In 1941, England found itself in an all-out-war with Nazi Germany. It
had sustained severe damage when the Nazis unleashed the Blitz on 16
English cities between September 1940 and May 1941. Despite the heavy
toll, there was only one thing for most Brits to do – to keep calm and carry on and
preserve small moments of normalcy when possible. Of course, that meant
drinking tea and not just any tea, but good tea.
Above we present Tea Making Tips,
a short 1941 film created by the Empire Tea Bureau, that outlines the
golden rules for making tea worthy of its name. The narrator reminds the
viewers, “Tea is not a manufactured article which can be made, bottled
up and served at will. It must be prepared every time it is acquired,
and it’s success or failure depends entirely upon the attention you pay
to the six golden rules.” If you watch the 10-minute film, you’ll
actually count 10 rules (if not more), many of which are still
presumably
relevant to a tea drinker today. They are as follows:
1) In general, store tea leaves in an airtight container, preferably
away from cheese, soap, spices and other items with strong aromas.
2) Also keep the tea off of the ground and away from walls.
3) Always use a good quality tea. You’ll spend a little more money, but you’ll actually get more bang for your pound.
4) Use fresh water. Stale water makes stale tea, which no one needs, especially in wartime.
5) Make sure you warm your teapot before adding hot water and tea leaves.
6) Use the right ratio of tea leaves to water.
7) Steep the tea in water that’s neither under-boiled nor over-boiled.
8) Let the tea infuse for the right amount of time. 3-5 minutes should cover most kinds of tea. Other kinds will need more time.
9) Use tea pots made of china, earthenware, and stainless steel. Avoid ones made of enamel or tin.
10) Don’t add milk to the tea too soon. Wait for the last possible minute.
Next to my bed lies George Orwell’s Essays, the bricklike Everyman’s Library edition of the 1984
author’s thoughts on ideology, colonialism, the abuse of language,
crime and punishment, and just what constitutes a nice cup of tea. The
astute essayist keeps his mind prepared to go anywhere, and Orwell’s
rigorous love of simple English pleasures places him especially well to
write on the subject of how best to prepare a serving of “one of the
main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire,
Australia and New Zealand.”
His essay “A Nice Cup of Tea,” which first ran in the Evening Standard
of January 12, 1946, breaks the process down into eleven points, from
“One should use Indian or Ceylonese tea” to “One should take the teapot
to the kettle and not the other way about” to, finally, “Tea — unless
one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar.” These guidelines may sound to us a tad austere at worst, but Orwell presents some of them
as downright “controversial.” Dare he so boldly insist upon drinking
only out of a “good breakfast cup,” de-creaming milk before pouring it
into tea, and never, ever using strainers nor bags?
He does indeed. History has remembered Orwell as one of
authoritarianism’s most outspoken enemies, but clearly he had moments,
especially when it came to his beverage of choice, where he himself
would brook no dissent. Decades later, a much more easygoing writer
would make his own contribution to the literature of English tea
procedure:
A short piece by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams suggests that you
“go to Marks and Spencer and buy a packet of Earl Grey tea” (this may,
depending upon your location, require an overseas trip), that “the water
has to be boiling (not boiled) when it hits the tea
leaves,” and that “it’s probably best to put some milk into the bottom
of the cup before you pour in the tea,” since “if you pour milk into a
cup of hot tea you will scald the milk.” Though we here at Open Culture
have made no secret of our interest in coffee, how could we turn down a
cup of tea made to the standards of such well-respected men of letters?
