The potential benefits of tea drinking for the physical health of the nation as a whole occupied the minds of many authors of tea histories, who illustrated that the chemical properties of tea could actually lessen the problem of having multiple economic strata in English society and simultaneously reduce middle-class concern for the extreme poverty of the lower classes. John Sumner’s 1863 A Popular Treatise on Tea, Samuel Day’s 1878 Tea: Its Mystery and History, and Samuel Baildon’s 1882 The Tea Industry of India all quote from an article written by a Dr. Johnston and published in the Edinburgh Review in 1855.14 Dr. Johnston’s article addresses social concerns about the consumption practices of the poor, who had very little money for food but nevertheless saved part of their weekly wages for tea. According to the article, drinking a hot cup of tea helps to mitigate the suffering of the poor, and the author illustrates his claim with a poignant vignette:
By her fireside, in her humble cottage, the lonely widow sits; the kettle simmers over the ruddy embers, and the blackened tea-pot on the hot brick prepares her evening drink. Her crust of bread is scanty, yet as she sips the warm beverage—little sweetened, it may be, with the produce of the sugar-cane—genial thoughts awaken in her mind; her cottage grows less dark and lonely, and comfort seems to enliven the illfurnished cabin. . . . Whence this great solace to the weary and worn? Why out of scanty earnings does the ill-fed and lone one cheerfully pay for the seemingly un-nourishing weekly allowance of Tea? From what ever-open fountain does the daily comfort flow which the tea-cup gently brings to the care-worn and the weak? (Day, 71; Baildon, 230–31)
This quotation from the Edinburgh Review article paints a rustic portrait of a working-class tea table, complete with a sooty teapot warmed by a brick near the fire. Despite the hardships suffered by the widow in this picture, a sip from her teacup cheers her thoughts, brightens her cottage, and comforts her. Defending the poor’s choice to purchase tea with their scanty resources, the article claims that tea succors those in need, providing both physical and mental solace.
Focusing on the ability of the lower classes to elect to drink tea, spending part of their limited incomes on an apparent “luxury,” suggests that they wielded the power to choose among their consumer purchases. Insisting on the ability of the poorer classes to discriminate between commodities is a method of displaying their relative well-being.15 Thus, by proposing that the poorer classes in England maintained the capacity to choose to spend their limited incomes on tea rather than on apparently more-nutritious substances, nineteenth-century tea histories imply that the poor enjoyed many of the same freedoms as the wealthier classes in England.16 Tea histories’ emphasis on the working classes’ taste for tea, their ability to discriminate wisely between various grades of tea, and their choice to include tea, a luxury, within their daily diet provided evidence that the poorer classes in English society were not suffering unduly and that the system of political economy and free market trade, in general, allowed workers to retain their dignity and the power to exercise their consumer freedoms.
In addition to emphasizing the mental solace that could be derived from a hot cup of tea, Dr. Johnston’s article offers a scientific argument for the physiological benefits of tea within a working-class diet. His article praises the chemical components of tea, especially “theine,” which has “tonic or strengthening qualities” (Day, 72). Day quotes from the Edinburgh Review: “Now, the introduction of a certain quantity of theine into the stomach lessens the amount of waste which in similar circumstances would otherwise naturally take place. It makes the ordinary food consumed along with it, go farther, therefore, or, more correctly, lessens the quantity of food necessary to be eaten in a given time” (Day, 72–75). According to the article in the Edinburgh Review, a poor person who drank tea needed less food than she would if she did not have access to tea. Therefore, spending money on tea was not a waste of food money, as some had argued, but instead made scanty food resources even more valuable and more efficiently digested—a small amount of food goes further and is more nourishing when consumed with tea. As Sumner explains in his Popular Treatise on Tea, “Tea therefore saves food—stands to a certain extent in the place of food—while at the same time it soothes the body and enlivens the mind” (30). The Edinburgh Review elaborates, quoted by Day: “[It is not surprising] that the aged female whose earnings are barely sufficient to buy what are called the common necessaries of life, should yet spare a portion of her small gains in procuring this grateful indulgence. She can sustain her strength with less common food when she takes her Tea along with it; while she, at the same time, feels lighter in spirits, more cheerful, and fitter for this dull work of life, because of this little indulgence” (Day, 75–76).17 The Edinburgh Review suggests that tea drinking allowed a poor “aged female” access to the consumer choices that defined the middle-class English character. Like more affluent English families, she had access to both the necessaries of life and luxuries or indulgences. Even though, in this case, the Edinburgh Review cites evidence as to the extreme necessity of tea in allowing the body to more efficiently digest small amounts of food, the author maintains the distinction between necessaries and indulgences. The poor “aged female” thus still participated in middle-class consumer culture, enjoying “grateful indulgence[s]” as well as necessities of life and making smart domestic choices among available commodities. As the article in the Edinburgh Review continues, she also gained access to more middle-class character traits, including good cheer and light spirits, that were essential for all women within domestic settings and even more important for a woman in dire economic circumstances. Tea affected her demeanor, her manner, and her cheer, enabling her to accept her burden and work harder, being “fitter” for the dull work of life.
An advertisement for Lipton visually portrays the transformative power of tea, depicting the difference between the smart, happy women who drink Lipton’s Teas and those unfortunate ones who do not (see fig. 2.2).18 The ad encourages consumers to purchase Lipton’s Teas “direct from the Grower,” thus eliminating the “Middleman”: the retailer or grocer who might blend his own teas and increase the price. On the left, an illustration depicts two women smiling as they drink their tea. Their features are smooth and regular, their cheeks are pleasingly plump, and they wear bonnets over their fashionably curled hair. Their dresses indicate their middle-class wealth and fashion sense; they wear modest, high-necked gowns without excess frills or ornaments, yet the designs of their dresses reveal up-to-date fashion, with curving bodices, bustles, and narrow waists. The scene reflects all the commercial accoutrements of English middle-class life, including a large framed mirror and a Japanese fan on the wall, chair molding or wallpaper trim running across the middle of the wall, a Japanned tea tray and what looks like a Chinese porcelain teapot, round and in perfect condition, as is everything in this illustration. A houseplant that resembles an aspidistra, George Orwell’s archetypal sign of middle-class English culture, sits behind the tea table.19 The caption to this drawing proudly asserts, referring to these two plump, smiling, well-dressed women, “They Drink LIPTON’S TEAS.” The tablecloth on the tea table offers insight into their smiles: “LIPTON’S TEAS. HOW DELIGHTFUL!”
On the right is the companion illustration, depicting a similar scene of two women drinking tea together, and they sit at the table in the same positions as in the previous picture. Yet the scene is strikingly different, containing elements of a much poorer household and, as the women’s faces attest, a much unhappier one. The women in this drawing are thin, almost scrawny, and their dresses are extremely plain. They lack the fashionably cut dresses with bustles and corset-enhanced bodices. Rather than curled hair and bonnets, they wear their hair severely pulled back, and one woman wears a widow’s cap. With large noses, pronounced chins, and beady eyes, they frown at each other with wide mouths. The background mirror has