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| Etiquette demanded that the tea should be tasted from the spoon, and that the hostess should then inquire: “Is your tea agreeable?” |
“Tea Drinking a Century Ago”
as it was told in 1899
A hundred years ago it was considered a lack of courtesy to take much cream or sugar in one's tea. Etiquette demanded that the tea should be tasted from the spoon, and that the hostess should then inquire: “Is your tea agreeable?”
Modern women would be shocked by a fashionable lady of those days who cooled her tea with her breath, yet Young wrote of a certain bewildering Lady Betty: Her two red lips affected zephyrs blow, To cool the Bohea and inflame the beau; While one white finger and a thumb conspire, To lift the cup and make the world admire. – Sacramento Daily Union, 1899
Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia©Etiquette Encyclopedia
