Learned circle beverage (the new China drink)
Mr. Locke's Tea
DrinkDocumented☕facile5 min
A clear, amber infusion of Chinese tea leaves, drunk hot, without milk, in small imported porcelain cups. The new, refined drink of curious minds.
Learned circle beverage (the new China drink)
A clear, amber infusion of Chinese tea leaves, drunk hot, without milk, in small imported porcelain cups. The new, refined drink of curious minds.
I am called eccentric for prizing this leaf from China, but I find more profit in it than in wine, which troubles the brain and heats the blood. One pours boiling water over a few leaves, lets it steep for the time of a short meditation, then drinks it clear, in those small porcelain cups that Dutch merchants bring at great expense. The brew is bitter, I grant you, but it awakens the mind without intoxicating it—and is that not all a reasonable man should ask of his drink?
Ingredients
- •Chinese tea leaves (green or black) — a pinch per cup (infusion)
- •Boiling spring water — one cup per person (extraction)
- •Sugar candy (optional, fashionable) — one piece (optional sweetness)
How it was made : Tea arrived in England around the mid-17th century, first via the United Provinces, and was sold very dearly in London coffee-houses. It was drunk clear, in small handleless Chinese porcelain cups, sometimes sweetened with sugar candy but rarely with milk at that date. It was a drink of the curious, merchants and scholars, associated with novelty and science.