Mail order teas from 1938

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mbanu
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Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Sat Mar 05, 2022 10:45 am

The desire for teas better than those available at the local shops is as old as a functioning postal system in the U.S., so I thought folks might appreciate this. These are from A Catalogue of Fine Foods by Charles & Co., an old New York mail-order house that specialized in catering to the tastes of the gourmands who were able to ignore the hardships of the Great Depression in pursuit of their quest. Maybe interesting viewed through the lens of today. :)

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mbanu
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Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Sun Mar 06, 2022 6:09 pm

In May of 1938, Japan and China were already at war, but this had not yet impacted American tea choices -- the bigger concern for most Americans was the cost, as 1938 was a difficult year financially for the average American.

Due to heavy advertising, black British-style blends were eroding away the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese teas that had been previously popular. A good example of this might be Mission Garden Tea, which was not a British brand, but was blended as a British-style tea. That this was a new thing might be guessed by the disagreement between Charles & Co.'s brewing instructions and the instructions on the back of the tin, which allowed for a 10-minute steep as would have been typical for the softer-brewing Chinese black teas and their copies that many people were used to. (Also note the Chinese-inspired packaging, using a dragon to advertise a blend of Ceylon, Java, and Indian teas.)

Mission Garden was an early adopter, starting as a Charles & Co. store brand in 1903, when it was a pure Ceylon tea made of China-type bushes.

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mbanu
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Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Mon Mar 07, 2022 2:46 pm

In 1938, "Orange Pekoe" was still a highly popular term -- Charles & Co. was selling seven different teas with Orange Pekoe in the name, although Esquire was starting to get a bit resentful about it.

However, there were just as many varieties of Formosa oolong. I think it's sort of interesting that they were dividing up their bulk oolongs by numbered grades, similar to the way that Ten Ren does it today. That their branded Formosa was called "American Beauty" is also interesting -- as far as I can tell, Oriental Beauty was not a well-known term for a type of Taiwanese oolong before Ten Ren started selling it under that name. (1990s?)

Louis Sherry is still around (https://www.louis-sherry.com/), but is really only known for their gift-tins of chocolates nowadays.

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White Rose is mostly remembered nowadays in non-tea circles for their advertising T-puzzles -- for many years they were thought to be the inventor of this style of puzzle.

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"Tea Balls" in this case were the name given for the original style of tea bags, as non-disposable tea balls were already well-known. The only company I know of that still sells tea in this style of bag is G.H. Ford (https://www.ghfordtea.com/), another New York company.

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