TEA-MAKING IN BYGONE DAYS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 771, 21 March 1910, Page 3

TEA-MAKING IN BYGONE DAYS

Our grandmothers were professed tea connoisseurs ;in . the old days. They bought their banisters and chests of tea as our grandfathers ordered the replenishing of their wine cellars, and could as easily describe the "pedigree" of their pet brew as their husbands and fathers could discuss/the rival merits .'of their, Tokay or their 1811 hock. • .

•There was in those days a great prejudice in the matter ;of .ordinary faience where the • tea service was concerned. When general tea drinking was still comparatively a - novelty, :no one could or would have drunk it except in a cup of Indian or at least of Oriental china of some description. English cups and saucere would have ruined the aroma. , Their teapots were always rounded at the bottom., This was considered a verv important point. The favourite blend was two-fifths black, two-iifths green, and one-fifth gunpowder. A small , pot was condemned,, and when company was asked, to partake of a "dish of ta.v," its holding capacity was . a very important matter, the necessary 1 size containing exactly twice as many cupfuls as there were people. Two teaspoonfuls were allowed tor every half .pint.. The .tea was infused lor six or eight minutes, when-it was poured into a second pot, which the sorvants m bygone times were ordered to remove directly the company had finished; with it. To allow the leaves to remainuntil cold was considered to spoil the next brew. Few servants to-dav; however, probably think of .'scalding out a teapot with really boiling water after emptying it oi leaves, even when this part ot the proceedings is left for several hours.

One of the most ancient recipes for tea-making nr more than . 250 years old. It was brought back from China by a Jesuit, who was probably most sought n """socially in consequence. His plan, culled from the natives, was to auow a dram of tea to a pint of water, »nd then to. beat up the yolks of two i civ laid,'eggs with fine sugar, stirring this into the tea, and leaving it to. soak until the • strength of the herb was extracted As long, and no longer, said the worthv ecclesiastic, must the hot water tsmriit on the leaves as it fakes to say the iliserere psalm very leisurely.—"St. James s Budget.

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