THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM A DRAFT OF MY FORTHCOMING BOOK. COMMENTS WELCOME
This is a contentious tea.
Perhaps it will never be discussed at United Nations Security Council meetings or suffer from Bono publicly calling for its abolition, but there is plenty of controversy – enough to fuel many storms in many teacups.
Most of us ‘purists’ see English breakfast as being part Indian, part Ceylon, part Chinese. It’s a very Victorian attitude. My own ‘Traditional Premium English Breakfast Blend” ascribes to this idea.
And it’s a very attractive idea – the blending of “old world” Chinese tea with the new growing areas of Ceylon and eastern India is clearly in line with our thinking of the thinking of 19th century Englishmen and Englishwomen, eager for a taste of the swashbuckling and exotic East India company’s fare.
Alas, this view does ignore the actual history, the present and indeed the future.
Most of the tea that is blended into today’s English Breakfast is sadly and shamefully vastly more likely to be in wretched teabags, and comes from Kenya and Malawi.
Malawi? It’s almost impossible to say where that is on a map with any certainty; let alone imagine a pith-helmeted empire builder striding amongst the Camellia Sinesis there.
But yet it does. Steep any English Breakfast teabag. The colour will more likely be the perky red of an African tea, not the comforting black-brown-burgundy shade of a classic Indian or the warm reddish-black of a Chinese.
Of course, you should then throw the wretched stuff away and make a decent cup of loose-leaved excellence.
And the future seems to me to be headed for more of the same. I don’t think anyone in Africa is thinking “If only we grew less tea and made it better quality”.
In fact, I don’t think these thoughts would even be had in Africa. These decisions are made in London and New York, not Nairobi or Lilongwe.
In one sense, though, it’s hypocritical of me to lament the past and decry the present and future, as the very idea of English Breakfast tea is based on a fiction.
The fact is that English Breakfast Blend was created by Richard Davies in New York City. An apothecary from the English city of Hull; he started selling his English Breakfast Tea Blend in NYC in 1843. Years later, his financial backer write an article about him in the Journal of Commerce:
“In 1843 Davies desired to get up a new mixture, which he intended to label English breakfast tea, and, after experimenting on the various flavored teas, finally settled on congou as a base, adding a trifle of flowery Pekoe and a particular chop of Powchong, which was then in the market.”
That description doesn’t bear any relationship to my romantic version of EBT, does it? A congou – the strong, fifth-leaf-from-the-top tea that was popular at the time, along with a flowery pekoe – not a term that is commonly used with Chinese teas – and some “powchong” – pouching – which is sort of a green tea with aspirations toward being an oolong.
Never mind. I might not be a historian, but I know what I like.
Really cool read. One nitpick. Seven paragraphs down – the Malawi one…you put “certainly” instead of “certainty”. Minor mechanical issue.
Now back on topic: I always thought that a good English Breakfast was a blend of Keemun and Assam – heartiness from both the “Asias”.
I have a video project in mind for this very topic.
I think you make a better historian than you think.
This is fascinating. I did some Googling though, because I wanted to know more. Searching your excerpt in Google only returns your article and your source at Logoi.com, which seems little strange because it, by itself does not properly source anything. While it does mention the Journal of Commerce, it fails to give month and year so that it might referenced.
The JoC is still in business,and has been since 1827. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journal_of_Commerce
Trade journals that old are notoriously hard to break into. I checked the online library that I use, associated with my university and I could only get editions dating back to the 1990’s.
I did, however, find an advertisement, run by a Richard Davies, Proprietor back November 1864 in the American Agriculturalist. At this time,his business was called East India Coffee Co. (Click here to go to the ad)
I wonder if this is the same Richard Davies who created the English Breakfast Tea. That many years later, he may very well have moved on to other enterprises.
I would sure love to get my hands on a copy of that article from the JoC though.
You’re a talented writer Robert and always entertaining. However, a few things struck me. You wrote:
Only for the purpose of aiding other readers here, it’s in South East Africa, a nation of just over 13 Million people.
Anyway, it’s interesting to note that “pith-helmeted empire builders” did indeed “stride amongst the Camellia Sinensis.” Malawi was a British colony from 1891 until 1964. At the time it was known as the British Central Africa Protectorate, and Nyasaland. My understanding is that tea plants were brought over from Kew Gardens (London) in 1891 which the Brits then used to establish vast plantations. Of course, tea has been growing there ever since. Apparently it’s the first African nation to have grown tea.
Anyway, my point is, since tea in Malawi dates back to colonial times, it’s not so surprising it’s included in a “traditional” cuppa English Breakfast tea. As to Kenya, well it too had plenty of Brits (and Germans) imposing colonial rule, so that too pops into those “colonial” English brekkie blends. So, I’m not sure why it matters that the “English” blends include tea from those countries, as opposed to CTC from India. If someone is trying to perpetuate the myth of “olde English” morning tea, they’re all former colonies.
Anyway, about the teas that the Englishman in New York used for his original concoction, I don’t understand. Were they Chinese,Indian and Ceylons? What kind of tea was used for the pekoe? Perhaps he too was secretly driven by thoughts of “swashbuckling”, and often thought of dear Victoria, I don’t know.
I think of English breakfast teas as Assam/Ceylon blends but since I don’t go in for blended bagged tea, I don’t really know what’s commonly used. I have nothing against “perky” red as opposed to the “comforting” other shades of red you mentioned, it’s just that I prefer single origin teas.
There are some efforts in Malawi to introduce single estate teas, there’s a wonderful recording with Ms Lovell from the Rare Tea Company here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pn410
Well, enough scribbling for now.
Much looking forward to your book. Tell us more…
J.
A nice draft! Enjoy the humor you infuse, as always.
I don’t have as much constructive information to add because I’m not a tea historian, just chiming in to concur that the bit about flowery pekoe being unusual for a Chinese tea seems to come from left field, since you lead us through the Indian vs. African teas very nicely in the exposition leading up to it, and then the phrasing makes it sound like he’s using Chinese tea in his blend. A trifle confusing for the uninitiated reader, unless congou is implicity Chinese, explained elsewhere in your work?
Thank you for sharing with us!
Minor mechanical note – 14th passage down, just a typ-o: “his financial backer write an article”
(Now have fun visiting the rest of us and correcting our small grammatical errors 🙂