Cream Tea Café

Essentially, tea is a drink of hot water inbibed with the leaves of Camellia sinensis (commonly known as “tea leaves”).  Many of us enjoy this infusion as a part of our daily lives. It is interesting to consider how this came to be so, and understanding the perceptions of tea-drinking in the historical record.

Some examples of such perceptions can be found in “English 18th Century Cookery.”

“TEA: By some, the use of this exotic is condemned in terms the most vehement and unqualified, while others have either asserted its innocence, or gone so far as to ascribe to it salubrious, and even extraordinary virtues. The truth seems to lie between these extremes: there is however an essential difference in the effects of green tea and of black, or bohea; the former of which is much more apt to affect the nerves of the stomach than the latter, more especially when drank without cream, and likewise without bread and butter.

There we have a recommendation from our 18th Century forbears. Tea, especially green tea, affects the stomach. Take it with cream, and bread and butter, to ameliorate the affect.

“That, taken in a large quantity, or at a later hour then usual, tea often produces watchfulness, is a point that cannot be denied; but if used in moderation, and accompanied with the additions just now mentioned, it does not sensibly discover any hurtful effects, but greatly relieves an oppression of the stomach and abates a pain of the head. It ought always to be made of a moderate degree of strength: for if too weak it certainly relaxes the stomach.”

“Tea often produces wakefulness.” Too true; for that, we have the caffeine to thank. “Abates a pain of the head;” no doubt, if the headache is from caffeine withdrawal.