Coffee or Tea?

[Carbon 6]

 

[Nativearizonan]

I love that first cup of coffee in the morning, no matter where I'm at. Tea is only an occasional beverage choice for me.

I thought we settled that issue back in 1773.

 

[tenngun]

I often saw large hunks of a compressed tea being sold at rendezvous by vendors. Noting the country of origin I never trusted it to be clean and free of nasty 'extras'. Anybody here know much about this stuff? Just curious.

I understand compressed bricks of tea were used early in Asia but were late to get to the Americas, post rendezvous period anyway.
Considering shipping it seems bricks would have made a lot of sense, maybe gunpowder easier to pack(?).

 

[Nyckname]

Considering shipping it seems bricks would have made a lot of sense, maybe gunpowder easier to pack(?).

Bricks would be less bulky. There's more air space in gunpowder tea.

Also, the leaves for gunpowder used to have to be rolled by hand. Individually.

 

[tenngun]

Makes you wonder why bricks weren’t as popular for transport west.
Maybe it was sold by volume?

 

[Carbon 6]

Brick and gunpowder tea are two distinctly different types of tea.
It is my understanding that "bricks" is what was thrown overboard at the Boston tea party.

 

[Nyckname]

Brick and gunpowder tea are two distinctly different types of tea.
It is my understanding that "bricks" is what was thrown overboard at the Boston tea party.

Tea leaves are tea leaves. More or less. Compressed and gunpowder are two different methods of processing it for storage and transport.

 

[Carbon 6]

Tea leaves are tea leaves. More or less. Compressed and gunpowder are two different methods of processing it for storage and transport.

Well, no that's not what I was getting at. More like the difference between green teas and fermented black teas. But that gets us deep in the weeds, And I am definitely not a tea expert.

 

[tenngun]

Brick and gunpowder tea are two distinctly different types of tea.
It is my understanding that "bricks" is what was thrown overboard at the Boston tea party.

I’m under the understanding that it was not brick, as brick was rare and kept as a curiosity

 

[Carbon 6]

I’m under the understanding that it was not brick, as brick was rare and kept as a curiosity

Well, according to this, you are correct.
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tea-blog/types-of-teas-destroyed

 

[Rifleman1776]

Just say the country.

China

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It is my understanding that "bricks" is what was thrown overboard at the Boston tea party.

No,
Brick tea was not present at Boston harbor as in addition to the shipping manifests which do not list it in the cargo, it is documented that one of the fellows participating in the action to dump the tea was caught afterward with the pockets of his coat, stuffed with loose tea. Because the action was a protest and was determined not to allow the British to claim it was merely a gang of thieves, those participating had previously agreed to take nothing from the ships.

Not only is brick tea not found in inventories of 18th century colonial shops or shipping manifests, but neither are "tea graters" which are needed to process the tea into a usable form from the bricks. True, one could use any fine grater, but one does not find advertisements for "fine graters, suitable for grating nutmeg AND tea".

It is odd that the bricks, which were a very inferior form of black tea at that time, were not shipped to the West, but this is the case. They were used as a form of currency in Asia as well as a beverage.

It is also important for those of you who may want to try this tea..., black brick tea is heavy with fluorine, and it's probably best that one stick to loose tea or bagged, loose tea, and skip the brick tea

LD

 

[Carbon 6]

Thanks Dave, I had already researched and discovered my error. I did not know about the fluorine though. I'll have to do more research.

 

[tenngun]

I tried tea on treks for a bit, however tea is an odd drink for me. I have it with asin food, or every now and then it ‘just sounds good’. When I first saw bricks I thought perfect for trekking, or camp. And since they were old, used in Asia for thousands of years, I thought this is how tea must have come to America.
But, I like coffee more and tea remained an odd man out for me. I never bought a brick. Then every thing I learned about it suggested it was late comming not only to America but west in general. It seems the great tea clippers of the 1840s through 1870s were shipping loose tea.
I wonder why.
It seems brick would be easier to ship and transport (?).
Missing in this thread is chocolate. In the eighteenth century frontier post it out sold coffee and tea. My attempts to make eighteenth century chocolate have been disappointing.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

My attempts to make eighteenth century chocolate have been disappointing.

I bet your results at making 18th century chocolate were quite correct. Compared to our current use of cocoa powder and milk, 18th century chocolate IS a disappointment.

The technology to separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder was developed until 1828. So the chocolate that the colonists had was rough, gritty, with globs of cocoa butter in it. You had to shave it or grate it into very hot water, and then beat it or froth it into the drink. You'd end up with a layer of dissolved fat on the surface, and you would've had a to often be stirred so that the solids stayed suspended, and a proper cup of chocolate served in a "chocolate pot" often had a metal stirring tool.

LD

 

[tenngun]

Got a chocolate pot for my stepsons birthday some years ago. I don’t carry pottery to camp as I’m none to wealthy. It had the whipper in the pot. I don’t know if he has ever used it or just displays it in his kitchen.
Tried it over a camp fire several times, shall we say I would rather have coffee.
However you like what you get used to. There are lot of ethnic dishes my taste buds don’t respond well to. Likewise foods I eat can be tasteless or too strong for some taste.
We can play ‘back then’ but we can never duplicate their lifetime of experience and taste.
Many deserts from that time are not as sweet as what we may think of today as desert. Some special foods unusual flavored and a few are definitely ‘acquired taste’.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I understand now. I have never heard of gunpowder tea before and the closest I had heard anything along these lines was in Bernard Cornwall's series of SHARPE'S RIFLES in which he tells that the riflemen carry their tea leaves loose in the bottom of their cartridge pouchs and gunpowder ends up mixing with the tea leaves making a very bitter tea....................watch yer top knot.............

Do as LD says for steeping tea. Its called gunpowder tea because the dried leaves look like 2fg black powder.

 

[WRustyLane]

Well, according to this, you are correct.
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tea-blog/types-of-teas-destroyed

I guess that makes Bruce Richardson the expert on tea since he is the author of that blog. Did not realize that 22 % of all tea was green tea.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Did not realize that 22 % of all tea was green tea.

Technically...., ALL tea is "green tea", and at harvest after drying may be used as such, but some of that harvested tea is processed with a fermentation and aging step to turn it into "black tea".
LD

 

[Nyckname]

Technically...., ALL tea is "green tea", and at harvest after drying may be used as such, but some of that harvested tea is processed with a fermentation and aging step to turn it into "black tea".
LD

Well, except for white tea. Sort'f.