Tea, to Make
-There is very little art in making good tea; if the water is boiling, and there is no sparing of the fragrant leaf, the beverage will almost invariably be good. The old-fashioned plan of allowing a teaspoonful to each person and one over, is still practised.
Warm the teapot with boiling water; let it remain for two or three minutes for the vessel to become thoroughly hot, then pour it away. Put in the tea, pour in from to pint of boiling water, close the lid, and let it stand for the tea to draw from 5 to 10 minutes then fill up the pot with water.
The tea will be quite spoiled unless made with water that is actually boiling, as the leaves will not open, and the flavour not be extracted from them; the beverage will consequently be colourless and tastelessin fact, nothing but tepid water. Where there is a large party to make tea for, it is a good plan to have two teapots, instead of putting a large quantity of tea into one pot; the tea, besides, will go farther.
When the infusion has been once completed, the addition of fresh tea adds very little to the strength; so, when more is required, have the pot emptied of the old leaves, scalded, and fresh tea made in the TEA.
TEA-CAKES. usual manner. Economists say that a few grains of carbonate of soda, added before the boiling water is poured on the tea, assist to draw out the goodness; if the water is very hard, perhaps it is a good plan, as the soda softens it; but care must be taken to use this ingredient sparingly, as it is liable to give the tea a soapy taste if added in too large a quantity. For mixed tea, the usual proportion is four spoonfuls of black to one of green; more of the latter when the flavour is very much liked; but strong green tea is highly pernicious, and should never be partaken of too freely.
TIME.-2 minutes to warm the teapot, 5 to 10 minutes to draw the strength from the tea .
SUFFICIENT. - Allow 1 teaspoonful to each person.
A method rather than a formula, and most of it still holds. The variables worth attention are water temperature, steeping time and the type of leaf, none of which the original distinguishes.
- Water that is actually boilingThe insistence on a rolling boil is sound for black tea, which needs water at or near 212F to extract properly. Green tea is the exception: boiling water scorches it and turns it bitter, so let the kettle stand a couple of minutes to fall to around 175F.
- Steeping timeFive to ten minutes suits the coarse-cut black teas of the period. Modern black tea, and anything in a bag, is cut finer and extracts faster; three to five minutes is enough before tannin dominates. Green tea wants two to three.
- The quantityA teaspoon per person plus one for the pot works out at roughly 2-3 g each, close to current practice. The measure probably assumes a teacup smaller than a modern mug.
- Water quantityThe initial pour is given as a range that has not survived intact in this text. The intent is clear enough: add only enough boiling water to cover the leaves and start the infusion, then top the pot up once the tea has drawn.
- Carbonate of sodaIn period usage this may mean sodium carbonate (washing soda) or bicarbonate of soda; sources are inconsistent. Either alkali darkens and strengthens the liquor by raising the pH, and softens hard water, but it flattens the aroma and turns the tea soapy at anything beyond a few grains. A filter jug is the better answer to hard water.
- Two pots for a crowdStill the right call. Leaves crammed into one pot extract unevenly, and the advice against adding fresh tea on top of already-infused leaves is reasonable.
- Mixed teaFour spoonfuls of black to one of green is the proportion the text itself gives as usual for the period. The warning that strong green tea is "pernicious" is period medical opinion, not fact.
Tea reached English households as a luxury and only became an everyday drink in the nineteenth century, after duties fell and the plantations of Assam began supplying Britain alongside the older China trade; Ceylon tea came considerably later, from the 1870s onwards. By the time this was written, tea was central enough to domestic routine to warrant a full entry of its own, complete with instructions on economy, because the leaf was still a household expense worth managing carefully. The distinction between black and green here is not a matter of different plants but of processing, though that was not universally understood at the time, and the era's warnings about green tea's effects on the nerves circulated widely in domestic manuals. The advice to warm the pot and pour water at a full boil is long-standing English tea lore, and it remains the difference between a good cup and a pale one.