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Tea culture (3)
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BY 1904 the United States was ready to show off her development at the St Louis World's Fair. Trade exhibitors from around the world brought their products to America's first World's Fair. One such merchant was Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner. Originally, he had planned to give away free samples of hot tea to fair visitors. But when a heat wave hit, no one was interested. To save his investment of time and travel, he dumped a load of ice into the brewed tea and served the first “iced tea". It was the hit of the Fair.
Four years later, Thomas Sullivan of New York developed the concept of "bagged tea". Himself a tea merchant, he carefully wrapped each sample delivered to restaurants for their consideration. He recognized a natural marketing opportunity when he realized the restaurants were brewing the samples “in the bags" to avoid the mess of tea leaves in the kitchens.
Beginning in the late 1880's in both America and England, fine hotels began to offer tea service in tearooms and tea courts. Served in the late afternoon, Victorian ladies (and their gentlemen friends) could meet for tea and conversation. Many of these tea services became the hallmark of the elegance of the hotel, and the tea services at luxury establishments like the Ritz in Boston and the Plaza in New York became famous.
By 1910 hotels began to host afternoon tea dances as dance craze after dance craze swept the United States and England. Often considered wasteful by older people, they provided a place for the new “working girl", who invariably lived far from home and family, to meet men in the city. (Indeed, the editor of Vogue once fired a large number of female secretarial workers for “wasting their time at tea dances").
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