Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West by Beatrice Hohenegger

I finished university with a double major in History and Spanish. I pretty much never speak Spanish these days — as multi-cultural as Melbourne is, Spanish-speaking folk aren’t that common — and most of my days are spent working on things like newsletters, content management and spam killing for a certain travel community. Despite the fact that my day job really doesn’t have much to do with what I studied at university, history remains a passionate interest of mine.

And so I was very interested to read Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, an engaging introduction to the tumultuous and intriguing history of tea.

Beatrice Hohenegger is an expert on the history and culture of tea. Incidentally, she is the guest curator of a traveling museum exhibition called Steeped in History: The Art of Tea, which is currently running at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. She is, without doubt, well qualified to write about tea.

While her research is thorough — and thankfully she includes an extensive bibliography for those of us who want to learn more — Hohenegger writes for the masses, not the academics. Anecdotes and illustrations from the annals of tea history are interspersed throughout the narrative, which leads the reader through tea’s origins and cultural heritage in the East, through to its discovery by the West and subsequent rise to global popularity. The third section of the book breaks away from the narrative approach, instead looking at an assortment of topics relating to tea, including such timeless classics as the caffeine content of tea, its health benefits, and the origin of the word tea. Finally, Hohenegger turns her attention to today’s tea industry, offering a compelling case for fair trade tea, organic agricultural practices and small-scale tea farmers (whose plight is hard in an industry dominated by large tea plantations).

One of the clear messages of Hohenegger’s narrative is the abrupt and traumatic nature of the West’s colonization of the East. At times, this message is a little excessive. The pre-colonial era of tea’s history is written of in adoring tones, while Hohenegger’s discussion of the West’s role in tea history felt somewhat one-dimensional at times. But there is no doubt that the West has much to be ashamed of in the history of tea. First and foremost, the story of how the East India Company used opium to obtain tea —encouraging widespread opium addiction in China to bolster its coffers — is a sinister, shameful tale. It’s fascinating history, but I couldn’t help but feel outraged at the extraordinary greed of colonial Europe.

Liquid Jade is 270 pages long, not counting the appendices. There is a lot to cover in that space. As a result, I found myself thinking of it as more of an introductory text than an in-depth study of tea history or culture. In broad brushstrokes, Hohenegger paints an expansive view of tea’s journey through history. If you want a broad overview of tea history, this is a good place to start.

Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West is available from Amazon.com.

© eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West (book review) | 3 comments |
Post categories: Books about tea, Tea history
Post tags: Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: the Story of Tea from East to West, Tea history

Walk into any half-decent café and you’ll find it on their menu: Earl Grey tea, that wonderful blend of tea made by scenting black tea with the oil of bergamot, a citrus fruit. Short of English Breakfast and Jasmine tea, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find another tea as ubiquitous as our bergamot-infused friend.

But who was Earl Grey, and who did he bribe, maim or kill to have one of the world’s most popular teas named after him?

The Earl Grey: Charles Gray, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. Painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Earl Grey is a special title, created in 1806 for General Charles Grey – the 1st Earl Grey. Charles Grey died the following year, his title going to his son Charles – the 2nd Earl Grey. It was the 2nd Earl Grey who went on to have a tea named after him.

Earl Grey II was a prominent member of the Whig Party, his political life reaching its climax in the 1830s when he served for four years as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

During his time as Prime Minister – the first time the Whigs had been in power since 1807 – he helped push through the Reform Act of 1832, which brought reform to the House of Commons and saw the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire.

Who invented Earl Grey tea?

It’s not certain whether Earl Grey II ever drank a cup of the tea named after him, though one theory maintains that he received the tea as a gift. Jacksons of Piccadilly claim to have received the recipe for Earl Grey tea from the Earl himself, thus claiming credit for pioneering Earl Grey tea.

Of course, Jacksons of Piccadilly may have been the first British tea merchant to produce Earl Grey tea, but they certainly didn’t invent it. Sadly, those who did – the Chinese – are written about as an aside in the history of Earl Grey tea. Their creation is now re-branded as a Western construct, their ownership masked by the Britishness of the tea’s name.

Stay Posted

I’ve got another post about Earl Grey coming up in a couple days.

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© eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Will the real Earl Grey please stand up? | 6 comments |
Post categories: Black tea, Tea history
Post tags: Charles Gray, Earl Grey Tea, Jacksons of Piccadilly

Ceylon tea plantation. Photo by andrewhall.

Coffee had only been around for a few decades when the rust hit. The first Ceylon coffee plantation was started in 1827, with reasonable success. The breakthrough came several years later, as slavery was abolished in the West Indies, causing a decline of coffee production there. Sri Lanka stepped into the gap, and the island, which had been somewhat overlooked as an economic asset by the British, started turning a handsome profit on the back of soaring coffee exports.

Over the next two decades, coffee came to dominate the island’s economy. Roads and railroads were built for greater access to plantations and the Ceylon Bank was created in 1841, allowing more money to be invested in new plantations.

Then came the rust in 1869. Fifteen years later, coffee had disappeared from the island’s economy, replaced by a thriving tea industry.

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James Taylor, father of the Ceylon tea industry.

James Taylor was working as an assistant supervisor on a coffee plantation in Ceylon when he was put in charge of Loolecondera Estate, with the mandate to experiment with tea growing. Tea had been grown in Ceylon as early as 1839, but it had made little impact. With a few tea plant seeds imported from Assam, Taylor began growing and hand-rolling tea in 1860.

In 1872, with the coffee crop in decline, Taylor invented a leaf-rolling machine, which enabled him to increase production and begin exporting Loolecondera tea to London and Melbourne.

Taylor’s success did not go unnoticed. From the 1870s onwards, London companies bought up old coffee plantations and converted them to their new crop, tea. From the 23 pounds Taylor initially sent to London in 1873, Sri Lankan tea exports grew to 22,900 tons in 1890.

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Sir Thomas Lipton

Among those to take advantage of cheap land and the burgeoning tea industry was Thomas Lipton. Lipton was already a successful businessman when he expanded into the tea trade in 1888. Unlike other London tea merchants, Lipton focused his efforts on producing a brand that was affordable for London’s poor working class, an emphasis which helped him establish one of the tea trade’s most famous brands.

The boom of the tea industry did not spell good fortune for James Taylor. Small farmers like Taylor were no match for the cashed up companies coming in from London, and Taylor was fired from his post at Loolecondera Estate. A year later, he died a poor man and was buried in Sri Lanka. On his grave was written:

“In pious memory of James Taylor of Loolecondera Estate Ceylon, the pioneer of the cinchona and tea enterprise in this island, who died May 2, 1892, aged 57 years.”

© eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2008. | Thomas Lipton, James Taylor and the Origins of the Ceylon Tea Industry | No comment |
Post categories: Tea history
Post tags: Ceylon, Ceylon Tea, James Taylor, Lipton, Loolecondera Tea Estate, Sri Lanka, Thomas Lipton