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7/23/2021

A Teapot in Space? Bertrand Russell and his Famous Controversial Cosmic Teapot

Teapot in space
Tea party, tea and consent, Russell’s teapot...Yes, I love to drink tea, but I also find it intriguing how tea has been used as a symbol in so many ways socially, politically and so on. It's wild that this piece of common crockery has such a history worldwide it can be used like that. I recently discovered a way it was leveraged on the border of philosophy and religion. During a session of sending memes back and forth with a friend I found one of a teapot in space with the name Bertrand Russell on it. Loving tea and being a scifi fan I thought the image was fun, but I realized there was something more. I was surprised that I hadn’t come across this before.


A Bit About Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, mathematician, teacher and writer who lived from 1872-1970 (98!). His parents died when he was a baby and he was raised by his grandparents. His grandfather was a member of parliament. He saw both world wars, and their ends. A fierce advocate of humanism and freedom of speech, he was fined and imprisoned for some of his writings that criticized war and government. Yet, he went on to become a Nobel Prize winner for literature.

He is known for many thought provoking quotes. Here are a few:

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead.”
 
Bertrand Russell
“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.”
Bertrand Russell quote
Russell's Teapot

Russell was a prolific writer and speaker, but the cosmic teapot is one of his most well known concepts. The idea behind the analogy was that the burden of proof is on the claimant not the detractor.

His argument went like this:

“If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes.
But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.”

This analogy, which has been called the cosmic teapot, the celestial teapot, Russel’s teapot, and Bertram’s teapot, became famous and associated with atheism.  However, Russell himself felt that even his assertions should be questioned stating:

“The rational man will not be so sure that he’s right. We ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people to dogmatically believe any philosophy, not even mine.”

I know enough to know that I don’t know everything. One thing I do know is that I adore tea, the taste of it, how we gather together to share it and how it continues to inspire discourse.

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11/3/2020

Tea and a Tale: Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

The Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow
The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
“The sequestered situation of this church seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust, trees and lofty elms, from among which its decent, whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement.” - "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving
I finally got back to the Hollow this week during daylight to walk the historic grounds of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and the The Old Dutch Church, the oldest in the country (estimated at 1685). 

A beautiful site with gently rolling hills, loads of foliage, and varying styles of stone work, this place is both a living work of art and of history. Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is buried here. I thought he’d have one of the house-like mausoleums in the cemetery considering how well he was known even in his own time. He was a lawyer, historian and diplomat on top of being a creative writer. Not bad for never going to college and being the 11th child of a sizable family. Not resting in a mausoleum, Irving’s modest tombstone is in his family plot at the cemetery.
Washington Irving's gravestone
“The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of supernatural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land.”
- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving

This is the 200th anniversary of the publication of the tale of the creepy headless ghost that would haunt the dirt roadways of the town at night. The story was published as part of a compilation called The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in March 1820. 

This is such a classic spooky tale that has not only survived as a Halloween staple it has inspired TV shows and multiple movies like Tim Burton’s version in 1999. The town is definitely developed, but historic sites like the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and the Old Dutch Church seem frozen in time. I went on a beautifully overcast day that was not too hot nor too cold, just Goldilocks perfect, and quiet for Halloween season. I even found the Van Tassel plot by pure chance - the family whose daughter Katrina plays such a part in the story. 
Van Tassell gravestones in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
“It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance.”
​
- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving

Tea in America in the Early 19th Century
​

In 1820, when the story was published, America was between wars. The war of 1812 was over and the British were stopped from invading the northern US, but the Civil War was yet to begin. New York was on the verge of massive immigrant growth and even post-Boston Tea Party, tea was a huge import. 

In 1820, when the story was published, America was between wars. The war of 1812 was over and the British were stopped from invading the northern US, but the Civil War was yet to begin.
New York was on the verge of massive immigrant growth and even post-Boston Tea Party, tea was a huge import. 


This was a time when whiskey was cheaper than tea, and the early temperance movement was growing. It was also the time of another pandemic: the cholera pandemic of Asia. 
After the Revolutionary war the US lost trade with the British West Indies, impacting tea imports. Adventurous entrepreneurs, like banker Robert Morris, took up the slack, and trade with China included tea:
“Tea was the most important imported commodity Americans obtained from China through the end of the 19th century. Initially, American imports from China largely consisted of cloth (nankeen and silk) as well as tea. Tea became the dominant commodity, expanding from approximately 36% of the total imports from China in 1822 to 65% in 1860.”


Though some turned to coffee and herbal Liberty Tea after the war, true tea did not disappear and even the President kept his tea time.


1820 is prior to the popularization of afternoon tea and the rise of the tea room. At this time tea was mostly an after dinner bevvy. I can imagine teacups rattling against saucers as scary tales were told on cold nights by the fire in Sleepy Hollow.


Sign in Sleepy Hollow about the headless horseman
The Headless Horseman haunts Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
“The chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman, who had been heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and, it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard.” - "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving
I love tea and a good tale. Revisiting this classic story and the place of its origin made for a great Fall and Halloween experience. What books are you pairing with tea lately? Let me know on Facebook or Twitter.

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Tea Deviant in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Tea Deviant at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
“On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless! but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!” 
- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving


Picture
Picture

7/30/2018

There's One Caffeinated Herb Native to North America

PictureYaupon leaves remind me of dragon scales
Yaupon is a sister plant to both yerba maté and guayusa. They are all in the holly family, they all have caffeine, but yaupon (yo-pahn) is the only one native to North America. It is robust and grows wild with many people using it as a hedge or trying to remove it, not knowing it’s history as an ancient revitalizing herb.

It’s formal name is Ilex vomitoria. Unfortunate. Kind of like being born with the last name Puke or Dorq or something. Don’t hold the name against the plant as it is much more tasty and positive than its Latin name implies. Apparently it was used in purification by Native Americans, but it is not a vomit-inducing plant. It was a botanist to King George the III that named it in 1789, apparently based on such reports. There are theories that he was ‘influenced’ to do so by the powerful tea trade of the time.

Like, maté and guayusa, yaupon gives a good caffeine kick-in-the-pants without jitters or crashes. As I understand it, the caffeine content of yaupon generally falls between black tea and coffee depending where it is grown/harvested and on how strongly it is made (steep time and amount).

Like it’s sister herbs it is hard to over steep as it doesn’t suffer from tannin overload like over steeped tea does. It just results in a flavor that is more robust. Like with maté, the leaves can be resteeped throughout the day.

Also like maté, which is traditionally drank from hollowed out gourds, yaupon has its own unique traditional vessels. Decorated shells were used as drinking vessels by Native American tribes. You can see a picture of one here .

Ecologically yaupon is a great plant to grow. Because it is robust and grows wild land doesn’t need to be cleared to grow it. It can be grown amongst other native plants without disturbing the ecosystem.

I tried the yaupon dark which is roasted. The broken leaves reminded me of dragon scales. The flavor moved from a light caramel-like earthiness to a deeper nuttiness when brewed longer. I found it less bitter than maté. The kick was a feeling of alertness without any shaking, crashing or stomach gnawing (anyone else get that from brewed coffee? Ouch.) I only tried it plain and I like it’s natural taste, but I think it could pair with sweetener and/or creamer much like a mate latte does. It can be made to taste just like tea so the choice is yours. Have any of you tried yaupon already? Let us know what you think here or here.
​

Wishing you great adventures in tea.
-by Cassandra Vincent

This is not a sponsored post.


1/31/2018

Tea - A Love that Inspired Crime, Riots and Revolution

Picture
Tea. To many it still conjures images of ladies in floral dresses and big hats or zen masters pondering the mysteries of the universe as in the case of Thor: Ragnarok. When Doctor Strange offers Thor tea he responds:
Thor: I don’t drink tea
Doctor Strange: What do you drink?
Thor: Not tea.
 
Then a huge magically refilling beer glass appears in Thor’s hand because everyone clearly knows that beer is a more appropriate drink for a man who calls himself the God of Thunder. Ahem. (great fun film, by the way)  Now, I love beer. I have nothing against it, but ‘back in the day’ tea had a dark, criminal underbelly. Yes, the nobility and the wealthy drank it first, but as with anything perceived as exclusive everyone started to want it. So demand gave rise to everything from substandard knockoffs to black market trade.
 
Let’s look back to the 18th century. Britain became ravenous for tea more than any other western country of size. 
 
“Recorded imports into Britain rose from 13,082 lbs. in 1699 to 1,241,629 lbs. in 1721. By 1750 the total was 4,727,992 lbs.” 1  
 
But that is only the legal recorded amounts. The cost of tea was too much for most households to afford, especially with the duties imposed by the government and the East India Company monopoly on the tea trade. This unmet demand resulted in violent, prolific, smuggling. Some gangs that engaged in the tea smuggling trade went so far as torturing and killing informants and customs workers who tried to bring them down.
Yeesh. It’s like that spoof of “Breaking Bad” that some of the cast of “Downton Abbey” did on Colbert called “Breaking Abbey” where tea replaced meth. It is hilarious, but when you realize how like the drug trade parts of tea history are it is…slightly less hilarious.  If I saw a biker gang drink tea now I would not think it strange (Sons of Anarch-tea?  Yeah, that’s an image. )
 
The general public wanted tea but were against the cost of the legal version of it so millions were complicit in the smuggling trade 2.  The cheaper tea was often not much real tea at all. To keep the cost down it was often cut with anything from leaves of other plants, used tea leaves purchased from servants and even sheep’s dung 3.

Even dangerous dyes were used, like copper dyes in inferior green tea, which may have added to the British switch from green tea to more black tea. A fine was imposed for such adulterations but it was difficult to impose on tea sold under the radar. It kind of makes that Versace knockoff you got from a NYC street vendor seem mild by comparison. Unless you intend to eat it, of course. I suggest you don’t. You don’t know where that thing has been.
 
In 1747 there was a large drop in the tax on tea which caused legal imports to Britain to roughly triple and smuggling to shrink. But by the 1770s smuggling swelled with large armed ships with large crews running the game.  During this time historians estimate that 4-7.5 million lbs. of tea was smuggled in exceeding the recorded 4-5 million legal lbs 4.
 
Americans in the colonies were digging tea too and demand was increasing. As they were still under British rule the tea came through Britain for the first half of the 18th century. This tea came with heavy cost as the import duties paid in Britain were passed on to the cost in America. Because of this it is estimated that ¾ of all the tea imported to the colonies in 1760 was smuggled in 5.
 
Then it got even more interesting. In 1767 there was a law passed that let the import duty on tea sent to America to be repaid which slowed smuggling for a time 6. Then in 1773 the East India Company was allowed to export straight to the colonies and would include a threepenny tax per lb.

As Britain had already taxed American newspapers, bills and legal docs prior and then initiated taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass and now tea 7 it is fair to say America was getting tetchy. It was the Tea Act of 1773 that began the rumblings which would lead to the infamous Boston Tea Party. It was felt that Britain was attempting to secure greater and greater power over American interests.

Customs officers had to be guarded by British troops. Apparently a man died and protests erupted when troops fired into a mob in Boston in 1770  (sound familiar?). The people began to organize preventing ships from docking and attacking tea warehouses. It was like tea had become a symbol of the establishment that the angry public wanted to bring down.
 
In the book there is an interesting log entry from the journal of a mate named Alexander Hodgdon who served on the ship the Dartmouth which arrived in Boston:
 
“Between six and seven o’clock this evening came down to the wharf a body of about one thousand people. Among them were a number dressed and whooping like Indians. They came on board the ship, and after warning myself and the Customs-House Officer to get out of the way, they unlaid the hatches and went down into the hold, where there were eighty whole and thirty-four half chests of tea, which they hoisted on deck, cut the chests to pieces, and hove the tea all overboard, where it was damaged and lost.” 9
 
This was the Boston Tea Party, which resulted in the destruction of all tea on three ships that had arrived in Boston. The tea that had arrived in Charleston was left to rot and tea that had been sent to Philly and NYC was sent back to London. It was Boston that took the biscuit, though, sending a strong message to Britain who responded with closing Boston harbor and attempts to exert control that resulted in the war that led to American independence. No wonder coffee gained a foothold here. Tea was somewhat demonized for a time as a traitor’s drink.
 
Quite a ride for a beverage sipped in some of the West’s most opulent hotels and enjoyed around the table of many a common home today.  
 
Tea - there is a world of history in your cup.
 
 
The source for this post is an interesting book written by a man who began his work in the tea trade at the age of 21 in 1960. The book is: Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, by Roy Moxham. This post touches on just a piece of what the book covers. If you are interested in tea history I recommend it.  Here are the pages I drew from:
 
Moxham, Roy (2003) Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, New York, Carroll & Graf
 
1 pg 24, 2 pg 25, 3 pg 29, 4 pg 26-27, 5 pg 46, 6 pg 46, 7 pg 47, 8 pg 47, 9 pg 49

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    Author

    Cassandra Vincent 

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