Saturday, August 29, 2015

English Tea Customs: Three-Book Review

The Orangery at Kensington Palace, London. One of the loveliest places I've been.

My daughter, Lynzie, and I are headed to England in only 12 days! It will be her first trip there and I can't wait to show her all of my favorite spots in Bath, Winchester, and Jane Austen's Chawton Village. I've been immersing myself in relevant reading and research---trying to make it a memorable experience for her.

I brought home lots of books when I visited in 2013, among them were a few on the customs of tea and tea drinking. It's only been this past summer that I've taken the time to read through them and I'm more excited than ever now to take Lynzie to tea at the Regency Tea Room at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. I went there twice last time I was in England---it's the best!

The Etiquette of an English Tea by Beryl Peters
This is a fun little book that I picked up at the gift shop in Kensington Palace. In addition to practical advice for those having tea both in a group and alone, it gives recipes and tips for which tea to drink depending on the time of day and what you're taking it with. There's even a part on how to read tea leaves!


Tea and Tea Drinking by Claire Masset
I absolutely love the collection of books put out by Shire Library. They've got a book on just about anything British that you can imagine. I found this one, along with another on Regency era costuming, at the Jane Austen Centre gift shop in Bath. I read the costuming one on the way home and didn't even finish it. They're so full of great information and beautiful illustrations that they take hours to consume and even longer to mull over. Among other interesting things, I learned that the lady of the home was in charge of the tea cabinet and kept the key to it in her possession, lest the servants break in and pilfer the expensive tea! One of my favorite photographs featured was the tea canisters with the Alice In Wonderland artwork---advertising this new release to the British people!

Tea with the Bennets by Margaret Vaughan

I can't wait to make some of the delicious recipes found in this book! I also picked it up at the Jane Austen Centre and am so glad I did. It's full of fun P&P quotes, as well as all kinds of recipes that I can't imagine finding anywhere this side of the pond. Now...to find myself a handy dandy mls/grams conversion table...