Tea culture in America: Tea Bricks

[paulcalloway]

Here's an interesting post-war article regarding tea culture in America that seems to address the debate going on in the CCG right now as to whether tea bricks were commonplace in 19th Century American trade.

Tea bricks, for example. which are sold by the million pounds all over Central Asia, never appear in the trade of the United States. Should the average tea dealer see a close-packed, darkgreen block, hard on the surface and marked in gold with Chinese characters, he would scarely recognize it as tea.

Source:
Freeborn County Standard, July 12, 1893. P5.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Tea culture in America: Tea Bricks

Something you folks in New England might consider attending:

http://www.historic-deerfield.org/HOTBEVERAGES.shtml

A bit earlier than most of our mid-19th century portrayal but things would be of interest to us just the same.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Tea culture in America: Tea Bricks

Paul thanks for the quote on brick tea. I'll add it to my grown tea files. I had had some correspondence with the editors of CCG about the appropriateness of brick tea in America and it now seems that others are concerned enough to express their opinions.

I could not completely address the subject of brick tea in my CWH article but in my research I did find the following information, which I shared with others.

"They prepare this beverage [tea] by boiling the brick tea, sometimes by adding to it a lump of mutton fat, at other times a little roasted barley, or a handful of salt in a cauldron, . . . and filling it out in wooden cups, drink it almost boiling hot." Scientific American "Tea Drinking amongst the Kalumcs." August 25, 1849

The area of Russia that brick tea was popular in the Kiachta area which is in Eastern Siberia and in the southern provinces of _kirpitchnoi_. "Brick tea is nearly all shipped to Russia. Probably very few people out of China know what brick tea is. It is the refuse and powder of various kinds of tea worked up with blood into cakes looking like bricks. It is very cheap, and sold at six taels per picul. A tale is $1.33; a picul is 133 pounds." New Haven Palladium August 13, 1864


"The youngest and earliest leaves are the most tender and delicate, and give the highest flavoured tea. The second and third gatherings are more bitter and woody, and yield less soluble matter to water. The refuse and decayed leaves and twigs are pressed into moulds and sold under the name of brick tea. These bricks are often made harder by mixing the leaves with the serum of sheep and ox blood. This inferior variety is chiefly consumed in northern China and Thibet." (p. 132-133, The Chemistry of Common Life, Jas. F. W. Johnston, New York, D. Appleton and Co., 1856)

In much of the information I've read about brick tea, as early as the 1850s they described how brick tea was drunk. In The National Magazine in "Information About Tea" Oct. 1858, a Professor Johnson wrote that the Mongols used brick tea and drank it with milk, butter, salt, and a little roasted meal. In a July 1860 Godey's there was an article on how Russians drank their tea. Apparently in the southern provinces, they used brick tea, [the author has to describe what brick tea was], and the tea was mixed with boiling water, milk, and butter. In all of the descriptions of brick tea, there was never a mention of it be a common item in the U. S.

I also found this quote in Tropical Agriculture (1889). "The allusions to the manufacture of brick tea in the English language are exceedingly rare." (in a section on brick-tea)

Another telling factor in the lack of brick tea in America is that there are no instructions or implements on dealing with the hard bricks. There are detailed instructions on making tea, black, green and oolong but not brick tea and there knives mentioned for scraping the smaller chunks of broken bricks.

There was also the argument about the tea bricks floating in the Boston Harbor after the Boston Tea Party. I put my tea brick in water and found that tea bricks don't float.

To be fair, I will post the ONE reference that I did find one post war reference that talked about "East Indies brick tea" in America and its advantages (but I don't see the mention of hatchets in tea equipage lists). "We believe, moreover, that experience will prove that the tea leaves should be but partially dried, then compressed into small packages, to be bought by the consumer, who will shave off the quantity he wants for his supper or breakfast, parch it as we do coffee, and put it to 'draw' to be drunk when ready. It is well known that the brick tea of East India is simply the leaves in their green state, pressed together so firmly as to force all the sap out of the leaves and make a complete block so hard it can be cut with a hatchet. But when cut and roasted, it emits an aroma far superior to any tea brought to America, and is prized very highly by the better parts of the world. Tea of this description has been brought to America and sold for more than $10 per pound." Georgia Weekly Telegraph May 21, 1878.

The above quote won't support tea bricks in the U. S. prior to 1878 because if he was talking about India, it did not start producing and exporting tea, in any quantity, until the 1870s. The article was written in support of American tea production which was just starting in earnest in 1874. Since this is the only reference I have found, I don't think that
this tea was exported much and didn't catch on in the U. S. since we don't see any additional references to the green tea bricks being exported to America or being made here. China did produce green tea bricks but again we are back to the fact that no green tea bricks are mentioned, only the black tea bricks for Russian, Tibet, and Mongolia.

Now I'll get off my soapbox or should I say my tea chest.

[paulcalloway]

Re: Tea culture in America: Tea Bricks

I went through that steamship Arabia exhibit a few years ago and am almost sure there wasn't any brick tea in their collection. I would have noticed it if there was. That's anecdotal, I know.

I still lean on that old theory when it comes to Civil War impressions... never say never and never say always.

Brick Tea may well have been here, somewhere... but until we can find some more dependable sources, I think it's something that should be avoided.

I know I've seen folks do living history demonstrations with Brick Tea as a focal point and it's been one of those "raised eyebrow" moments for me.

[VMurphy]

Re: Tea culture in America: Tea Bricks

I'm finding the conversations regarding brick tea very interesting. Much of my living history is done in the St.Louis area and in particular at the Daniel Boone Home at Boonesfield Village. In their gift shop they have both black tea and green tea in brick form,.and in their docent tours, they mention the tea. This site is 1800-1830. When I have the opportunity I'll ask about their documentation on the tea bricks :)

Regards
Vivian Murphy