The second meeting of the year reinforced our impression of the hospitality at the Stapleton Arms. We had another warm welcome and delicious meal – trencherwoman’s helpings of cod mornay or lamb hotpot were preceded by leek and potato soup or smoked mackerel pate. The conversation was lively and members much enjoyed our talk “A Cup of Tea”.
Our speaker was Gordon Le Pard. He’s a retired marine archaeologist but that is just one small part of a man with extremely wide interests and considerable depth of knowledge. He is an obsessive collector, a dedicated gatherer of information – the more obscure and unlikely the better – and a compulsive story-teller.
He brought an impressive collection of objects connected with all aspects of making, trading and drinking tea. He gave us a potted (sorry!) history of the global spread and historical impact of the drinking of tea richly illustrated by his eclectic collection of tea-related objects. He told us with pride that they were mostly charity shop purchases.
Naturally, he told us whether or not it is important to put the milk in first (It depends). But we also learned about the world’s first fair trade product (sugar from India, grown and harvested without the use of slave labour and marketed in the C19 on that basis). We discovered how different Russian tea is from other teas – and the reason for this. He told us of weird and wonderful things that have been added to tea; from brandy to beaten egg. There is much to be learned from the novels of Jane Austen about tea and how it was prepared and consumed. And did you know that a Caddy was originally a Chinese weight (600g)? All this and much, much more – it was a most informative and entertaining afternoon.
Report by Julia Holman
Joint Speaker Secretary