Once upon a time I wrote an article in which I tried to determine how many people in the world drink tea on a given day. I arrived at the tentative conclusion that the number was just over two billion. But I’m no statistician so that’s a very tentative figure. It might be interesting to …
Author: William I. Lengeman III
Monthly Tea Gadget and Offbeat News Report 24
I've run across a lot of tea gadgets over the years, but I'd like to think that I haven't become jaded just yet. This theory was confirmed recently when I saw an article about a rather unique gizmo. It's a chocolate teapot. To clarify exactly what that means, it's a teapot that's actually made of …
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“Tea Drinking in 18th-century America” by Rodris Roth
In 18th-century America, the pleasant practice of taking tea at home was an established social custom with a recognized code of manners and distinctive furnishings. Pride was taken in a correct and fashionable tea table whose equipage included much more than teapot, cups, and saucers. (Rodris Roth) Americans are not the greatest tea drinkers in …
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Some History of Tea in Taiwan
There are a few significant tea producing countries or regions that have changed their name since tea began to be a significant industry there. Probably the most notable example is Sri Lanka. It used to be known as Ceylon, and to this day the tea produced there is known by the same name. And then …
How to Build Your Own Teamaker
Teamakers are becoming rather common these days, and there are some models that are quite elaborate, automating nearly every step of the teamaking process and then taking the dog for a walk when they're finished. I've used a number of these gizmos over the years, and they're quite fine, but I always seem to find …
“A Cup of Tea” – The Book (1884)
If you're looking for old books about tea there are plenty of them just a click away, thanks to the ongoing efforts to digitize what seems like every piece of printed material ever published. I've written about many of these over the years and keep waiting for the supply to run dry, but it hasn't yet. …
Tea in Strange Places – The Seychelles
I have to admit that I was only vaguely aware of the Seychelles until recently and really only due to its reputation as a vacation destination. For those who also might not be that familiar with it, the Seychelles is a nation off the east coast of Africa that is made up of more than …
Crumpets Demystified
I've made it this far in life without being completely sure what a crumpet is, though I have a general idea. I grew up in a region of the United States where Tastykakes were a popular snack food, including various flavors of a pastry known as Krimpets. While there seems an obvious connection between crumpets …
Recent and Upcoming Tea Books 21
Each time I embark upon the writing of this column, I find myself getting a little nervous. After all, the supply of new tea books has to run out some time. Doesn’t it? Well, maybe it will at some point, but we apparently haven't gotten to that point just yet. So let's get on with …
Is Black Tea Losing Ground?
When I was growing up tea was a thing of mystery. My family drank powdered iced tea of dubious quality, but that was about all I knew about tea. Except that tea was black and you bought cheap teabags at the grocery store and steeped them and probably added milk, sugar, lemon or whatever. Once …
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