I have always enjoyed August. To me it is a month for transitions and new beginnings. I grew up in Maine and every year at the start of this month, the temperature seemed to change ‘overnight’ and I had to wear jeans and put away my shorts. Combined with the start of the school year, August is also a transition away from summer and into fall. August transitions extend beyond the weather and into new schools, new friends, new jobs and settling into new routines. For this August, to help you with whatever transition you are going through, I am introducing a new herbal blend, two new tea blends and a new coffee blend to help you settle into a...

A dear friend (and great photographer) shared the following recipe for using Colonial Bohea Tea as a dry rub for Brisket. I thought I would share, Hope you enjoy! ~Oliver Dinner last night was TOO good and TOO easy not to share!  My mom got us an instant pot for Christmas, and it has been one of the greatest kitchen appliances I have ever owned. I have been so grateful. And I am striving to use the extra time that it provides for me with wisdom and care. One of the phrases that has been going through my head the last few weeks is “don’t waste the minutes”. I used Oliver Pluff’s (I’m going to sound like an advertisement here,...

"If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us." * In 1868, as the tradition of Memorial Day (or Decoration Day) was just beginning, a group of former Union Soldiers gathered to remember their fallen comrades of the Civil War. The quote above comes from the leader of their group, Major General John Logan.  He issued the challenge to honor the memories of those left behind. I have spent the majority of my life serving our country and there are two holidays that have special meaning to me; Veteran's day, where we honor Veterans still among...

Black Tea Brick, China. Photography by Kyle Brown. All Rights Reserved.  Estimated to be formed around 350 A.D., tea bricks have become a part of Chinese and European culture throughout the ages. Before tea bricks where introduced to Europe, tea bricks were used in China as a form of currency, food, and medicine. From the 9th century on through the 20th century, tea bricks were classified into five different quality categories of value. All the bricks, even to this day, are scored on the back with indentions to allow for easy breakage off the larger block.  When the bricks were assessed for quality, the highest quality bricks were given to the Emperor. There are multiple steps in the process of...

19th Century Drinking Chocolate Ceramics, London. Special thanks to: GEORGE C. BIRLANT & CO. (Antiques), Charleston, 843-722-3842, www.birlant.com. Photography: Kyle Brown. All Rights Reserved. As far back as 1556, when an unknown European noted that drinking chocolate was the “most wholesome and substantial of any food or beverage in the world, because whoever drinks a cup of this can go through the day without taking anything else,” drinking a cup of chocolate was esteemed for its sweet tasting and practicality. While tea was a popular social beverage among the wealthy, demand for chocolate climbed because “drinking chocolate was affordable to all classes of people.”[1] Chocolate is made from cocoa beans off the cacao tree; the cacao tree “originated near… the Amazon River of...

Bergamot Orange watercolor illustration (Citrus Bergamia), by L. Osbeck The origin of “who first put leaf to water” is completely unknown to culinary historians. Before the mid-nineteenth century, botanists failed to decipher tea’s formula; however, many tales provide what human record does not. Like all teas, Earl Grey’s “distinctive quality… comes from essential oils that leach flavor and caffeine into a cup of hot water.”[1] The exact source of the Earl Grey blend has remained a mystery, except that it is based on Chinese tea. Unlike other Chinese blends, Earl Grey tea contains the flavoring agent, bergamot oil. Before bergamot became tied to the Earl Grey blend, it had a bad reputation as being a taste enhancer for lower quality teas....

I started a tea business in 2009 with a business plan of becoming the “Ben and Jerry’s of iced tea”. After sampling over 300 broken orange pekoes from India and Sri Lanka, we selected single estate teas from a couple of gardens: an organic black tea from south India with crisp, floral tones, and a bold, fruity black tea from Sri Lanka. We found a small but loyal market for our specialty iced teas. But the sales were not enough. Then we met Colonial Williamsburg who called on us for help creating their Early American tea line. We studied tea history for 6 weeks and then we sourced the tea products from the same gardens that supplied the British East...

Crest of the South Carolina Gazette. Photography: Kyle Brown. All Rights Reserved. The South Carolina Gazette reported on the dramatic confrontation between the colonists and British sea captain Samuel Ball, an agent of the British East India Company.Full transcript of the article describing the inquiries and the destruction of the tea is below:CHARLES-TOWN, November 7, 1774.The same Day arrived here, in the Ship Britannia, Capt. Samuel Ball, jun. from London (amongst a Number of other Passengers) Samuel Carne, Esq; formerly of this Town; Thomas Attwood, Esq; appointed Chief-Justice of His Majesty’s Bahama-Islands; the Hon. William Gregory, appointed to succeed the late John Muray, Esq; as an assistant-judge and Justice of His Majesty's Courts in the Colony, and also to a...

Advertisement of return voyage from Charleston to London via the ship Britannia, published November 21, 1774 in the South Carolina Gazette. Photography: Kyle Brown. All Rights Reserved. The “Bay is a more dangerous Navigation than the open Sea,” wrote the Charles-Town native Henry Laurens on January 21, 1774 in a letter to his son John, of the colonists’ refusal to import British tea. In his letter, Laurens enclosed a clipping from a newspaper informing John of the Boston Tea Party, as it would later be called. Laurens explained that the people of Boston dumped 342 chests of tea carried by the East India Company into the ocean. The East India Company attempted to continue making deliveries to the colonies even...

The South Carolina Gazette advertising British imported goods in a paper dated November 21, 1774. Photography: Kyle Brown. All Rights Reserved. The revenue acts enacted by the British government on the American colonies, namely the Townshend Acts of 1767, did not affect the merchants of Charles-Town equally. Taxes were felt more harshly by smaller merchants and planters. As a result, local merchants took the initiative to form the Non-Importation Association at Charles-Town. But the boycott was not united.Collectively, resentment towards Britain and the revenue acts did not materialize until 1769. Charles-Town, and the broader South Carolina, lacked cohesiveness in the revolt against the tax laws.[1] Artisans and planters were in support of the boycotts, but the merchants were indifferent. A merchant named Christopher...