British taste in, and knowledge of, tea

User avatar
bentz98125
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:08 pm
Location: Seattle

Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:52 pm

Does anyone have any ideas or knowledge about English taste in tea? Whenever I see "tea" discussed in relation to England, the subject invariably means one or another type of black tea, diluted with milk and sugar. Oolong, sencha, gyokuro, and matcha are only ever mentioned as footnotes if at all. In other words, is the English tea palate really that myopic and if so, why? (I assume the American taste in tea to be a footnote to the English.) Most english language "history of tea" books I've seen are similarly focused on this same specialized type of tea and its role in the former British empire more than about the history of tea as a subject in its own right. Does anyone know of any histories eluding this tiresome description? (A simple "history of tea" search on this site delivers too many irrelevant hits.) Thanks!
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Thu Sep 26, 2019 10:19 pm

bentz98125 wrote:
Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:52 pm
Oolong, sencha, gyokuro, and matcha are only ever mentioned as footnotes if at all. In other words, is the English tea palate really that myopic and if so, why?
I would not say that a myopic palate is an English phenomenon, rather than that it is a general human behaviour of the majority to stick to one kind, due to learned tradition and habit. Old habits die hard.

In that sense you could (generalising) say:

_US Americans only drink Iced tea
_North Chinese only drink green tea
_North Germans only drink Black tea with lemon
_Germans and French in general only drink Coffee
_Russians only drink black tea from a Samowar
_Morrocans only drink Mint tea
etc.

See the picture? All of these are partially true for the majority of people, but never for all. Exotic teas have always been and will always be a niche interest.

People in general stick to what they know and learned from early child hood onwards. My father in law doesn’t drink any other tea than roasted Oolong in a certain style and quality. While he appreciates others, he will never buy it or prepare for himself. And that in a country which is one of the hot spots of tea production!

Back to the English. Tea in England is also class related. The classic builders tea(strong cheap teabag infused, with mil and lots of sugar for a brick red brew) is enjoyed, well by the builders and lower end of their society. On the other hand you the upper class who enjoys their Earl grey barely dunked into the hot water, resulting in an almost tasteless brew (same principle as to why the upper class seems to favour un toasted toast with cucumber… )

Add to that the discussion of when to add the milk(before or after the tea) and you get another dimension of class related origins: It is rather simple.

Back in the days only the upper class could afford high quality tea ware. The poor used cheap pottery, so if you would have added the hot tea first, there was a high risk of it cracking and breaking, so they needed to add the milk first. Forget all the modern discussions about it, that is the origin of this passionate UK subject.
User avatar
bentz98125
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:08 pm
Location: Seattle

Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:25 pm

Thank you Bok. What you say is edifying and sensible. I guess I expected that with the "sun never setting" the British contacted so many different tea producing regions that a wider range of preferences would have developed. But no, they're just like everyone else. Except me. Hard for someone with an adventurous palate as me to understand. Just like using delicious foods as racial epithets (watermellon, beans, curry etc. ad nauseum) as we do here in the US leaves me dumbfounded. Ignorance can never be too proud of itself. I guess the prolific range of camillia senensis iterations just guarantees its definitive history will never be written. Rather, "a brief history" or "tea history of..." region X or Y is the best to be hoped for. But complicated as it would be, how fascinating would a chronological/geographical/ethnographic tea flavor family tree chart be? Tea DNA flavor chart?
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:41 pm

As to why the tea in England and by extension Europe is mostly black also has to do with the history of the tea trade in general. That is a vast topic and lengthy to discuss. I would suggest browsing a few of Tillerman teas blog entries, I seem to remember one focusing on parts of this question, although Taiwan focused (the English had a tea trading outpost there at some point, at which tea exported was Formosa Oolong!).

At the most basic level, black tea is the most suitable to transport over long distances, ship/caravans, so that is the basic reason most mainstream tea outside of Asia is black.

It is a fascinating topic!
User avatar
bentz98125
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:08 pm
Location: Seattle

Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:49 pm

And thanks for cucumber toast. Never heard of such a thing, but lo and behold: apparently there are all kinds of variations of it! Sometimes the internet makes my day.
User avatar
bentz98125
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:08 pm
Location: Seattle

Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:57 pm

Of couse! Easier transport of black tea should have been obvious. England is only on the other side of the world from most tea production! Thanks for the Tillerman tip.
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:59 pm

bentz98125 wrote:
Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:49 pm
And thanks for cucumber toast. Never heard of such a thing
Haha, although arguably, it would be better if it didn’t exist.

The British take immense pride in their tea and it is true the average cup tastes better than on the continent, but that is largely due to their water in my opinion. The leaves itself or the preparation are not especially sophisticated.

It is such an essential part of everyday life in the UK, yet the quality of it seems to have been lost along the way...
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:02 am

You can even follow the way tea has arrived in a particular culture by how they call it. Southbound via ship: tea, tee, thé etc. from the southern Chinese languages (pronounced deeh). Northbound via caravan: cha, cai etc. From putonghua Chinese.
User avatar
tjkdubya
Vendor
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:57 am
Location: Beijing
Contact:

Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:04 am

When in Beijing for work, it's cheapo office standard-issue Huangshan Maofeng all day every day in paper cups, no variation. Except one of my colleagues, originally from Henan, being quite proud of her hometown tea, brings her own to work: the Xinyang Maojian. Does she drink anything else? Nope. It's Maojian every day of her life. Earlier this year when the Longjing harvest came in I gave her a small bag of handcrafted Shifeng LJ. "It's quite good," she said. Then she went back to the Maojian.

One day at work I was astounded to find a different tea in those damn paper cups at the back of the meeting room. Turns out, it was still Huangshan Maofeng. But so incredibly stale, I thought it was some kind of huangcha at first. :D

Really, not many people have diverse adventurous tastes, even in the Middle Kingdom.
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:16 am

@tjkdubya the worst are really paper cups for tea! For coffee still tolerable, but tea... In China I often get the feeling people drink tea only because they dislike water. Even the most diluted tea-water is still preferred over water on its own :roll:
User avatar
tjkdubya
Vendor
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:57 am
Location: Beijing
Contact:

Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:21 am

@Bok When I was growing up in Korea we seldom drank plain water, certainly never with meals. Roasted barley tea was effectively water and we referred to it as "water." So much so, when we emigrated to the States, I thought it was incredibly strange people drank plain water with meals. I wonder if it was similar in China and other Asian countries back in the day.
User avatar
tjkdubya
Vendor
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:57 am
Location: Beijing
Contact:

Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:41 am

@bentz98125 To address the second part of your original post, I think there are several books in English addressing the history of tea in a less myopic sense. Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties by Kevin Gascoyne, Francois Marchand, et al. is one and touches on a lot more than just history. Tea: A Global History by Helen Saberi is another. There are some others I've been meaning to read, but these two immediately come to mind.
User avatar
There is no self
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:16 am
Location: I think you say, convenience store?

Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:49 am

bentz98125 wrote:
Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:25 pm
I guess I expected that with the "sun never setting" the British contacted so many different tea producing regions that a wider range of preferences would have developed. But no, they're just like everyone else.
I think the confusion stems from the fact that we associate the UK with tea in a general sense whilst British tea, regardless of quality, really boils* down to one type - in this case, blends of black tea. Even back in the days, when the sun never set, they were mainly interested in Da Hong Pao and a few other wulongs. Indeed, legend has it that the main reason why they started drinking Indian black tea was because its taste somehow reminded them of Da Hong Pao.
Also, as Bok and tjkdubya have noted, growing up in a country where a certain food is ubiquitous doesn't mean you become an expert taster. On the contrary, since it's everywhere, you usually don't care for variety or "high quality". You just stick to what tastes good to you.




*I'm so sorry for that pun.
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:58 am

There is no self wrote:
Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:49 am
Indeed, legend has it that the main reason why they started drinking Indian black tea was because its taste somehow reminded them of Da Hong Pao
The English stole and smuggled tea plants out of China. The method of making tea and also silk among others were heavily guarded secrets by the Chinese. Those happened to be Assam plants. Simple as that. The processing was a pure necessity to maintain freshness for the distance as mentioned above.
User avatar
There is no self
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:16 am
Location: I think you say, convenience store?

Fri Sep 27, 2019 4:43 am

I know, I read quite a bit on the East India Company "trading" with China in the 19th century. I just thought it was exemplary of the British hunt for a single tea.
Post Reply