Tea Time for All

[grace]

In the Little House books, it's mentioned as well. Eliza Jane gets on her parents about drinking tea the old-fashioned way...

 

[John Hartwell]

[Providence Eve. Post, 21 Jan. 1863]

[Salem Register, 16 Feb. 1861]

​

 

[John Hartwell]

Not only for the ladies:

[Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12 Nov. 1863]​

 

[CSA Today]

Does this mean what it sounds like?

Back in the 50s, my grandfather's brother brought a girl home to meet their family. My grandfather's family was really poor, but they broke out the nice china for her, including saucers. They said she was really pretty and my great uncle was all polished up in his Marine uniform.

Then the lady in question dumped all of her coffee in the saucer, pulled her chair back, leaned her face into her saucer, which was still on the table, and proceeded to slurp up her coffee. My poor great uncle was mortified and my family still make fun of this woman all these years later. She wasn't invited back. But that sounds like it could be saucering to me.

As a side note, my grandmother said one of her sisters married a guy whose family all drank coffee out of the saucer, which her family regarded as mildly eccentric, but they apparently had better manners than the other lady and made less of a spectacle while doing so.

My grandmothers warned me about women like that.

 

[Zella]

My grandmothers warned me about women like that.

She was a byword in the family for how not to behave when visiting other people.

I asked my grandpa about her yesterday, and though it's been nearly 70 years, he still remembered her name was Lola Mae!

 

[Eleanor Rose]

She was a byword in the family for how not to behave when visiting other people.

I asked my grandpa about her yesterday, and though it's been nearly 70 years, he still remembered her name was Lola Mae!

What a great story Zella! It seems Lola Mae will live in infamy. I asked about saucering because I had my first experience with it at a restaurant in Asheville, NC several years ago. My husband and I stopped by a sidewalk cafe for a cup of café au lait and they served it to us in a saucer. I must admit I was taken aback by it and felt awkward, but I saw other folks were drinking from their saucers so I just went with it.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

Interesting tidbit for history lovers...

There is a story of the "senatorial saucer" based on a supposed breakfast meeting between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. In 1872, Moncure Daniel Conway told the story as follows:

There is a tradition that Jefferson coming home from France, called Washington to account at the breakfast-table for having agreed to a second, and, as Jefferson thought, unnecessary legislative Chamber.

"Why," asked Washington, "did you just now pour that coffee into your saucer, before drinking?"

"To cool it," answered Jefferson, "my throat is not made of brass."

"Even so," rejoined Washington, "we pour our legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it."

The story received widespread circulation when it appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in January 1884. There is no evidence that such a conversation between Jefferson and Washington actually took place, but there is no definitive proof that it didn't.



Source: Moncure D. Conway, Republican Superstitions as Illustrated in the Political History of America (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1872), 47-48.

 

[Zella]

What a great story Zella! It seems Lola Mae will live in infamy. I asked about saucering because I had my first experience with it at a restaurant in Asheville, NC several years ago. My husband and I stopped by a sidewalk cafe for a cup of café au lait and they served it to us in a saucer. I must admit I was taken aback by it and felt awkward, but I saw other folks were drinking from their saucers so I just went with it.

This might be a regional thing.

My grandparents are from Madison and Yancey Counties, just up the road from Asheville, and I believe Lola Mae was a local girl. The in-laws who married into the family and drank coffee from saucers (but with more decorum than Lola Mae) are from the Swannanoa/Black Mountain area. My understanding is they would pour the coffee into saucers and then drink from it like a cup rather than faceplanting into it.

 

[grace]

Thinking about this makes me glad for little china cups. *twinkles. I look so much nicer sipping out of a cup with the saucer in my hand...(if I'm standing or reading "at home")

Never knew it was still done! Thank you all!

 

[DaveBrt]

While waiting for the repairman to finish work on the microwave, I re-discovered a slim volume, Jane Pettigrew, The Tea Companion, 1997. I thought you would find the Earle Grey entry interesting:

"Traditionally, this is a blend of China teas or China and Indian tea scented with oil from the citrus bergamot fruit -- a sort of orange. The stories that explain the origin of the name vary somewhat. One tale tells how a British diplomat on a mission to China, saved the life of a Mandarin and was given the recipe for this flavored tea as a token of thanks and as a gift to the then British Prime Minister, Earl Grey (Prime Minister from 1830-1834). Another legend says it was the Earl himself who saved the Mandarin and was given the recipe.Yet another says that the gift of tea was the conclusion to a successful diplomatic mission. However these different stories should e treated with some scepticism. First, the Chinese have never drunk this particular scented tea themselves; secondly, biographies of the Earl and numerous history books covering relations and activities involving China and Britain between 1830 and 1834 (a time of hostilities due to the Opium trade) make no mention whatsoever of the gift of tea; thirdly, modern blends claim that the tea should contain Indian as well as China teas, but in 1830-1834, no tea was being produced in India so no blend could have contained it."

Evidently, the name was just a clever marketing ploy.

 

[donna]

My great uncle on my Dad's side drink his coffee from a saucer. It really surprised me when I first saw him do it. I was about 5 years old. He was born in 1880s in Bourbon County, Kentucky. My Granny said many folks did it when she was young.

 

[grace]

@DaveBrt thank you for that information! I very much enjoyed it. *sips on strong black tea.