A New Table Drink from London

A “true trio” is two different shaped, porcelain cups (one for coffee and one for tea) and one matching saucer. This set is circa 1840s. True trios were sold in this manner, as a consumer would conceivably need only need one saucer, as the coffee and tea would not be drunk simultaneously. Etiquipedia has not yet found if a specific gilded age, “coffee-tea” cup was ever invented. 

Coffee-tea, a beverage made from the leaves of the coffee shrub, is a new candidate for popular favor, and would seem to have some advantages over the berry. It has not yet reached this country, save as a chance curiosity, but was recently brought under the notice of the Royal Botanic Society of London. The samples of coffee-tea, or prepared coffee leaves, were grown in the society's conservatory. 

The secretary said it had been estimated that the percentage of theine in the leaves of coffee was 1.26 as against 1.00 in the beans. As the leaves may be easily grown in many parts of the world where it is difficult to insure good crops of coffee beans, he thought it might prove a valuable agricultural product in many warm colonies. At present, he said, only some two millions of men use coffee-tea, in comparison with 110 millions who use the bean, and 500 millions who drink Chinese and Indian tea. — Good Housekeeping Magazine, 1892

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

Etiquette and a Dish of Tea

         
 

A Dish of Tea

“Dish” throughout the eighteenth century was a colloquialism for cup. In fashionable houses at first, and for long, tea was drunk from a cup without a handle brought from China. The vessel was termed a “dish.” When the Chinese cup was first copied by English potters, the convenience of a handle was added. 

The deep saucer from a beautiful Samuel Alcock “True Trio” — A true trio is two different shaped, porcelain cups (one for coffee and one for tea) and one matching saucer, circa 1840s. True trios were sold in this manner, as a consumer would conceivably need only need one saucer, as the coffee and tea would not be drunk simultaneously.

The saucer also was brought from China. It received the name because of its resemblance to the English saucer, a platter in which sauce was served. The familiar gibe, “saucer eyes,” was originally inspired by the sauce saucer, long before Lord Arlington gave the first “tea party” in England in Arlington House, where Buckingham Palace stands, at the Restoration period. — London Chronicle, 1913

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