This is an absolutely fascinating look at the (surprisingly long!) history of the influence of tea on Western society, and how it was disapproved of for longer than one would suspect. It brought so much sexism, and especially classism, to light, issues that obviously existed, but I had no idea were being fought out over something as seemingly innocuous as tea.
2 other things also interesting? There’s something that implies that herbal infusions were already known of and common before black tea arrived. (It mentions something about black tea taking people away from “the balm and the mint”.) As well, some of the writings quoted show that they already knew about (and were quite worried about ) caffeine and its addictive properties, and them being present in tea.
Years ago I helped my Dad with some research on the foreign settlement in 19th-century Kobe, and one of the more interesting things I read was a US consulate report on adulteration of black tea that stated that the solution was going to have to include educating American consumers on what tea was actually *supposed* to look and taste like, because they were so used to tea that had been mixed with gypsum and indigo that they liked it.
Mooncustafer 