Tea Blog

While there are records of Roman cookbooks dating back to the first century, some of the most influential works published in the United States before the era of Julia Child include Joy of Cooking (1930) by Irma Rombauer and The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer, first published in 1896.

A star pupil at the Boston Cooking School, Farmer later became its principal and went on to establish her own cooking school. Numerous editions of her cookbook were published over the years.

Thanks to digitization, you can read the original editions online, including

this digitized first edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook (1896)

and

this online version of the 1918 third edition of the cookbook
.

As the title of this article suggests, tea is among the topics Farmer covers in the book’s more than 500 pages. Although she devotes only a small portion to tea, she emphasizes its importance, noting that it was “used by more than one-half the human race.”

At the time, the United States was not considered a major tea-drinking country, yet per capita consumption was estimated at about 1.5 pounds annually—roughly double today’s average.

Farmer provides only brief commentary on the botany and history of tea, but she identifies popular varieties such as Oolong, Formosa, English Breakfast, Orange Pekoe, Flowery Pekoe, Hyson, Japan, and Gunpowder tea.

She also offers practical advice on preparation, emphasizing that water should be freshly boiled, tea should be infused rather than boiled, and oversteeping should be avoided—guidance that remains relevant today.

The cookbook concludes its tea section with recipes, including Russian Tea (served hot or cold with lemon and sugar) and a simple iced tea preparation.

As Farmer notes, “the flavor is much finer by chilling the infusion quickly.”

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