Tea cups, at Fortnum & Mason, photo by JMorton
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.
– William Gladstone
British Prime Minister (1809-1898)
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- Tea at Fortnum
Where there’s tea, there’s hope.
– Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
Tea, Char, Chai
TEA which is said to have been introduced into China by Djarma, a native of India, about A.D. 500, was not familiar in Europe until the end of the sixteenth century. And it was not until 1657, when Garraway opened a tea-house in Exchange Alley, that Londoners began tea-drinking as an experiment.
In 1662 Pepys writes—
“Home, and there find my wife making of tea”—two years before, he called it “tee (a China drink)”—“a drink which Mr. Pelling the Pothicary tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.”
Tea drinking is a culture. It is psychologically settling, it cures maladies and ailments and it promotes social cohesion.
Where there’s tea there’s hope.
– Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
Tea is not like vodka, which you can drink a lot of.
– Russian Saying
Superstitions connected with TEA:
Look into your cup/mug, apparently, if you see bubbles, money is coming your way… soon.
Long ago, it was believed that throwing away tea leaves was a way of encouraging poverty. The advice was to burn the used tea leaves for prosperity.
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A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
– Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
DID YOU KNOW?
Tea is the second most popular beverage in the world, next to the water.
Green tea of Japan and its tea ceremony is central to Zen Buddhism. Green tea is also used to flavour ice-cream.
China is the greatest producer of tea.
Green tea has the lowest level of caffeine. Further studies are being conducted as to the health-giving properties of green tea.
21 May had been adopted by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as International Tea Day to help promote and celebrate sustainable production of tea around globally and bring attention to hunger and poverty.