six hundred millions of people drink tea every day, and three thousand millions of pounds are grown, sold, and used every year. you can hardly think out these large numbers, can you? it will help you to understand, if we say that nearly one-half the people in the whole world take tea as a beverage, and that every tea- drinker uses, on an average, five pounds weight per year.
i wonder who first found out how to "make tea." most people in europe know it now, but our forefathers in the middle ages1 knew nothing of this luxury. benjamin franklin2 tells an amusing story about some friends of his who had received a small quantity of tea as a present. they had heard of tea, but had never learned how it should be used.
what do you think they did? they boiled part of it, and then tried to eat the leaves! these they found so bitter that they believed they had not hit upon the right plan of cooking, so they tried again. they put some leaves into a pan, and fried them, but the leaves tasted no1the middle ages: the period extending from the latter part of the fifth century, 476 a.d., and ending about the close of the fifteenth century.
2benjamin franklin (1706-1790): american scientist and statesman; wrote the sayings of poor richard.
better than before. several other plans were tried without success,and finally the tea was laid aside as useless.
travellers who returned to europe from the east were the first to tell europeans about tea. a russian in 1639 was residing with the mogul1 in india, and on departing for st. petersburg he was asked by the mogul to take a large present of tea to the czar. the russian did not like to refuse, but, it is said, he dropped the tea overboard on the way home, for he was not quite sure whether it was poison or not.
the dutch in their early voyages to china used to barter sage for tea. one of the earliest references to tea in england is found in samuel pepys2" diary, where he mentions the fact that on the 25th september, 1660, "i did send for a cup of tea, a china drink, of which i never had drunk before." in 1666, lord arlington brought over a few pounds from holland as a curiosity. a pound of tea sold then for sixty shillings. some collectors of curios3 assert that they have the very tea-pot which was used by oliver cromwell, but this statement is not well founded. it was during the 18th century that tea came into use in england as a general beverage, its consumption reaching 2 lb. per person per annum.
the native home of the tea-plant is china. the chinese have a legend that a famous emperor named chinnung discovered tea in 2737 b.c. tea-growing was introduced into japan early in the ninth century, into java in 1826, and into india at some time1mogul: the sovereign of the so-called mogul empire, or empire of delhi, which at one time included most of hindustan.
2samuel pepys (1633-1703): a londoner, noted for his famous diary, which gives a minute account of ten years of his life, and of the gossip of his day.
3curios: rare or curious objects.
between 1800 and 1840, when the assam1 tea company was formed. in 1876 successful tea gardens were planted in ceylon.
"cups that cheer."
china still supplies most of the world"s markets with tea. there tea-shrubs are generally reared in small plantations, and the leaves are picked by the family. in the harvest season you can see the chinese in groups on every hillside, gathering the tea. with gloved hands they pick off each leaf singly, yet so nimble are their fingers that each picker gathers ten or twelve pounds a day.
some people take milk in their tea, some take sugar, some take both. in china, tea is always taken without either milk or1 assam: british possession in further india, n.e. of bay of bengal.
sugar. rich chinese make their tea. in the cup by putting in some leaves-which they themselves may have grown as a pastime- and pouring boiling water over them. the japanese sometimes grind the leaves to a powder, and drink it with the infusion1. in russia, where much tea is drunk, lemon-juice is used to flavour it instead of milk and sugar.
learned men assure us that tea has really valuable properties, and that, on the whole, it is one of the best and most harmless of the world"s drinks. like everything else, however, it is harmful when taken to excess, a danger which we in australia need to guard against.
whether in the home, or at a picnic, or on a journey, or round a camp-fire, a cup of tea is always welcome. no wonder that poets call it "the cup that cheers."cowper2 gives us a pleasant picture in the well-known lines:-"now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast; let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round; and while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn throws up a steamy column, and the cups that cheer but not inebriate3 wait on each, so let us welcome peaceful evening in."compiled by e.w.h.f.
1infusion: the liquid obtained by steeping or soaking a substance in water.
2cowper (1731-1800): famous english poet ; wrote the task, mother"s picture, john gilpin.
3inebriate: make drunk.