Vintage tea

Last weekend was another busy one, so I decided since I read vintage recipe blogs, I should write a vintage tea post. This video seems to be from England, and is dated 1941. Let's see what nuggets of wisdom were given for brewing tea.

Tea should be stored in a closed container.away from moisture and strong smells. "Do not store against cheese, fruit, spices, or cleaners." Then they gave 6 basic rules for brewing. 

1. Always use a good quality tea

2. Always use freshly drawn water as stale water makes stale tea. 

3. Warm the pot

4. Make sure the correct proportion of tea is used

5. Water must just be boiling. Under boiled water makes weak tea, over boiled water makes flat tasting tea.

6. Let the tea infuse properly before serving. 

soft water infuses more readily than hard water. 

Don't use enamel or stainless steel pots. 

The bulk of this video talks about making large quantities of tea for transport to groups in need (soldiers, displaced families, etc). They do have some impressively large brewing methods, and they have gone well beyond the idea of a kettle of hot water and some bags of Lipton. It would be much easier to serve a crowd already brewed tea than hand out a bunch of tea bags, have everyone wait 5 minutes for their drink to be done, then clean up the tea bags after. They also had specific rules about adding milk to tea. Preferably the milk would be in a separate container to add to the cup before the tea. They caution that if the milk and tea must be combined in the same container for serving that it should be done right before serving as milk tea deteriorates with standing. 

I will admit that I was entertained by the fact that they advocate squeezing the muslin bag full of wet tea leaves in their segment about brewing large quantities of tea. That practice is frowned upon by today's tea connoisseurs. I was also amused when they talked about how tea cannot be prepared ahead, and bottled for later consumption. It is certainly considered a normal practice now. Granted, results vary (remember the swamp water canned matcha?). I think I'll stick with the fresh tea (and a bottle of unsweetened Lipton if I'm driving and need something to wake me up). The reality is that it is really hard to find unsweetened bottled tea, so apparently most tea drinkers with good taste already know that you should not bottle tea for later.