Domestic science (1914 text-book)

The food value of tea is increased by the use of sugar and milk. Serving: Tea may be served plain, with cream and sugar, or with slice of lemon and without sugar, as desired. At an afternoon tea, wafers, cakes, or sandwiches are passed with it. Fig. 79.— Tea Service Digitized by Google Cleaning up: Wash the teapot with hot, clean, soapy water, rinse well and wipe dry. Allow to stand with cover off or open for a few minutes before putting it away. What has been learned: 1. That tea has two substances in it, one to be extracted and the other to be prevented from extracting by proper methods of preparation. 2. That water boiled long is flat and insipid, and should not be used in making tea. 3. That boiling water extracts the theine, the valuable principle in tea leaves. 4. That boiling and long steeping extract the tannin, the undesirable principle in tea leaves. 5. That the value of tea is increased by use of sugar and cream. Lesson LXV Tea (Reading) Tea is a beverage used by more than one-half of the human race. It was used ages ago by the Chinese and Japanese, and today these people drink more tea than all of the rest of the world put together. The British are the chief tea-drinkers of the white race. It is a favorite Russian drink, and every Russian family keeps a samovar (a metal vessel which utilizes hot charcoal as a means of heat), with boiling water ready for making it. They drink it out of tumblers without milk, but generally flavored with lemon. Some have a rather peculiar way of drinking it, putting a lump of sugar between the teeth and sucking the tea through it. The Swiss flavor their tea with a stick of cinnamon. Tea is the dried evergreen leaf of a plant that very much resembles a camellia or willow bush. The flowers look very much like roses. Digitized by Google The wild tea plant grows to a height of fifteen or more feet, but the cultivated one is generally pruned to a height of from three to five feet. It is from the young tender leaves that have not yet unrolled that the tea of commerce is made. The tea leaves are picked by women and children. Several crops are picked from the same plant during the year, intervals of two or three weeks being left for new leaves to unfold. The tea plant is native to the southern part of Asia and the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. It has been cultivated from time immemorial in Japan and China, while half the tea exported comes from India, Ceylon, and Java. Tea of the very best quality does not bear transporting and is seldom found outside of the country where it is grown. The tea leaf has to be prepared in a certain manner before it can be used. If an ordinary green tea leaf is steeped in boiling water, the resulting beverage would be very different from the appetizing tea with which all are familiar. According to the method of preparation, there are two kinds of tea on the market, black tea and green tea. To make black tea, the leaves as soon as they are picked are spread out on trays under an awning. Very soon they begin to wilt, become limp, and get dark colored with red and brown spots here and there. A peculiar odor, due to what is known as fermentation, is given off. Experienced workmen, who tell by the odor when fermentation has gone on long enough, gather up the leaves and spread them on long tables, where they are rolled into large balls by women. These balls are then squeezed in order to press out the water, and packed tightly in large round baskets where fermentation is again allowed to set in. After being rolled again, the tea is roasted on iron gauze sieves over a fire of charcoal. It is then sorted and the seeds and foreign matter are removed. The tea is made ready for shipment by being packed in large chests covered with sheet lead and then matting to exclude all moisture. Digitized by Google