On
this day in 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act (which resulted in a later invitation
to a certain Tea Party), and we’re celebrating by publishing some of Isla Blair’s
tips for tea, taken from her memoir, “A Tiger’s Wedding”...
“Tea has many therapeutic uses apart from just
drinking it.
Cosmetic
If you have a late night and you wake up with
suitcases under your eyes, the whites of which look like uncooked egg whites,
only bloodshot, lie down for ten minutes with a couple of cold teabags on your
eyes. You will get up with your eyes looking and feeling better – really – I’ve
tried it. It works!
Uses
in the kitchen
Rub a pan that still has the smell of onion or
fish (the latter never in my house of course, because I hate fish!) with damp
tea leaves and the smell disappears.
You can use it as a cleaning agent. Dip a cloth in
cold tea and wipe over mirrors or chrome and it will gleam.
And of course feed houseplants on tea; they love
it. Not every day, just as often as you would normally feed your plants.
In theatre companies, the wardrobe mistress often
uses a dilution of tea to “dip” shirts or lace, giving it the colour of a soft
sepia photograph.
On the other hand if you want to remove those
stubborn brown circles of tea from a white table cloth, drop a few drops of
lemon juice on the stain, leave it a few minutes and then wash out.
For a very old tea stain – water mixed with
glycerine. This does work.
Tips
on serving tea
Always heat the pot, but never add “teaspoons –
one for the pot”; it makes the tea too strong. Use filtered, cold water to boil
up and pour it on the tea as soon as it’s boiled. Leave it for three minutes if
it is Indian tea, a little longer if China tea.
If you are not serving it immediately and you
think it’s brewed, strain it, to prevent it becoming stewed and bitter, and
stir it. If a cup of tea is too strong, poor some water into the cup first and
then add the tea – don’t add it to the pot.
Which brings me to the vexed question of milk
first or tea first? My father used to get quite animated about this. In posh
circles, the etiquette was tea first, followed by milk. Apparently if your
porcelain was not of good quality, the boiling tea could crack the cup, hence
milk in first. If your porcelain was of excellent quality, it would withstand
the hot tea being poured in first.
I’m told that is how it started. Who had the best
china – the richest, poshest people. So it became a sort of class snobby thing.
Very cucumber sandwiches and Lady Bracknell. My father (and I must say, all his
tea planter colleagues) insisted on milk in first and to hell with the
snobbishness. It was the same thing as putting hot water into the cup then the
tea if you wanted to dilute it. The tea mixed better, swirled around more if it
followed the milk into the cup. To this day I am fussy enough to have my tea in
porcelain cups instead of chunky pottery or thick china mugs. I just like it in
cups; it feels more refreshing and gracious, it is more calming – to me anyway.”
– Isla Blair
Photo
by katerha
