Dear Oliver, December is an important month in the history of tea in the “New World” as earlyEuropeans dubbed the lands across the Atlantic. These early settlers were relianton European goods and services for many of the staples that they wereaccustomed to using and enjoying in their daily lives. Tea was one of the valuablecommodities primarily traded by the East India Company.   By 1773, the East India Company had a virtual monopoly on tea shipped to thecolonies, which was set in place by British Parliament in the Tea Act. This actgranted the company preferred status and a monopoly on tea exports to thecolonies, exemption on export taxes, and refunds on certain surplus teas. All thiscut out independent colonial shippers...

If you order tea from Oliver Pluff, you know our labels come with a guide for how long and at what temperature water to use to brew your tea. We have had several people ask if they need to boil the water or just get it to the minimum temperature recommend? When it comes to traditional tea, the answer is: yes, you always boil; whether you are making a delicate steamed green tea or a hearty herbal concoction; boil then cool to the desired temperature. While boiling water helps the flavor of tea this process also helps eliminate harmful bacteria and germs in the water. Never use pre-heated water from the tap or double boiled water, this will add an...

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...

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...

Tea caddy, England (attributed), c.1830. Made from mahogany and mahogany veneers with paper-lined interior compartments. Courtesy of the Charleston Museum, copyright 2016 By the 1770’s, tea trading was a vital industry in colonial America. Parliament’s Townshend Duties tax began to put a strain on the colonists’ use of tea as a source of income. When parliament ruled to repeal the Townshend duties, it was with the exception of the tax on tea.Shortly thereafter, the major colonies altered their previous non-importation agreements against the Townshend duties to apply strictly to tea (Charles Town on December 13, 1770). In the Fall of 1773, hostilities between the East India Company and the colonists reached a point where the colonists resorted to tea-smuggling, with...

Tea box and tea caddies, China, c.1835, Chinese lacquered box with pewter inserts. Courtesy of The Charleston Museum, Copyright 2016 On a colonial American tea table, one would find an assortment of the following tea accoutrements—the teapot, tea cosy, tea urn, tea samovar, tea kettle, tea caddies, tea spoons, teapoy, tea table, infuser, tea strainer, tea butler, tea services, slop bowl, sugar bowl, sugar tongs, teaspoons, hot water jug, creamer, teacups and saucers, mote spoon, muffiner, cake stand, butter knife, bread-and-butter plate, pastry fork, clotted cream bowl and spoon, jam jar and spoon, and lemon fork.[1] When a young colonist began serving tea, it was important to acquire these necessary accessories as one entered adulthood, to be fully respected in society. The...