Tuesday, September 18, 2018

American Style Tea in the US


The teacups stacked are also made in the USA.

Thomas Sullivan and an accidental American invention. Needless to say, it was in America, with its love of labour-saving devices, that tea bags were first developed. In around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. It was made of a small porous paper formed into a bag. So you see teabags is originally a US addition. 
Just unwrap and plop in a cup or mug of hot water. Ta Da, tea is made.

 From Wikipedia:
The oldest printed recipes for iced tea date back to the 1870s. ... Recipes appeared in print, iced tea was offered on hotel menus, and it was on sale at railroad stations. Its popularity rapidly increased after Richard Blechynden introduced it at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Again an American way of having tea.
In the Southern states it is served sweetened most of the time,
but in other parts of the US it is mostly served without sugar.
To make you can brew a pot of tea and then chilled.
Some make sun tea which they brew in a large jar in the sun,
but personally I feel it can also grow bacteria in the sun.
My favorite way of making iced tea is a cold brew,
where I add teabags to a jar of water and put in the refrigerator over night.
Minto Island Tea Farm, Salem, Oregon
In my backyard garden

Many are also surprised to find out that tea does grow in the United States. 
A few years ago the challenge was to have tea growing in every state,
that was successful whether just grown in a pot, in the garden, or on a farm.
Personally my garden has about seven plants and I produce about 2 teapots 
of tea each year.
In Oregon we have a tea farm about an hour from where I live, Minto Island Tea Farm.
There is a farm in Mississippi that now sells their tea at Fortnum & Mason in London.
Now isn't that ironic?
Several tea farms are located in Hawaii, Michigan, Washington, and California.
Since processing and picking tea being labor intensive, new ways are being developed
for farming in the US.  

So there you have it!
The love of sipping a cup of tea in the US is definitely growing.