referred Richard Blechynden as the person who "invented" iced tea.

While others might say, like another article 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair by Lyndon N. Irwin, that iced tea was invented earlier than 1904.

I have never had real evidence until I bought an old old cook book-The Century Cook Book by Mary Ronald. I love yard sales and enjoy the smell from old items. One time I stopped by at a yard sale in Livingston and bought over hundreds dollars worth of old books @ $1 each!! I struggled to find a space for these treasure!!

The other day I was thinking to find out how people in early 20 centuries brew their tea then I found this "Iced tea" session in my book!! The one I have was published in 1904, 2nd edition. It was copyrighted in 1895. That means before 1895 or earlier, iced tea was not too new for Americans.

 

While I contined my research, I found another interesting book online-The Kentuky Housewife by Mrs. Lettic Bryan, which was published in 1839!! There's no really iced tea recipe, but it included some thing like "Iced Orange juice", "Iced Cherry Juice"

"Iced Cherry Juice:

Beat the white of 6 eggs to a stiff froth, mix them well with a quart of thick cherry juice, and three quarters of a pound of powdered loaf sugar, still it until sugar is dissolved and freeze it. "

 

 This means before 1839, people already knew how to make iced beverages!!!

People, like Russian, or Inuit, who live in cold weather learned how to store food in iced or snow houses. I know Russians used to make iced beer in old days.

Who first started iced tea then? To me, it's a mystery!

Do you know any?

The History of Tea in the US -1

From the time Petrus Stuyvesant first introduced tea to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (later New York City) to today, it has been few hundrads years.

Board of Tea Experts (former FDA) was created in 1897, to regulate the quality of tea imported. At that time, tea trade grew exponently but tea merchants faced the tough situation where they found some teas were manipulated to reach the desired color and weight. At the time, people judge tea quality mainly by color, other than taste and aroma.

Board of Tea Experts is a group of tea experts selected. They meet once a year to sample teas submitted then choose one standard tea from each variety. Standard teas are sent to tea dealers, importers and inspectors to serve as a standard to judge for quality.

The process is very labor intensive. You can imagine the scene, water boiling, cupping, slurping, spitting....

It is also a subjective process as new tea species are constantly created. One of the most memorial tea stories is the He-No Tea. The tea is actually dried Kentuckey bluegrass, not a typital traditional tea. The company was charged for misbranding. A Chinese attorney defended at the court that the name clearly states Hay, NO TEA....

I like that attorney!