Etiquette and Victorian Tea Science

Making Tea Scientifically 

An English Analyst Sets Down the Rules of the Process

Professor Goodfellow, the well known English analyst, gives these rules for making "good" tea: 

1. Always use good tea. 

2. Use "two" hot, dry earthenware teapots. 

3. Use soft water which has just got to the boil. 

4. Infuse about four minutes. 

5. Pour off into the second hot, dry teapot. 

6. Avoid second brews with used tea leaves. 

The fact that tea, as served in France is so often bad, may be accounted for by the omission of some one, or perhaps all, of the above rules in its preparation. They are all necessary to make a, cup of really good tea, and if they were more often strictly adhered to tea would oftener be a delicious beverage. Even at the best "afternoon tea" rooms in England, America and France I do not believe that "two" hot, "dry" teapots are often used to make tea "fresh for each customer," or that the tea leaves thereafter are thrown away.– The Los Angeles Herald, 1899

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura Graber, is the Site Moderator for Etiquipedia Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette and American Tea Culture

Now and then one sees men scattered through the fashionable throng enjoying a cup of fragrant tea instead of a more masculine kind of drink. It is the fashion now to invite your friends to take tea with you and a fashion that is both sane and enjoyable. 

Will You Have a Cup of Tea? 

Every Woman is Serving It Now 

Everybody takes afternoon tea now. Society women meet for a little chat and a bite to eat when sipping their favorite Ceylon or Formosa; business women leave their work a few minutes early or snatch a short respite for the pleasure of the tea drinking hour; matinee girls have transferred their affections from ice cream sodas to Oolong and sweets, and now and then one sees men scattered through the fashionable throng enjoying a cup of fragrant tea, instead of a more masculine kind of drink. It is the fashion now to invite your friends to take tea with you and a fashion that is both sane and enjoyable.
    

Tea was always fashionable in some circles. 

If there is the least lingering doubt in the mind of any one as to the popularity of the tea our glimpse through any of the fashionable restaurants or small tearooms will dissipate the suspicion forever. Once it was the luncheon hour at which Women gathered for gossip and refreshment, but now that tea hour is the time set for this combination of pleasures. Luncheon parties are still given, but they are not half so popular and entertaining as the 5 o'clock tea gathering.

Informal tea drinking at home exists, or rather the fashion is being introduced in many homes with the serving of afternoon tea was an event instead of a daily occurrence. Friends dropping in on their way home from A shopping tour or after the matinee supply the atmosphere of the chatty crowded two rooms overlooking Fifth Avenue, but the home tea is never quite the same as the more brilliant and kaleidoscopic scene of the restaurant tea room. There women meet their friends, see the newest fashions, and hear the latest tidbit of gossip.
               

Tea was introduced to Americans by the British 

Having been introduced to the tea drinking habit by the English, we have made of variation or two in which does not diminish the social function's popularity, though it converts it into a more substantial repast than the original afternoon tea. Either we shall have to advance the regular tea hour, or adjust the dinner one hour, said a well-known restauranteur when discussing the growing habit of tea drinking in this country.

                

Oh yes! We American women are fond of eating cakes and French pastry! 

American women are so fond of eating cakes, sandwiches, French pastry, and ices with their afternoon tea that their appetites must suffer and their weights increase. They partake of a substantial tea at 5:00 or 5:30 and dine between 6 and 7. There is a greater demand each season for French pastry with tea while the modest little sandwich and the wafer recede further and further into the deep recesses of the stewards' domain.
                                
                                 A plate of cakes and dainties.

Tea and muffins, tea and toast, or tea and crumpets, used to form the menu for either a restaurant tea or one served at home, and when these dainties are perfectly prepared and brought in crisp and hot, there is nothing more delicious. Currant buns are a sweet and appetizing accompaniment to a fragrant cup of tea and in certain tea rooms, they are a specialty.

                 
Americans now have the distinction of being called tea connoisseurs — and this is a distinction indeed when one has sampled a few of the foreign brew afternoon beverages that are made in a teapot.

The hostess can pick up many useful ideas on tea serving and what to have with tea from the best restaurants and tea rooms. She will find that her guests like muffins, sandwiches and buns and that they revel in sweets, so that it is always wise to include some cakes among the tea table viands.

A plate of plain bread and butter sandwiches cut very thin and perfectly fresh should be served with the other delicacies. There will be some guests who prefer the simple fare to the more elaborate sweets of the American tea table. Brown bread treated in the same way is excellent with tea and offers a little variation to the white bread. The home tea table should excel in this particular dainty, for it is easy to prepare and one of the most difficult orders to have filled satisfactorily in a restaurant.
Nut mixtures spread between thin slices of bread, thin layers of cheese or cream cheese mixed with seasoning and nuts and either brown or white bread with crisp lettuce leaves and a bit of mayonnaise will prove an inspiration to the woman who is flagged from a tiresome shopping trip or a long interview with her dressmaker. The host of palatable tea table sandwiches is almost limitless if the hostess will only take the trouble to prepare them, or see that they are prepared.
                  

Reading tea leaves to tell one's fortune, was a popular pastime. 

Where the cook is accomplished in the art of scone making, these delicious Southern dainties should by all means have a place of honor on the afternoon tea table. One woman owes a large part of her social success and popularity to the scones and tea she serves two or three afternoons a week.

Women as well as men are susceptible to culinary attractions, and few can resist the crisp yellow brown scones that come piping hot from the oven and are spread with melting butter.
                                    

A samovar is worth its weight in gold in the making of perfect tea. In fact, tea rooms depend entirely upon those tall Russian water heaters for the perfect preparation of their afternoon tea, where cup after cup is made in quick succession. And in nearly all the fashionable tea rooms you will see these brass ornamental objects steaming merrily behind tall vases of flowers and surrounded by a regiment of china teapots. 

A much prized recipe for afternoon tea biscuits, one that is not even confided to a friend, but has been treasured by a single household for generations, has a mixture of mustard and cheese that baffles the analytical powers of all who partake of this delicacy. It is one of the simplest tea table accompaniments. Tea biscuits, either homemade or those that come from a good bakery, form the foundation of this appetizing viand.

The biscuits are split open, and each half is spread with a little mustard, then sprinkled with grated cheese and spread with butter, and the disks are ready for a visit to the hot oven, where they should remain long enough to convert the tops of the biscuits into a rich yellow brown crust and to heat them all the way through. Afterward, they should be taken from the oven and served immediately before the cheese takes on a gummy consistency. This unusual and simply prepared tea delicacy will tempt any woman to run the risk of spoiling her appetite for dinner, even spoiling her complexion, one might almost say, for the sake of tasting the dainty piquant morsel, as it fairly melts in her mouth.

Americans now have the distinction of being called tea connoisseurs — and this is a distinction indeed when one has sampled a few of the foreign brew afternoon beverages that are made in a really. Not only do we know good tea, but we understand the art of serving, which is quite as important as the selection of leaves. English breakfast tea with cream is the favorite brand served in the restaurant tearooms, while Ceylon, Formosa, and some of the special blends taken with thin slices of lemon and sugar have a host of devotees.

                                     

Tea connoisseurs? 

Novices who preside over a samovar, often encounter a great difficulty deal of difficulty in lighting the charcoal and keeping the fire burning. Where the tea hour extends over a long period and hot water must be at hand all the time the Samovar requires occasional replenishing both with water and fuel. After the handful or more of charcoal has been dropped into the chimney — and it must be remembered that the charcoal should be sorted and only the good pieces retained as the others will smoke — a little alcohol poured over the fuel before lighting will start it burning merrily. Afterward one need only glance into the chimney now and then to see that there is enough fuel.

Sparks and black cinders will fly upward and then settle over every object in the room, including the guests, if the charcoal is dropped into the fire carelessly. The proper way is to let it fall gently to the bottom of the chimney or else remove the samovar from the room during the act of replenishing.

Studio tea hosts and hostesses favor the samovar on account of the picturesque note it gives to the surroundings. Others have looked upon the Russian water heater as an affectation, useless and awkward, because they did not know how to use it. Restaurants have given it a place of honor on the tea table and consider it essential to perfect tea making and serving. — From The San Francisco Call, November 1908

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Gilded Age D.C. Society and Etiquette

Gilded Age Washington society life was one of granduer and continual entertainment and parties, even in the coldest of Washington DC months. The etiquette was rigid and all of the details were scrupulously covered in the press - nationally and internationally.

Washington Social Life

Dinner at the White House to the Diplomatic Corps., a Luncheon by Mrs. Leland Stanford, a Reception by Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Barney, and a Tea by the Corean Minister and Wife...

Washington, February 2, 1892-
The state dinner given at the White House tonight was in honor of the Diplomatic Corps, which august body of Ministers Plenipotentiary and Chargés d'Affaires was well represented. The dinner, as compared with that of last season, was attended by unusually large number of ladies of the Corps. The decorations in the East Room were on a more elaborate scale than at the dinner given to the Cabinet. A large oval basket of maidenhair fern, thickly studded with pink orchids of the variety Cattleya triannal, formed the centerpiece, on each side of which were semi-circular plates of ferns, surrounded by narrow gilt railing and filled with crotons, cypripediums, and dracenaes, from the middle of which rose the spiked leaves of variegated pineapple. At each end of the transverse sections of the table were oval baskets of ferns and Dendrobium nobilis orchids, flanked on the sides with smaller circular plats of ferns and different varieties of orchids.                              

Exotic flowers were en vogue and considered very proper for entertaining.

Boutonnieres for the gentlemen were of Dendrobium Wardianum. For the ladies, in place of the conventional bouquets, were Watteau bows of Heliotrope pink in the shade of the orchids. One end of the ribbon was painted in gold with the name of the guest, and on the other was engraved the front view of the White House and grounds. The guests were Secretary and Mrs. Blaine, Minister and Mme. Romero, Chargés d'Affaires of the Italian Legation; the Ministers of the Netherlands, Turkey, France, Austria-Hungary, Colombia, Switzerland, Argentine Republic, Belgium; Sweden, China, Portugal, Guatemala, Salvador, the Chargés d'Affaires of Russia, Spain, and Germany; Chargés d'Affaires of Costa Rica and Señora Calvo, Minister of Japan and Mme Tateno, the Hawaiian Minister and Mrs. Mott-Smith, the Corean Chargés d'Affaires and Mrs. Ye Cha Yun and Nicaraguan Minister and Mrs. Guzman.

Spiked leaves of variegated pineapple... No expense was spared for entertaining the Diplomatic Corps.

England was the only country not represented at the dinner, owing to the six weeks' mourning to be observed by the members of the legation for the late Duke of Clarence. There were also present the Haitian Minister, Senator and Mrs. Manderson, Senator and Mrs. Frye, Senator and Mrs. Sherman, Representative and Mrs. Blount, Representative and Mrs. Holman, Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Dimmick. Count and Countess Sponneck sent regrets in the afternoon upon receipt of a cablegram announcing the death of a near relative.
                                 

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford, photographed with their son, Leland Stanford, Jr. on a trip to Paris in the 1880s. Their son died shortly after, and the Stanfords later founded Stanford University in his honor.

The most elegant luncheon of the season was the one given today by Mrs. Leland Stanford in honor of Mrs. Harrison. The long table was laid in the spacious blue and white banquet hall recently added to her residence on K St. In the bay window to the east, among the plants, was an aquarium filled with goldfish, with birds in cages on each side. From the white buffet and mantel hung the branches of branches of orange trees laden with fruit and tied with gold-colored ribbon. Over the cloth of blue and white brocaded satin damask at each end or squares of blue satin under lace on which rested gilt baskets on jonquils tied with yellow ribbon. Beyond these were low epergnes holding varieties of California fruit, single bunches of grapes filling flat cut-glass dishes. 

The centerpiece of lilies of the valley and yellow tulips filled a scalloped shell epergne of gold and silver, which restaurant on the silver-bordered mirror. At the end of each of this were silver and cut-glass stands of fresh strawberries. White tapers burned under white-and-gold shades. The flagons and wine glasses were Bohemian glass, beautifully decorated in figures and flowers. Souvenirs of the luncheon were card cases of different colors in satin, on the cover of which, and gold lettering, was the name of the guest. A service of repoussé gold was used at the first course. About the room were groups and figures of marble statuary, while the walls were hung with valuable paintings.

“A service of repoussé gold was used at the first course.” Repoussé flatware remains a popular choice for hosts and hostesses today.

The guests at lunch and were Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Elkins, Mrs. Noble, Mme. Romero, Mrs. Schofield, Mrs. Justice Brown, Mrs. Sheridan, Mrs. Gorman, Mrs. Senator Dixon, Mrs. John Sherwood, Countess Esterhazy, Mrs. Menocal, Mrs. Swift of California, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. McKenna of California, Mrs. Justice Field, Mrs. Sherman, Mrs. Carlisle, Miss Gray, Mrs. Washburn, Mrs. McPherson, and Mrs. Bruen.

Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Barney gave a large reception tonight at their residence on Rhode Island Ave. The host and hostess received in the music room. The hostess wore a gown of white satin brocade and lace, with diamonds. Among the guests were Vice President and Mrs. Morton, secretary and Mrs. Blaine, Secretary Elkins, Justice and Mrs. Fields, Justice Blatchford, Senator Hale, Representative and Mrs. Bellamy Storer, Senator and Mrs. McPherson, Senator and Mrs. Manderson, Commander and Mrs. Train, General and Mrs. Nicholas Anderson, Senator and Mrs. and Miss McMillan, Mr. and Mrs. Marcellus Bailey, Dr. and Mrs. McKim, Dr. and Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Gale, Miss Biddle, Miss Pendleton, Dr. Bispham, Mrs. Sheridan, Mr. and Mrs. Audenreid, Mrs. and Miss Holick, Miss James, Mrs. and Miss Richardson, mr. and Mrs. Pollak, Miss Brewster of New York, Mr. and Mrs. Newlands, Miss McAllister, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Brown, Miss Brown, Lieutenant and Mrs. T.M.B. Mason, Miss Phenix, Mr. and Mrs. Emmons, Mr. and Miss Linden Kent, Mr. and Mrs. Slater, Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Warder, Representative and Mrs. Hitt, Assistant Secretary and Mrs. Stoley, Minister Leghalt, Mr. von Mumm, Minister Paternostre, Mr. Botkin, Mr. Horace Washington, Captain Cowles, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Jesse Brown, General Fullerton, Dr. Murray, Captain Dewey, and Lieutenant Buckingham.

The Corean Minister and Mrs. Ye Cha Yun gave a tea from 4 to 7 o'clock this afternoon which was largely attended by society. The parlors of the location were decorated with growing plants and smilax. Mrs. Ye received her guests in a native gown of light blue brocade with a waist of yellow, trimmed in garnet velvet. Her English is now quite perfect, and there was not the slightest hesitation in starting or sustaining conversation with the many who approached her desirous of that pleasure. Minister Ye remained by his wife's side during the earlier portion of the afternoon, as the company increased he mingled with the guests, escorting friends now and then to the dining room where the receiving party, in pretty light gowns, dispensed with the refreshments. 

In the first parlor Mrs. Sevellon Brown assisted in receiving. In the adjoining room Miss Thompson poured tea, and in the dining room Miss Moore served coffee frappé. Miss Cuthbert served bouillon, and Miss Beatrice Farquhar presided at a large bowl of punch. The other young ladies were Miss Riggs and Miss Thompson of Philadelphia.

Stunning, Gilded Age private ballroom in 1890s Washington D.C.

Mrs. Dixon, wife of Representative Dixon of Montana, gave a tea from 4 to 7 o'clock this afternoon in the ballroom of the Shoreham, which was elaborately decorated with flags which lined the walls on all sides and waved from the chandeliers and balconies about the apartment. In the south balcony, behind an arrangement of palms and plants, an orchestra played, the young people present availing themselves of the good music and perfect floor to enjoy dancing. The effect of the decorations and the elegant gowns of the receiving party as one entered the apartment was very agreeable. The hostess stood at the doorway leading to the ballroom, receiving in a gown of silver-gray satin with silver brocade and passementerie, with vest of pink crêpe. A bouquet of La France roses was carried.

Mrs. Charles Gibson wore black thread lace over ivory-tinted satin; Mrs. Carrie, white satin-striped tulle; Mrs. Governor McCreary, white satin brocaded in pompadour colors; Mrs. Hemphill, black lace with scarlet flowers; Miss McCeney, white brocade flowered in colors; Miss Carrie Parker, grey tulle with pink ribbons. The other ladies of the receiving party were Miss Lieutenant Williams, Miss Lieutenant Hare, Miss Howell, the Misses Newberry, Miss Helm, Mrs. Senator Saunders, and Mrs. Sutherland.

At the rear of the ballroom a delightful collation of salads, ices, sandwiches, cakes, confections, and champagne punch was served from an immense round table, in the center of which was a plant of ferns. From a smaller table tea was served by the young ladies.

Miss Lenore Armstrong gave a pink luncheon today in honor of Miss Lansing of Watertown. The guests were Miss Hazeltine, Miss Davidson, Miss Warfield, Ms. Scott, Miss Church, Miss Deering, Miss Buriitt, Miss Rundlett, Miss Kerr, Miss Todd, Miss Hunter, and Miss August. –New York Times, February 3, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia