Canadian Vintage Tea Posters

1930's King Cole Vintage Barbour Co. Canadian Tea Vintage Poster

STANLEY FRANCIS TURNER (B.1883)
CANADA AT WAR, LIPTON'S TEA
lithograph in colours, 1944, printed by C.C Petersen, Toronto, condtion B+; backed on japan
and one other 'Lipton's Tea' map by S.Turner
20 x 26½in. (51 x 67cm.)

A vintage 7-1/2" high x 6-1/2" x 4" rectangular Ocean Blend Indian & Ceylon Tea tin with an unusual deep teal blue background and superb graphics of a steamship. This Canadian (Toronto and Peterboro  tin was manufactured by Macdonald Mfg. Co. Limited Toronto

Morse tea package from 1959 advertising

“Guaranteed to be superior in quality to any other packaged tea selling at fifty cents a pound,” reads a 1933 advertisement.

Tea Dance

Tea dance is a dancing art featuring the subjects and contents of tea production and tea drinking. It is a cultural phenomenon derived from the mainstream culture of tea production and drinking.
There are two major types of tea dance, namely, the tea-picking dance and tea lantern dance. Tea dance is very common in the provinces including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, and is a major activity for celebrating the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival among people. Many operas in China are named after tea, such as the Jiangxi Tea-picking Opera, Hubei Tea-picking Opera, Guangxi Tea Lantern Opera and Yunnan Tea Lantern Opera, which were gradually developed on the basis of tea songs, dances and music created by people living in tea-growing regions.
Moreover, the tray dance and dage (literally, beat songs, a folk entertainment featuring song and dance) prevalent in some ethnic groups of China also feature the contents of serving and drinking tea, which can be deemed as a kind of tea dance from a certain angle. For example, when the Yi minority performs their folk dance after the guests are seated, all people, young and old in the village or family hosting the folk dance, will send a tea tray or wine tray to their guests in a respectfully dancing manner to the music of gong and Suona and then withdraw.

Folk Dance of Yi Minority

After the guests are seated, all people, young and old in the village or family hosting the folk dance, will send a tea tray or wine tray to their guests in a respectfully dancing manner to the music of gong and Suona and then withdraw in the same manner.

Folk Dance of Bai Minority in Eryuan,Yunnan 
 

Usually led by a leading singer, the Bai people will sing songs in Bai dialect holding tea or wine in their hands. With their knees bended, they will circle around the fire pond, shaking and twisting their upper body to indulge themselves in singing and dancing.

By Explore Cultural China

USA Vintage Tea Posters and Brands

Boscul Tea, Circa 1950's

Iced Tea, USA, 1950

1920’s Chase and Sanborn Coffee and Tea Vintage American Advertising Poster

1940's Sunkist Lemons Vintage Food Fruit & Tea Poster 1940's Sunkist Lemons & Tea Poster

Dinner Party Brand

Three Women Tea Pickers

Mt. Vernon Brand Tea

Owl Brand Tea

Tea production

A new tea-plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitations in this way, a plant may serve for about 100 years.
For the fertilization of tea gardens, soya-bean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used, and seldom chemical fertilizers. When pets are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.
The season of tea-picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Longjing (Dragon Well) comes from, picking starts from the end of March and 1asts through October, altogether 20-30 times from the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. With a longer interval, the quality of the tea will deteriorate.
A skilled woman picker can only gather 600 grams(a 1ittle over a pound)0f green tea leaves in a day.
The new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. This work, which used to be done manually, has been largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon well tea, However, still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour. The tea-cauldrons are heated electri- cally to a temperature of about 250centigrade degrees or 740centigrade degrees. It takes four pounds of flesh 1eaves to produce one pound of parched tea.
For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of tea various machines have been developed and built, turning out about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the workers from much of their drudgery.

By Explore Cultural China

United Kingdom Vintage Tea Posters/Advertising

MacDonald Gill

Mazawattee, Tea, UK, 1890

Tea Revives You. Colour Offset. Anon, England, c.1939.

The Typhoo brand is well-known in Britain for its long running television commercial campaign jingles, one of the most popular being "There's only one 'T' in Typhoo" and the current one being "You only get an oo with Typhoo," referring to the sound of pleasure.

British Tea Advertising Poster "Mazawattee Tea"

This advertising poster, from Great Britain, is extremely rare and benefits from a great image of an Edwardian Lady at tea in the garden. This poster is believed to have been produced between 1890 and 1920. The Mazawattee Tea company was in business from 1887 to 1955.

Confessions of a Coffee Drinker

ARTICLE BY by Charles Connelly - Amicus of Tea

Raised on coffee from an early teenager I relished in this
“coming of age beverage” as a right of passage to the adult world.  I understood the anti-tea sentiments that have been part of our heritage since pre-revolutionary times and coffee’s national acceptance with its “beverage of choice” consumption during the civil war by fighting men both north and south.

As most red blooded Americans, I consumed several cups daily, year in and year out, for decades and developed the typical side affects…acidic stomach, digestive problems, jitters, low level addiction and an uncomfortable haste that comes from this. I thought cutting back would be the proper solution, but it was only replaced with stronger brews, often with sugar added, heavy creams that only added a sugar high to these pre-existing conditions.

About a decade ago, I was introduced to fine teas. The cheap-bagged teas are comparable to canned, ground coffee blends. The green teas from Taiwan and the vintage, aged pressed teas from China along with the multitude of fine available teas through knowledgeable purveyors opened my pallet to a remarkable find.  Black, green, white and these teas contained health promoting properties all emerged as I immersed myself into this new found beverage.

I no longer carry any of the byproducts of coffee consumption, but relish in a nutrient rich libation that satisfies me throughout my day. To summarize…coffee is for those in a hurried rush and tea for the relaxed that appreciate its variations as fine wines.

Tea harvesting

The words "hewing and picking," which appear in The Classic of Tea indicate that in the early days of tea cultivation people might have climbed up the tea trees and chopped off the tips of the branches. As tea plants in certain southern areas are trees of rather tall stature, some locals trained monkeys to pick tea leaves for them. Nowadays, tea leaves can be picked by machine; nevertheless, hand-picking is still preferred in many places, as it is felt that this is the only way to meet the special tea-picking requirement for preserving the traditional varieties of tea.
Tea-picking methods vary by regions and seasons. According to the periods when the shoots start and stop growing, tea is defined as spring tea, summer tea, autumn tea, and even winter tea (which is only possible in southeastern China). Tea is also categorized as "first flush", "second flush," and "third flush" during the growing season. The time span in a year during which tea can be harvested varies depending on the climate. Tea can be harvested for at least five to six months a year in the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, seven to eight months in southwest China, nine to ten months in certain areas in south China, and almost throughout the year in Hainan Province.

By Explore Cultural China

High Tea

Mad Hatter's Tea Party - 1955 McCall magazine

This practice has been confused with Afternoon tea. High Tea also known as Meat Tea is dinner. It is an early evening meal that is served between 5 .00pm and 7.00pm. This is usually followed by a lighter meal usually termed as supper.

High Tea is usually a heavier meal. The foods typically served are meat pies, potato dishes, cold cuts of meat, pasta, cheese selection and ends with cakes, bread, butter and jam.

The term High Tea was first used in 1825. The word high is typically meant to refer to well-advanced or later time of the day e.g. high noon. High Tea is meant to reference itself from Afternoon Tea to distinguish itself with regards to time of the day.

Afternoon Tea

Eating habits of people variably followed trends of working hours. Today afternoon tea is a small meal, a snack eaten between the hours of 2 pm and 5 pm.

Historically it is quite unclear as the origins of this practice. Like everything else in this world, no one culture or person can fully be credited for the start of this tradition.

However, humans are habitual and indulgent creatures. Madame de Sevigne 1629-1696 who was well known for chronicling the happenings of the Sun King’s court, remarked in her numerous letters about “taking tea” with various courtiers.

The English Tea trade did not begin until the late 1670’s. The court tradition of taking tea in England was introduced by King Charles II (1630-1685). This was the beginning of the trend in England and it became the national drink of England instead of ale.

The English High Society adopted it firmly as their social function.

It was in the mid to late 18^th century; during the Industrial revolution that working families adopted it as it revived them after a long tedious day of hard work.

Afternoon Tea is also known as Low Tea and usually taken in the late afternoon. The venue for Low Tea was usually the Sitting Room or the Withdrawing Room where the furniture particularly the tables that the tea was served on were low and placed beside the sofas or chairs.  

 

There are 3 basic types of Afternoon/Low Teas –

Cream Tea – consists of Tea, scones, jam and cream

Light Tea – consists of Tea, scones, and sweets

Full Tea – consists of Tea, savories, scones, sweets and desserts

 

Savories are finger sandwiches or appetizers

Scones are usually made of flour, butter, with nuts and dried fruit sometimes spices and served with Clotted Cream and Jam

Pastries are usually cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets - chocolates

Elevenses

Tea Time by George Tsui

Elevenses 
Plural noun
Definition: a drink and a small amount to eat between breakfast and lunch
(Definition of elevenses plural noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

British informal
a short break for light refreshments, usually with tea or coffee, taken at about eleven o’clock in the morning.
(Definition from Oxford Dictionary)

http://www.kimhaskins.co.uk/page5.htm

In the United Kingdom and what is now the Commonwealth of Nations (former British Empire) tea has been referred to as several different mealtimes. It can proportionally be small or large and the phrase ‘to take tea’ means a tea meal.

This is broken down to Elevenses, Afternoon Tea and High Tea.

Elevenses are usually a sweet mid-morning snack. Consists of a slice of cake or biscuit with a cup of tea or even coffee. The precise time is usually 11.00 AM – hence Elevenses. This midmorning ritual was a punctuation in the day that lasted for about 15 to 30 mins – about the time it takes to make a cup of tea.

Tea Time by Wai Ming

Historically, the terms were first seen recorded in 1849 as – Elevens in East Anglia and then in 1889 recorded as Elevenses.

Here in the US the custom of Elevenses refers to the antiquated custom of a late morning whiskey break. The practice never took on but was also known as Elevener. It is also known as “smoko” in Australia and New Zealand, “morno’s” in the Royal Australian Navy, in Sweden it is called “elva – kaffe” meaning eleven coffee and in Spain “las onces” meaning the elevens. In the Mediterranean parts it is called ‘merenda’ or ‘merienda.’  The German practice of second breakfast – zweite Fruhstuck is considered the counterpart of Elevenses.

Recipe: Snow Fungus Lily Tisanes (百合莲子银耳羹）

Ingredients：

3-4 Snow Fungus （银耳/Ngan Yee）
30gm Lotus Seeds
30gm Lily Bulbs
30gm Dried Longan (Mata Kucing)
Rock Sugar to taste

Method:

• Clean white fungus, lily bulbs. Soak them all in warm water for at least 3 hours.
• Boil lotus seeds for 3 minutes, drained, cold down and remove the bitter heart of lotus seeds.
• Add about 6-7 cups of water, together with white fungus, bring to boil, and turn the heat down to simmer for 2 hours, the fungus should be all soft and almost melting when it is done.
• Add lotus seeds, lily bulbs and rock sugar, cook for another 20-30 minutes, turn off the stove and add dried longan.
• It taste even better when chilled!
  
  
  
  Snow fungus, or white fungus, contains iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. Stewed snow fungus lubricates the colon and stimulates peristalsis. They aid blood production and bring more circulation to the skin to give you a moisturized-complexion. Snow fungus is also believed to be beneficial for the lungs, effective in healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs. They can be prepared with gingko, pears, Chinese dates, lotus seeds, or wolfberries.
  Scientific tests have shown that the snow fungus has the ability to fight and prevent cancer and is traditionally popular as an anti-aging food. A useful benefit of snow fungus is the prevention of leukopenia, or low white blood cell counts, in people who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment.