Tea with Mr Darcy: how to prepare and serve it perfectly

With the first rains and temperatures starting to drop, tea season is back. A ritual that began in 1662, when Cromwell ruled in England, who, having become a great admirer in Holland, imported tea into his homeland. The habit of drinking it soon turned into fashion, and tea became England’s national drink. The five o’clock afternoon rite, however, was launched by Anne Mary Stanhope, Duchess of Bedford, in 1840, in the Victorian era. In those days the dinner was very light so the Duchess, to quench her hunger, decided to ask the cook to prepare some sweets to be enjoyed while sipping tea.

Thus he began to invite friends and the afternoon tea was born.

If you love bergamot tea and passionate reading like Jane Austen’s novels, it certainly can’t be missing from your library Tea with Mr Darcy per Ultra Editions.

But who was Mr Darcy? The romantic hero par excellence, introverted and a bit grumpy, who has become the best known male character in the novels of the English romantic writer, who Pride and Prejudice.

Some curiosities

• Earl Gray is considered the quintessential Victorian tea.
• In the seventeenth century tea was a very expensive drink reserved for the noblest classes and the royal family.
• The tea was made only by the hostess and not by the servants.
• Queen Victoria was also a great tea lover, and in fact institutionalized afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.
• London’s first teahouse was founded by Thomas Twining in 1717 on the Strand, next to his coffee house. Twining worked a lot on researching blends and flavoring, and in 1734 he decided to close the coffee house and open a second tea room: the Golden Lyon.

How to make tea

• the water is boiled over medium heat in a saucepan and then poured into the teapot
• the water in the teapot must be swirled so that it is completely heated
• then pour it back into the saucepan
• put the loose leaves in the teapot, and if you only have sachets available, open them
• the dose is one teaspoon for each guest and one for the teapot
• pour the water back into the teapot and leave everything to infuse for several minutes
• cover everything with a cozy tea to preserve the heat
• if you like milk, you must add it to the cup before the tea is poured
• over the cup you must place a special tea strainer
• pour the tea into the cup with slow and delicate movements
• give the cup to the guest

But since today you can travel very little, take your new book, prepare yourself a tea and allow yourself a journey back in time, between dances and parties of the nineteenth century, to discover the history of the most drunk drink in the world, with many sweet and savory recipes, tips for organizing real tea parties and indications of customs and etiquette.