Bricking of Tea

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
Joined
May 12, 2010
Location
Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
During the Civil War, the efforts of preservation of tea included "bricking of tea". Most tea to U.S. came from Great Britain. They got most of their tea from India.

By compacting tea into bricks, it was preserved on the voyage across the sea. Any tea needed by soldiers could be shaved off the brick.

From: The Mariner's Museum's Sesquicentennial Blog. "Bad Food in the Civil War' by Brian Whitenton.
 
If one reads the above quote carefully, it doesn't actually say that brick tea was used in the US (could be a different ocean than the Atlantic, could be another country's soldiers). But that certainly seems to be the implication.

If so, that would contradict the extensive documentation that Virginia Mescher has done on brick tea, or the lack thereof, in America in the 1860s. An example in this thread: http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?18975-Tea-culture-in-America-Tea-Bricks

It's going to be an uphill climb to document that brick tea was a common way that US soldiers consumed tea during the Civil War, if that's what the Mariner's Museum quote is claiming.
 
During the Civil War, the efforts of preservation of tea included "bricking of tea". Most tea to U.S. came from Great Britain. They got most of their tea from India.

By compacting tea into bricks, it was preserved on the voyage across the sea. Any tea needed by soldiers could be shaved off the brick.

From: The Mariner's Museum's Sesquicentennial Blog. "Bad Food in the Civil War' by Brian Whitenton.


I have two of those original bricks of tea in my collection of civil war items.
 
I have two of those original bricks of tea in my collection of civil war items.

What provenance do they have, indicating they're from the US in the 1860s, or what other corroborating information do you have about them? Virginia Mescher I'm sure would be very interested if they're actually documented to the era (and I would be too, actually, as I've not found anything to contradict her research).
 
Delhi Ranger

Thanks for your post. Maybe you can write how you got the bricks. This might answer James B. White's question.

I just put what the Mariner Museum had on "bricking of tea". I didn't realize there was such controversy over tea being bricked and used by soldiers in Civil War.
 
Have done further research and the question of bricking of tea is very debated.

Many good articles but can't find one on bricking and Civil War but only mention by Mariner Museum. It be great to find more on this subject.
 
Table 1 -- DAILY UNION ARMY RATION

3 August 1861 –20 June 1864

CAMP AND GARRISON RATION:

Meat: 12 ounces of pork or bacon, or
1 pound and 4 ounces of salt or fresh beef

Bread: 1 pound and 6 ounces of soft bread or flour, or
1 pound of hard bread [hardtack] or
1 pound and 4 ounces of corn meal

To every 100 rations:
15 pounds of beans or peas, and
10 pounds of rice or hominy
10 pounds of green coffee, or
8 pounds of roasted (Or roasted and ground) coffee, or
1 pound and 8 ounces of tea

15 pounds of sugar
4 quarts of vinegar
1 pound and 4 ounces of adamantine, or star candles
4 pounds of soap
3 pounds and 12 ounces of salt
4 ounces of pepper
30 pounds of potatoes. when practicable. and
1 quart of molasses

http://www.qmfound.com/feeding_billy_yank.htm
 
10 pounds of green coffee, or
8 pounds of roasted (Or roasted and ground) coffee, or
1 pound and 8 ounces of tea

There's no doubt tea was issued, but what form of tea? Wish they went into as much detail on the tea as the coffee.

This implies it was loose leaves, from Henry Lee Scott's Military Dictionary, 1863: "Put forty quarts of water to boil, place the rations of tea in a fine net, very loose, or in a large perforated ball..."
http://books.google.com/books?id=RQxAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA198
 
found this very interesting
http://historymyths.wordpress.com/2...-bought-their-tea-in-bricks-not-loose-leaves/
http://theteamaestro.blogspot.com/2013/04/tea-bricks.html
http://thehistoricfoodie.wordpress....y-of-tea-debunking-the-myth-of-the-tea-brick/
http://www.tenren.com/teahistory.html (Note the Section called "Naturalistic Period")

General concensus among tea historians is that brick tea was more common along the Silk Road, and in trade with Tibet, Mongolia, and Eastern Russia, while the West tended to trade more in loose leaf tea.
 
Back
Top