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There are a few tea companies that Pratt mentions in a non-negative way but where he does not consider their teas his favorite in any category. harney-ceylon-and-india.jpg There is his local, Freed Teller & Freed (now closed), McGrath Brothers of Ireland (now apparently an Aldi teabag store-brand), ...

goldensail-lychee.jpg Pratt is especially hard on lychee-flavored black tea, "Just because I find it loathesome is no reason for you not to try it." :D Maybe not surprising given the rest of his tastes. He spends a bit of time on a popular American flavored tea, black tea with mint (popularized by ...

Finished off the Tieguanyin-in-disguise from Upton mentioned before. That was the last of my oolongs that doesn't need the gongfu treatment. Probably for the best, I need more practice, anyhow. A fun trick-tea, I think -- when teatime with others becomes practical again, it might be worth a re-order...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnw9f0CrbH4 Madness hamming it up for the camera on Dutch TV in 1980 -- selfie-culture before selfie-culture, changing tastes, changing times. :) Maybe good for drinking up the loose-leaf PG Tips a teashop sent me when they were out of stock of the tea I had ordered. :D

Interesting pair from Joko tea out of South Africa. Undated, but I think they are around the same age (the internet suggests 2006-2007, maybe), as they are promoting two different versions of the same idea, that tea is an energizer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfOaZBb_w-I https://www.youtube.com...

A social-class based ad for Ridgways loose-leaf tea from 1986. In this case it seems to be going for class-reversal humor, "It's OK to drink 'posh' tea!" Possibly because many of the British middle-class drinkers who would have found a standard aspirational ad appealing were switching to instant cof...

./download/file.php?id=11206 By 1953, the practice was apparently considered mainstream enough to be used to advertise unrelated things, such as Parker "51" fountain pens. I think this might have been around the start of a decline in interest, however, simply due to the fact that as the 1950s progr...

However, not all "gypsy tearooms" were actually tearooms -- in some places they were nightclubs. I think this was due to the popularity of the 1935 dance song, "In a Little Gypsy Tea Room", which was inspired by the craze. ./download/file.php?id=11200 For example, The New Gypsy Tea Room, one of tho...

By 1953, the practice was apparently considered mainstream enough to be used to advertise unrelated things, such as Parker "51" fountain pens.

./download/file.php?id=11202 An example from 1941. I don't think this is Bottom of the Cup in New Orleans, as the photo is from New York, but it is only dated, not labeled with a location. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkNWk0_4OU4 I will say, though, that a fairly unique slice of American tea-cul...

these practices and the places built around them (such as the "gypsy" tearooms) created their own tea subculture that rose and fell in popularity along with horoscopes. bottom-of-the-cup-1941.jpg An example from 1941. I don't think this is Bottom of the Cup in New Orleans, as the photo is from New ...

in the past, tea companies would sometimes publish booklets on how to read tea-leaves in hopes of selling more tea, certainly not something they do anymore. :D salada-cupreading.jpg An example from Salada. lipton1935.jpg A competing booklet the following year from Lipton. 1937tea-market-expansion-b...

phoebe-leafreading.jpg I think it has had more persistence in popular culture. For instance, there was an episode of the American sitcom Friends devoted to tea-leaf reading in 2002, "The One With The Tea Leaves". zhenas.jpg Also, a fairly successful spiced-tea company ran from 2000 to 2017 called "...

makeawish.jpg Not sure if this is the right section, but thought it deserved a thread. In the U.S., at least, these practices and the places built around them (such as the "gypsy" tearooms) created their own tea subculture that rose and fell in popularity along with horoscopes. Maybe I don't travel...

yorkshiretea1983-on321.jpg Apparently the knack for product placement goes way back -- spotted them in a 1983 episode of the game show 3-2-1 as part of a consolation prize Teasmade set for the losers. :) This would have been back when they were still known as "Prospect Foods Ltd.", I think, and wer...