Tea and Sympathy Tea Facts

When Tea becomes more than a warm stimulating drink and takes its role as a meal, the drink itself may be accompanied by almost anything. Sausages, salads, sandwiches, and cakes; depending on the occasion and place.

The High Tea of the north of England is a substantial meal - that's where the factories are and workers are hearty eaters - with meat pies, cold ham, cold beef, chunks of cheese, thick slices of freshly baked bread, butter, jam, tarts, cakes, fresh fruit, and of course the pot of tea, brewed very strong.

Afternoon Tea, the feminine get-together that was made fashionable by the Duchess of Bedford a century and a half ago, was an excellent opportunity for a snack between main meals - lunch and dinner - and a time for a delicious scandal to be discreetly whispered across the silver tea service. "The" place in London today for afternoon tea is the Savoy-Ritz Hotel. Have you ever heard of "Tea at the Ritz"?

The Tea Room is where the house-wife would meet a friend after the washing, ironing, cleaning, marketing; and where our name, "Tea and Sympathy" really comes from - a cup of tea and a friend's sympathetic ear.

Tea Facts

Coffee drinkers, take note: For the sake of your health, you may want to trade at least some of those cups of coffee for tea. Not Herbal tea, but 'real' tea - green tea, black tea, chinese tea,, fruit flavored tea; with or without caffeine, lemon, cream or sugar.

As long as the leaves come from the plant Camellia Sinensis, tea will contain potent antioxidant chemicals that have been linked to protection against major diseases like cancer and heart disease. Even the caffeine in tea may be somewhat beneficial, emereging evidence suggests.

The popularity of tea in Japan and China may partly explain why heart disease rates are so much lower in the Far East than in Western countries.

There are three types of real tea: green, black, and oolong. Green tea, which is most popular in Japan and China, has in recent years found a small but growing following in the West as word about its potential health benefits has leaked out. It is the least processed of all the teas, made by quickly steaming or heating the leaves of Camellia sinensis.

Black tea, by far the most popular in Western countries and India, is prepared by exposing tea leaves to air. That exposure causes oxidation, which turns them a deep brown and intensifies their flavor. The leaves are then crushed. According to Gary Beecher, food chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, black tea contains as much of the protective chemicals as green tea, although the form may vary.

Oolong is between the two: more processed than green tea but less so than black. It is exposed to heat, light, and crushing for less time than black tea.

Contrary to popular belief, green tea has as much caffeine as black tea, though all teas have less caffeine than drip-brewed coffee. A typical 8 ounce cup of tea prepared from one tea bag brewed for 3-5 minutes contains 40 milligrams of caffeine, compared with 100 milligrams in a cup of brewed coffee.

The caffeine content of tea can range from 20 to 90 milligrams a cup, depending on the blend of tea leaves, method of preparation and length of brewing time, whereas a cup of coffee may contain from 60 to 180 milligrams. Instant teas and prepared iced teas may be too highly processed to contain much of the protective chemicals.