Little Red Cup Tea Blog

Any idea why a raccoon and a tea kettle might have been painted...

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:17:00 -0400

Any idea why a raccoon and a tea kettle might have been painted upside down?

Hokusai, The Tea-Kettle Raccoon: Painting Executed Upside Down
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“Pasted into this leatherbound volume are the original...

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:13:40 -0400

“Pasted into this leatherbound volume are the original watercolours for one of the earliest illustrated books on Chinese customs to be published in English. At the back is the author’s manuscript together with details of the publisher’s and printer’s quotes and a newspaper cutting announcing the publication.

The watercolours were purchased in Canton in 1789. They are of a type produced in workshops for sale chiefly to foreigners, for whom they functioned as records of the exotic. George Henry Mason published them under the title Costumes of China yet they equally record trade and leisure activities.”

baisao:

Woman preparing tea, Guangzhou, 1789
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tea-for-tea: Tea bowl by Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)Edo Period,...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:26:30 -0400

tea-for-tea:

Tea bowl by Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)
Edo Period, early 18th century
Japan

I will never get tired of looking at old tea bowls.

“In Japan the discovery of tea has also been attributed to...

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:06:00 -0400

“In Japan the discovery of tea has also been attributed to Bodhidharma, an itinerant Indian monk who brought Zen Buddhism to China — even though tea was certainly in production when he arrived. Steven D. Owyoung writes that Bodhidharma was a man “uncouth and unattractive … monosyllabic and miserly with his words … coarse featured, hirsute, and typically brooding or scowling,” nonetheless, a great and devoted monk. The story goes that once, deep in meditation, Bodhidharma allowed his eyes to close. Disgusted with his weakness, he took a knife and slashed off his eyelids to keep it from happening again. His eyelids landed on the ground, and from them sprang a tea plant – a stimulant that kept subsequent generations of monks awake and alert as they meditated.”

- From “Origin Myths” at Little Red Cup Tea Proper.

kicker-of-elves: drying tea at the tea processing plant of...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:29:48 -0400

kicker-of-elves:

drying tea at the tea processing plant of “Mei-ya-wu” Brigade, Hangchow

Emil Schulthess 1966

These days the city is Hangzhou — but everything else looks pretty familiar.

Original Description: Group of workers harvesting tea. Greek...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:21:27 -0400

Original Description: Group of workers harvesting tea. Greek women. Taken between 1905 and 1915. From the Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).

Spring Tea in Hunan Province, taken on a recent trip to origin.

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:33:00 -0400

Spring Tea in Hunan Province, taken on a recent trip to origin.

Hey! You can order Little Red Cup tea by the cup at 158 Pickett...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:24:02 -0500

Hey! You can order Little Red Cup tea by the cup at 158 Pickett Street Cafe in South Portland! We’re very excited to be sharing a counter with these bagels.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Yaozen Restaurant at Sanya from...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:56:55 -0500

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Yaozen Restaurant at Sanya from the series Grand Series of Famous Tea Houses of Edo. Japan, Edo period, ca. 1839-1842. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), a leading ukiyo-e artist who designed poetic Japanese landscape prints, also created a print series depicting fine restaurants in Edo. Hiroshige portrayed upscale places that served special meals, followed by tea ceremonies. The restaurants also functioned as meeting places for cultural activities hosted by connoisseurs. Hiroshige’s depictions, accompanied by his trademark beautiful landscapes, inspired even more people to travel to Edo to experience the sophisticated delights of the city for themselves.

Via.

Dipping Water From The River and Simmering Tea

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:55:00 -0500

Living water needs living fire to boil:
Lean over Fishing Rock, dip the clear deep current;
Store the spring moon in a big gourd, return it to the jar;
Divide the night stream with a little dipper, drain it into the kettle.
Frothy water, simmering, whirls bits of tea;
Pour it and hear the sound of wind in pines.
Hard to refuse three cups to a dried-up belly;
I sit and listen—from the old town, the striking of the hour.

Su Shi (苏轼), translated by Burton Watson

Robert Fortune, Tea Thief

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:07:00 -0500

Robert Fortune (16 September 1813 – 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller, best known for introducing tea plants from China to India — a story recently told by Sara Rose in For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History.

“Among Fortune’s tasks in China, and certainly as critical as providing Indian tea gardens with quality nursery stock, was to learn the procedure for manufacturing tea. From the picking to the brewing there was a great deal of factory work involved: drying, firing, rolling, and, for black tea, fermenting. Fortune had explicit instructions from the East India Company to discover everything he could: “Besides the collection of tea plants and seeds from the best localities for transmission to India, it will be your duty to avail yourself of every opportunity of acquiring information as to the cultivation of the tea plant and the manufacture of tea as practised by the Chinese and on all other points with which it may be desirable that those entrusted with the superintendence of the tea nurseries in India should be made acquainted.”

Read more at the Smithsonian.

Our own Green Eyebrow Tea, steeping at Tandem Coffee.

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:27:34 -0500

Our own Green Eyebrow Tea, steeping at Tandem Coffee.

The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:30:51 -0500

“Completely build [sic] by hand without the use of any power tools, the Teahouse was constructed in Dushanbe, Tajikistan as a gift to their sister city, Boulder. It was disassembled, crated up, and sent halfway around the world to be rebuilt in Boulder as a symbol of friendship and cultural exploration. The elaborate and creative teahouse now sits as a reminder to the citizens of Boulder to value cultural diversity, global cooperation, and international friendship.”

Via.

What’s better than old signage? eatsurflive: A sweet tea...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:11:00 -0500

What’s better than old signage?

eatsurflive:

A sweet tea room.

tweed-eyes: 1951 Tea Council ad

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:30:36 -0400

tweed-eyes:

1951 Tea Council ad

This Is Amazing. knewthenknownow: The Tea Toaster

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:30:50 -0400

This Is Amazing.

knewthenknownow:

The Tea Toaster

Chai

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:07:55 -0400

Chai

Tea cup styles

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:26:45 -0400

Tea cup styles

Happy National Day!

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:54:45 -0400

Happy National Day!

Temperance Societies often sang hymns in praise of tea, such as...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:26:00 -0400

Temperance Societies often sang hymns in praise of tea, such as this one by Mr. Collingwood Banks:

Let others sing the praise of wine, 
Let others deem its joys divine,
Its fleeting bliss shall ne'er be mine, 
	Give me a cup of tea!
The cup that soothes each aching pain,
Restores the sick to health again,
Steals not from hear, steal not from brain,
	A friend when others flee.  

When sorrow frowns, what power can cheer,
Or chase away the falling tear
Without the vile effects of beer,
       Like Pekoe or Bohea?

What makes the old man young and strong,
Like Hyson, Congou, or Souchong,
Which leave the burthen of this song
	A welcome cup of tea.

Then hail the grave celestial band,
With planning mind, and planting hand,
And let us bless that golden land
	So far across the sea;
Whose hills and vales give fertile birth
To that fair shrub of priceless worth,
Which yields each son of mother earth
	A fragrant cup of tea.

Found in: Tea and Tea Drinking, by Arthur Reade. Published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. 1884.