Summary

- Sailing the seas of teas
- Lost at tea
- Tea in the mix
- To tea or not to tea?
- Tea among the stoves
- Between two bites

On May 2004 we published an issue-in-depth devoted to tea. It was just a general look over the most drunk beverage of the world, and we made the premise that we would have come back on the argument sooner or later. Here we are. This time, our aim is to explore the many possible uses of tea apart from the traditional. We found some really interesting stories and legends, and also something we could not expect, but it seems we are still far from closing the subject. Go on this, by now, while we set out for another chapter!

Sailing the seas of teas
This summer 2005, the regattas for the American Cup - the most important sailing event of the world - are going on in Valencia. Even if this event is far from the popularity and the noise of mass-sports, it succeeds in catalyzing the great audiences' attention.
In the history of the great sailing boats, a great indirect role has been played by the world's most drunk beverage: tea. In 1834 the India Company's monopoly of tea trading fell and many competitors entered the market of the precious beverage. A simple rule was in force: fresher the tea, higher the profits. Hence the merchant ships needed to shorten the time of the voyages from Canton, Hong Kong and Fuzhou towards the ports of London and New York City. This way the shipping industry of the time, pressed by the big traders' demand, had a strong impulse in projecting a new type of vessels, the so called "clipper".
These new ships, lately dubbed tea clipper, were able to reach a speed of 20 knots per hour compared to the six knots of the previous generations. They brought to the birth of real "tea races" throughout the seas.
One of the most famous tea clippers was the Cutty Sark, which was the protagonist of a glorious era in the sailing history. Jock Willis, Cutty Sark's captain, gave this strange name to the ship in 1868 for a precise reason. According to a Scottish legend, a peasant named Tom O'Shanter, riding his horse Meg in a stormy night toward home, had to cross a cemetery where a witch Sabbath was going on. The youngest and prettiest of the witches was wearing just a short shirt called "cutty sark" in the local dialect. Tom was so absorbed in watching the witch's Celtic dances that he forgets himself and roars out his appreciation of her dancing, thus alerting the forces of evil of his presence. They immediately began to pursue Tom who, on Meg, then fled for his life. Tom spurred Meg on towards the auld Brig O’ Doon, or old bridge over the river Doon, because legend has it that witches cannot cross running water. The witch had her hand on Meg’s rump and was reaching forward to pull Tom off the horse when Meg gave one last mighty leap onto the bridge, leaving the girl with only the horse’s tail in her clutches on the far side. This legend gave the term "cutty sark" its value of a quick escape and, when needed, a winning leap.
Tea clippers' era saw its dusk in 1869, when the Suez canal was opened: the navigation was not allowed for sailing ships and it started the era of the great steamships.

Lost at tea
On October 25th, 1599, the biggest punch ever was prepared. It was offered by Sir Edward Kennel, commander in chief of the English Royal Navy, during a party in his country residence. They poured into a great marble outdoors swimming pool the following ingredients: 80 barrels of brandy; 9 casks of tea; 40 litres of lemon sugar; 2.5 kg of nutmeg and a great barrel of Malaga wine. A baldachin was built upon the pool to protect the punch from the rain. The guests of the reception were about 6,000 and the punch was served by a young ship-boy on board of a raft made of rose wood which floated in the pool. Every 15 minutes the ship-boy had to be replaced by another one because he could not bear for longer the vapours that exhaled from the alcoholic sea.
On December 16th, 1773, three English ships loaded with tea dropped its anchor in the port of Boston. Ninety citizens, some dressed up like Indians, went furtively onboard of the ships and they dropped at sea the content of 342 tea cases. It was a protest against the three pence tax imposed by the English Crown to the colonies: it was modest but their opinion was different. The echo of this action animated by patriotic spirit had to be known as the Boston tea party and started the American Civil War. From that day, Americans, who were great tea consumers - which they loved to lace with bourbon, a custom typical of the trappers - loosed their happy relation with this beverage and they became the greatest coffee consumers of the world.

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