Tea Blog

If you’re ever in the mood for truly unusual reading, Project Gutenberg offers a fascinating nineteenth-century volume titled The Book of Curiosities: Containing Ten Thousand Wonders and Curiosities of Nature and Art, published in 1854 by Rev. I. Platts.

The title alone promises an ambitious journey, and the book delivers an eclectic mix of topics ranging from ant-lions and flea lifespans to mysterious artifacts, odd inventions, and historical anecdotes. Amid all these curiosities, I was surprised to discover a brief chapter devoted to an equally fascinating subject: Chinese tea.

A Nineteenth-Century View of Chinese Tea

Platts begins with a discussion of the tea plant and the sequence of tea harvests in China. At the time, China remained the world’s dominant tea producer, while commercial tea cultivation in India was only beginning to emerge.

According to the author, tea could be found throughout China, although certain regions were already recognized for producing superior quality teas. He also notes that some people preferred tea from Japan, though he questioned whether there was a meaningful difference between the finest teas produced by the two countries.

Reading these observations today provides an interesting glimpse into how tea was understood by Western writers during the mid-nineteenth century.

Processing and Classification

The book offers only a brief overview of tea processing before moving on to descriptions of various Chinese tea types known to Western audiences at the time.

Among them is Bohea tea, a name that was once widely used in Europe but is rarely encountered today. Platts associates Bohea with China’s Fujian Province—historically spelled in several different ways, including Fokien and Fukien in older English-language sources.

The passage serves as a reminder of how tea terminology has evolved over the centuries. Many tea names that were once familiar to consumers have gradually disappeared from common usage, replaced by more accurate regional and varietal designations.

Chinese Green Teas of the Era

Platts also discusses several green teas that were reportedly exported from the region he identifies as Nankin, an older Western spelling of Nanjing.

Among the varieties he lists are:

• Songlo Tea
• Green Toukay
• Bing Tea
• Hyson Tea

Many of these names were familiar to nineteenth-century tea merchants and consumers but are rarely encountered today outside of historical discussions.

Platts concludes that numerous other Chinese teas existed but remained largely unknown to foreign buyers. Considering the immense diversity of China’s tea culture, that observation was probably quite accurate.

An Entertaining Historical Perspective

One of the more amusing claims in the chapter is the author’s assertion that French tea drinkers preferred green teas with an aroma resembling soap. Whether this reflects actual consumer preferences of the period or simply a contemporary stereotype is open to debate, but it certainly adds character to the narrative.

Such observations are part of what makes historical tea writing so enjoyable. These old books not only tell us about tea itself, but also reveal how people of past centuries understood the beverage and the cultures surrounding it.

From Tea to Sugar—and Beyond

The tea chapter is surprisingly brief, but that’s part of the charm of The Book of Curiosities. No sooner does the discussion of Chinese tea conclude than readers are whisked away to the next topic: a short examination of the antiquity of sugar.

For anyone interested in tea history, nineteenth-century perspectives, or simply browsing a wonderfully eccentric collection of facts and observations, the book makes for entertaining reading.

Sometimes the most unexpected tea discoveries are found in places where you’d least expect to find them.

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles in this archive of tea history and commentary.

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