The "Seven Sisters" magazines and their influence on American tea-culture

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mbanu
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Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:25 am

Some tea-service philosophy from a 1959 Ladies' Home Journal article on favorite recipes of minister's wives. Tea with clove-studded lemons or milk in a metal (silver?) teapot, with a flower arrangement on the side. The nuts are a surprise, as I did not think they were a usual tea-snack in American tea-service. Perhaps they are part of American "church tea" culture?
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LeoFox
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Wed Dec 30, 2020 7:50 am

mbanu wrote:
Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:51 am
Tea also made its way into ads for other products, such as this 1947 Ladies' Home Journal ad for Windex glass-cleaner. I think this is also interesting because it illustrates a long American custom of teaching little girls to have pretend tea-parties to practice their socialization skills.
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Wow blaming the doll! This is where the passive aggressive nature is born. :lol: :lol: :shock: :roll:
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mbanu
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Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:27 pm

Lots of difficult dynamics! The 1959 church-tea philosophy described is quite similar to what Betty Freidan criticized as being a feminine mystique, since in the real world people live in their homes and have many tasks that require their time, so creating "breath of fresh air" hospitality, excellent service by accident, entertaining without hurry or worry to guests both invited and uninvited to fill them with feelings of warmth, quietness, and love becomes an impossible task; the guest can be fooled into thinking all this through tricks of the trade, maybe, but most people who try to do it in earnest will constantly feel like failures, comparing their "taking a breather" hospitality with familiar service that does not expect much of a tea-brewer, hurry and worry only kept at bay for the moment, and where guests unexpected must realistically adjust their expectations. :)
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mbanu
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Fri Jan 01, 2021 3:25 pm

A 1920 Good Housekeeping article on tea-service. It seems to confirm the guess that this was the time of transition to Ceylon with lemon from older styles, as in addition to Ceylon "orange pekoe", it suggests "a good quality of green and black mixed"! Why not oolong, I wonder? Was it already forgotten by 1920? A few older American tea vendors still offer green/black tea blends, but it is not very common anymore.

Also interesting to see it describing tea-bags when these were still a novelty, as "tiny cheese-cloth bags holding the same quantity of tea as the [tea] ball."

Japanese tea-ware is still prized at this time, it seems.

Tea served "cambric" fashion meant a very weak tea for children, although it is interesting that it says one needs water for this, as I have always heard of it referred to being made with milk in which a little tea has been added.

It sounds like when British-style Assam tea was available, it was served with thin cream rather than milk -- similar to how this tea is served in Germany, maybe?
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:31 am

mbanu wrote:
Fri Jan 01, 2021 3:25 pm
A 1920 Good Housekeeping article on tea-service. It seems to confirm the guess that this was the time of transition to Ceylon with lemon from older styles, as in addition to Ceylon "orange pekoe", it suggests "a good quality of green and black mixed"! Why not oolong, I wonder? Was it already forgotten by 1920? A few older American tea vendors still offer green/black tea blends, but it is not very common anymore.
Not sure about 1920, but in 1916 the two styles of tea sat side by side, as seen in this Lipton's ad in Good Housekeeping.
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:14 am

Some criticism of American tea-making practices from the novelist turned cookbook writer Marion Harland in a 1912 issue of Good Housekeeping. :) The use of a consulting editor from a Home Economics college on the article helps illustrate how these magazines were originally connected to the Home Economics movement. I imagine it was an interesting dynamic, as the consultant was 21 while Marion Harland would be 81 at the time!

One interesting bit is the advice for a two-part steep, where the pot is partially filled and two minutes later is filled again, presumably to bring the temperature back up. This seems like a fairly short steep for a Chinese tea, but given her age I'm not sure if she would have been a Ceylon tea-drinker.
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Last edited by mbanu on Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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debunix
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 10:31 am

mbanu wrote:
Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:31 am
In 1948, Oreo still had a competitor in the form of Hydrox, who seemed to be claiming in this Ladies' Home Journal ad (and, given the appearance, maybe correctly) that Oreo was a knock-off. :)
Mom baked a lot of cookies for us growing up, so we rarely had store-bought. She preferred Hydrox to Oreos for those rare outside treats. Just this weekend I heard mention of Hydrox preceding Oreos and Wikipedia confirms it:

"Hydrox is the brand name for a cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie manufactured by Leaf Brands. It debuted in the United States in 1908, and was manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits for over 90 years.[1] Hydrox was largely discontinued in 1999 three years after Sunshine was acquired by Keebler, which was later acquired by Kellogg's. In September 2015, the product was re-introduced by Leaf Brands.

The similar Oreo cookie, introduced in 1912, was ultimately inspired by the Hydrox. The Oreo eventually exceeded Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in the Hydrox being perceived as an imitator.[2] Compared to Oreos, Hydrox cookies have a less-tasting filling and a crunchier cookie shell that has been noted to become less soggy in milk.[3] "

Haven't had either Hydrox or Oreos in ages; I really dislike the filling in both, but like the plain dark cookie bits, and now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's time to work out a thin plain cocoa cookie for dunking....
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LeoFox
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:51 am

:lol:
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:13 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:51 am
:lol:
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That teapot was likely imported by the Block China Company of New York, a china importing firm started run by the brothers Jay and Robert Block. I think (but am not sure) that they were the children of Joseph Block of the Rosenthal-Block China Company, an importer of Rosenthal china from Germany that was dissolved in the 1950s. As for which pottery manufactured the teapot itself, that will likely remain a mystery. :)

*Edit: It looks like both firms were started by Joseph, Block China in 1963, which was run by his sons after his death: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/18/arch ... china.html
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LeoFox
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:26 pm

mbanu wrote:
Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:13 pm
LeoFox wrote:
Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:51 am
:lol:
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That teapot was likely imported by the Block China Company of New York, a china importing firm started run by the brothers Jay and Robert Block. I think (but am not sure) that they were the children of Joseph Block of the Rosenthal-Block China Company, an importer of Rosenthal china from Germany that was dissolved in the 1950s. As for which pottery manufactured the teapot itself, that will likely remain a mystery. :)

*Edit: It looks like both firms were started by Joseph, Block China in 1963, which was run by his sons after his death: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/18/arch ... china.html
Dedicate pot to this

https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/ ... lend=77014

The clay will deepen the velvety smoothness for sure.
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:34 pm

I want to recall that I saw something about a chocolate tea somewhere recently... maybe in a book on American Bed & Breakfast teas. I'll see if I can dig it up for that thread.

Giving it some more thought, we could probably narrow the teapot maker down to one of China's nationalized factories; I'm not sure when Nabisco released these, but a cookie jar imported by Block was mentioned in a 2003 book on flea market collecting, so no later than that. :)
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:17 pm

mbanu wrote:
Tue Dec 29, 2020 4:59 pm
mbanu wrote:
Tue Dec 29, 2020 3:24 pm
(Eventually modernist design made its way to tea-kettles introducing the lidless kettle, the inconvenience of which I suspect helped lead to the tea-kettle's death as a common household utensil in the U.S.)
An example of what I mean from a 1953 issue of Ladies' Home Journal.
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It looks like this might have been a modification of an older type of kettle called a "safety fill", as pictured in this 1924 ad from Good Housekeeping. I am having a bit of trouble understanding it... I think it was for people who filled the kettle with scalding water from a hot water tap to shorten the time needed to boil the water? (Looking at photos of the kettle it was possible to open to clean inside, however.)
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:32 pm

Also from a 1924 Good Housekeeping ad, the classic Nabisco lineup seems to be established; all four of these are available today, almost 100 years later, although Social Tea seems to have gone back to being a non-sandwich biscuit, as the ad implies it was originally.
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:56 pm

Wasn't sure whether to post it here or in a new thread, but since a lot of this thread has been the relationship between readers, writers, and advertisers in building American tea-culture, I thought maybe here was appropriate. In 1939, Nabisco sponsored a Mickey Mouse cartoon for the New York World's Fair, featuring Social Tea and their other biscuits (the other versions of the cartoon came after the licensing deal with Nabisco expired):

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mbanu
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Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:49 am

Some tea advice from a 1938 issue of Family Circle. Family Circle was an interesting one, as it started its life as a giveaway magazine used by grocery stores, and (as far as I can tell) each chain treated it as though they were the publisher. :) These were part of a clip-out feature, where if you collected the whole series you would have built yourself a recipe book.

Even though quite a bit of effort goes into explaining the food, settings, planning, and preparation, the tea itself is only mentioned in passing; from context clues (Victorian theme, tea sandwiches) I would assume it was a Ceylon tea, although if they were going for accuracy during that time period in America it could just as well have been a Formosa oolong. :)
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