Tea Facts and Quotations

• More about Hyson tea: Right from the first sale of tea in England in the mid 1600's, the English took a shine to tea. The government quickly realized the possibilities and levied taxes on tea that remained until the late 1700's. With all the associated taxes on tea and 'young hyson' being taxed even higher, there were all sorts of various schemes done to dodge the taxes. Servants in upper class homes would dry the used leaves and resell them. Other unscrupulous people would 'cut' the tea with leaves from various trees such as beech or hawthorn. Smuggling China teas into England reached a feverish peak in the mid-1700's and the ports of France and Belgium were used as the 'jump-off' points for night voyages to Cornwall and Wales. The chancellor of the exchequer and the East India Company were aware of the extent of their losses and realized that only a large tax cut would make legal imports competitive with contraband tea. This finally occurred in 1784 with the passing of the Commutation Act.
• In 18th century Sweden, King Gustav III spared two male criminals (identical twins) from a death penalty and imprisoned them for life. He required one twin to drink three large bowls of tea each day for the rest of his life, while the other twin had to likewise with coffee. The tea drinking twin was the first to die at age 83, convincing the king that drinking coffee was beneficial to health and longevity. But alas, King Gustav was assassinated at age 45, despite the coffee.
• In the 19th century there was interest in mechanical contrivances to add to teapots. During this time, an American inventor patented a teapot with a plunger for squeezing the last drops of flavor from the leaves at the bottom.
• In the 1600's, a Dutch doctor wrote: "It must be a considerable and obstinate fever that cannot be cured by drinking every day 40-50 cups of tea, about 20 of which must be strong and bitter."

Tea and Health News

In the past, most of the research regarding Tea and Health focused primarily on cardiovascular health benefits. Recently, the prestigious Mayo Clinic conducted a study and discovered that a component in green tea helps to kill leukemia cells. Green tea's primary catechin, EGCG (which stands for epigallocatechin-3-gallate) appears to interrupt survival signals between leukemia cells, thus prompting them to die prematurely. The study's leader, Neil E. Kay, MD, says, "We're continuing to look for therapeutic agents that are nontoxic to the patient but kill cancer cells, and this finding with EGCG is an excellent start. Understanding this mechanism and getting these positive early results gives us a lot to work with in terms of offering patients with this disease more effective, easily tolerated therapies earlier." Read the entire Mayo Clinic artcile (for lay persons). Blood, 2 March 2004, Vol. 0, No. 2004.

Tea and Health News provided by: TheTeaTable.com

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