Tea Advisor
Essential Components of Tea
This is the last installment in which you'll continue to find some of today's most popular herbs, with a brief description of their effects plus instruction on how to brew each one into a tea. (Caution: When brewing herbs that you've gathered, do not use roadside herbs, which may be coated with noxious car exhaust, or herbs that may have been sprayed with pesticide.)
Rosemary – (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a powerful herb that has been a symbol of fidelity, friendship, and remembrance since antiquity. The tea tastes the way the potent herb smells. It is an all-around digestive and is also comforting, especially when you feel a cold coming on. Rosemary is often combined with other herbs into tea blends. Use 1 tablespoon of the fresh leaves or 2 teaspoons dried in 6 to 8 ounces of boiling water. Steep to taste.
Sage – (Salvia officinalis) tea has been used as a digestive aid since Hippocrates' time. Today, people drink the highly aromatic tea to help alleviate the flu-like symptoms of a bad cold. As the name implies, this tea supposedly keeps your brain sharp and your memory quick. Use 1 tablespoon of the fresh leaves or 2 teaspoons dried in 6 to 8 ounces of boiling water. Steep for 5 to 10 minutes or to taste, and serve with lemon.
Thyme – (Thymus vulgaris; T. x citriodorus, lemon thyme) is a culinary herb that enhances the flavor of many savory dishes and is essential to a bouquet garni. Thyme's leaves and flowers also make a pungent, slightly bitter tea that is best enjoyed with honey and is believed to help relieve headaches, sore throats, and irritable bowels. Use 1 tablespoon of the fresh leaves or up to 2 teaspoons dried in 6 to 8 ounces of boiling water. Steep for 5 to 10 minutes or to taste.
The New Tea Book | By Sara Perry
Aspects of Tea Production
During the first half of the nineteenth century there was very little increase in the amount of tea British people consumed. In 1800 the consumption per head was about one and a half pounds a year; in 1850 nearly two pounds. However, it was a time of rapidly increasing population, so total consumption more than doubled. Virtually all this tea came in from China.
The British were a great trading nation, skilled at exchanging the goods they manufactured or traded for the goods they wanted. The Chinese, however, desired very little from the British. They were confident that their own manufactured goods were superior to anything the British might try to sell them. They were only interested in being paid in silver. This was difficult for the British. for it seemed that the export of such huge quantities of silver might debase the British currency. The problem was slightly alleviated by the Chinese desire for cotton. So much Chinese land had been given over to the hugely profitable tea industry that it had been necessary to curtail the production of cotton. India grew cotton, so the East India Company, which of course controlled, India, was able to sell cotton for silver, and then with the silver buy tea. The Chinese need for cotton, however, was nowhere near the British demand for tea.
Fortuitously for the British, and for the East India Company, There was one other commodity that was in increasing demand in China - opium. And opium was produced in India.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
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