|
A Brief History of Tea in America
Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, after water. Here in the US, however, it holds varying ranks among the top ten beverages - one list ranks it third after water and coffee; while other lists rank it after water, coffee, soda, and beer. Most of the tea consumed here in the US is iced, made using low- to mid-quality commodity tea, so there is definitely room for high quality loose leaf tea to be discovered and appreciated in all its glory. Regardless, we are living in a time when tea is so readily available and more so than at any other time in our history - and it's an affordable luxury. Lucky us!
There are no records referencing when tea first appeared here in America; however, it is assumed that it was first brought by settlers in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in the mid-1600s - almost 400 years ago. The Dutch were the first to bring tea to the European continent around 1610 and it was expensive, being enjoyed primarily by aristocrats. Lower classes were able to experience tea, but usually this was from the spent leaves that were left over and sometimes sold by house staff. As English settlers arrived in the 1600s, so did tea among the upper classes. William Penn is credited with introducing tea to the Quakers. Advertisements for "green and ordinary teas" appeared in Boston newspapers in the 1690s. Spring water was sourced in the mid-1700s for New Yorkers to prepare their tea, as no good source of quality water could be found there. Tea service using fine porcelain from China spread throughout the colonies among upper class women during the late 1600s and 1700s. In fact, serving tea was an expectation of fine hospitality among the upper echelon of the Colonial era.
Being subjects of the English crown, the residents of the colonies were required to pay the exorbitant taxes that had been levied on tea and other goods. This taxation was oppressive, but what made it even worse was the sentiment that there was "taxation without representation". The Tea Act of 1773 made legal tea shipped through England cheaper than the tea sold on the black market that had arisen; however, many colonists rejected this cheaper tea, believing it to be a sign of oppression and a ploy by Parliament to get the colonists to acknowledge that they should be taxed. The tension and resentment eventually led to a revolt over tea and the dumping of chests into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, a defining moment in our fight for independence. In Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York other "tea parties" took place when East India Company ships carrying tea were refused permission to land on shore because their tea could not be received or sold. During the Revolutionary War, many loyalists and non-political colonists continued to drink British tea; however, many others viewed this as an unpatriotic act. These patriots switched to tea smuggled in by the Dutch, coffee, or locally harvested caffeine-free herbs.
After the Revolution, tea became cheaper and more available to the average American. Americans were now trading directly with China, cutting out the middleman. Tea plants were transported from China and planted in South Carolina in the late 1700s, but unfortunately cultivation never took hold at the time. The use of clipper ships through the 1840s further reduced cost by decreasing the amount of time it would take for Chinese goods to get to our shores. Another price reduction measure arrived in the mid- to late-1800s when the British established tea gardens in India and Sri Lanka, which broke China's monopoly on the tea trade and opened up mass production of tea. The establishment of tea gardens in Africa further expanded the production of tea.
The USDA had imported various tea seeds from China, Japan and India at periods of time from 1857 through 1883 for an experimental station in Summerville, South Carolina. When the government ceased funding the program, Dr. Charles Shepard purchased the plants and land to start the Pinehurst Tea Plantation in 1888. He produced award-winning teas until his death in 1915, putting a small US stamp on tea production. His plants were left to grow wild until they were relocated in 1963 to Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina for research. This garden became the commercial venture, Charleston Tea Garden, in 1987 under the stewardship of William Barclay Hall, a third-generation, London- trained tea taster. He introduced the American Classic tea blend, the first tea made solely from American-grown Camellia sinensis leaves. He sold the garden in 2003 to the Bigelow family to preserve it from being sold to developers. The garden continues to thrive today.
The US is credited with two tea inventions - iced tea and tea bags. The "discovery" of iced tea is attributed to Richard Blechynden, a merchant selling his tea at the 1904 World's Fair. Due to the excessive heat, none of the fair-goers wanted to try his hot tea; however, with a stroke of genius he poured it over ice and an instant hit was born. I believe it is more appropriate to credit him with popularizing this form of tea, instead of discovering it, as there are some earlier references in Southern cookbooks and travel journals in Russia that refer to tea poured over ice. The second invention was the tea bag in 1908. Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant, decided to put samples of loose tea into silk sachets to give to his clientele. They didn't take the tea out of the sachet, but instead simply put the whole sachet into a teapot of hot water to steep. They then started asking him for the "teabags" because it was a way to conveniently infuse their tea. An accidental invention was introduced, along with a decline in quality tea.
While loose leaf tea remained available after the introduction of the teabag, the teabag became popular due to its convenience. The renaissance of fine quality specialty loose leaf tea in the US began in the 1990s by Devan Shah, one of my mentors in my early professional development. He was born in Mumbai and spent his teenage summers working on a tea garden in the Nilgiri region of India. He emigrated here from India in the mid-1980s and eventually settled in California. He noticed that the specialty loose leaf tea market was practically non-existent, so he started a company in the early 1990s to import some of the finest teas from India. He started tea festivals in California and is credited with the revival of loose leaf tea here in America. He expanded his tea offering to include teas from all over the world - it was truly a tea lover's delight to order samples to be tasted. He was one of my primary suppliers of excellent quality teas, as well as many other small tea companies, and he was always eager to educate about them and answer any questions with a sparkle in his eyes. His knowledge was deep and his passion and enthusiasm was infectious. His company was a primary sponsor for the industry trade show that I would eagerly attend every year and he always remembered everyone he met. He also was the primary sponsor of the professional educational training certifications that I enrolled in. Devan passed away in 2016 at the age of 53, which was a great loss to the tea community. He was truly a gem who made such an impact on the artisanal aspect of tea and helping people like me learn how to appreciate fine specialty tea craftsmanship. His spirit lives on in all of the small business owners who continue his legacy and I am proud to be a part of it. And I am so happy that you have come along on this part of history with me :)
| 
