Tea in the United States of America

Thanks for joining me

Tea rooms have always played an important role in the history of the United States. From the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to gatherings campaigning for female suffrage, tea rooms have always been a place of group gatherings and hubs for social reforms.  Coffee however remained the more popular drink the last couple of centuries in America since the revolution in 1776 and an air of disenchantment with the Britishness surrounding tea in the decades of its aftermath.

In addition, tea parties used to be associated with females and were deemed feminine in the mainstream American culture. No more! 

A highly stressful lifestyle coupled with the need to improve quality of sleep, and with the health benefits of tea being popularized, many Americans have taken to tea as their beverage of choice. Whether it is the Jasmine Green Tea or the Earl Grey Tea with its numerous variations or the Masala Chai Latte, the popularity of tea has been at its zenith, ever since the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

Tea rooms have sprung up in numerous major American cities serving their Afternoon Teas, High Teas, sometimes designing their own unique styled tea parties. With the pandemic in 2020, many tea rooms have closed their operations, and the few that are open have very limited seating. This means that the very function of tea rooms that is to promote socialization over a cuppa, cannot be realized until this pandemic subsides and social distancing is no longer in effect.

This is the best time for us, tea connoisseurs to become creative and start putting together our own tea parties at our very homes. The best way to start would be :

1. Buy an electric kettle with temperature sensor.
2. 1-2 tea pots. I would suggest one cast iron tea pot for black teas and a regular non-cast iron for green teas, white teas and other finer teas like Pu-Erh and Sencha teas.
3. A few tea cups with saucers
4. A desert plate and a bread plate
5. If you have a few friends, roommates or a significant other, an afternoon tea set would be perfect.

Lastly, we can dress however we want. But it’ll certainly be interesting to dress for tea. There are so many ways one can do this, from Regency era clothing to 1950s classic English style e.g. coiffed hair and a shirt-dress for women and suit and hat for men, to modern day streetwear that is tea-themed. This is a beautiful graphic T-shirt that I found on Etsy.

Hope you enjoyed this read. Feel free to leave a comment.

Yours truly,

Adi