Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-16
INTEMPERANCE IN TEA,
Increase of the Use of This Beverage
I'm England.

Increase of the Use of This Beverage
in England.
From the London Spectator.
There is no doubt as to the tea-drinking
propensities of the English race. We hirt
with coffee, but tea is our only serious love;
with the exception of Russia, we drink
more of it than all the rest of the continent
put together. 1t is the one universal drink
OF all classes, and, 1t Is to be feared, by all
classes it is abused in the same fashion.
The grande dame and the charwoman both
find solace in the teacup, and both turn
to it rather too frequently. The volume of
tea consumption has steadily increased
with the fall Of the price of tea, and now
that it is within the reach of even the poor
est, 1t Is no longer luxury, but a neces-
sary of English life. Afternoon tea is the
most Interchangeable of social functions in
London. Our neighbors across the channel,
with that sincere f1attery which they some
times pay to our feelings, have attempted
to borrow this custom also, but have never
succeeded i'm actually drinking the tea.
French people may invite each other to
'fve-o cloQuer," but they have far too
great a respect for their digestions to
wander. as we do. from house to house,
drinking at each a tepid cup Of unknown
strength.
For, after ALL it is in the making of the
tea, and not in the amount that is con-
sumed, that the real danger lies. The
Russians are even greater tea-drinkers
than we are, but they would never touch
the terrible black draught which is our in
sular delight. The Chinaman, who should
know best how to deal with his own
products, is most careful to derive nothing
but a little infusion from his tea leaves,
pouring boiling water upon small guam
tity of the leaves and instantly pouring it
off again, SO that the liquid may not
stand. The Russians obtain much the
same effect, with greater economy, by con-
small
from the samovar, so that the same water
is never allowed to stand in the tea pot
long. Is 1t necessary to describe the Eng
lish method? We boil it, stew it, brew it,
distill 1T, do anything, in fact, but get an
infusion.
Into capacious tea pot We put sufficient
tea leaves and boiling water for unlimited
cups. The mixture is sometimes allowed to
stand for half an hour or so before it is
used; sometimes it is actually placed on
the hearth to simmer before the fire, or
enveloped in an abominable quilt, called a
tea cosy" The result is a decoction, not
an infusion; all the deleterious elements
that may exist in the leaf are brought out
into the tea-cup. The worst of this ignor-
ance in tea-making is that it becomes more
pronounced in the poorer households. The
working classes, to whom the price of tea
is a more serious consideration, like to get
something strong and tasting for their
money. They like their tea to have some
body" in 1t, and measure the strength of
the liquid by the bitterness of its taste and
the blackness of the color. Often, they
make no pretense of infusing tea in tea
pot at ALL but frankly boil it in the kettle
on the fire-a process which results in a
singularly rank and black beverage when
the coarser kinds of tea are used. This
is the method which is also adopted by the
Australian, though he, at least, can plead
the excuse that a teapot would be a serious
as he calls 1t, which constitutes the chief
item of his camping equipment.