https://daily.jstor.org/the-dangers-of-tea-drinking/ Skip to content [j_dailylogo_header_184x60] where news meets its scholarly match * Newsletters * * * [ ] * About JSTOR Daily * Teaching with Reveal Digital's American Prison Newspapers Collection * Newsletters * Arts & Culture + Art & Art History + Film & Media + Language & Literature + Performing Arts * Business & Economics + Business + Economics * Politics & History + Politics & Government + U.S. History + World History + Social History + Quirky History * Science & Technology + Health + Natural Science + Plants & Animals + Sustainability & The Environment + Technology * Education & Society + Education + Lifestyle + Religion + Social Sciences * Reading Lists * Syllabi * Columns * Open Community Collections on JSTOR * Contact The Editors * Support JSTOR Daily Politics & History The Dangers of Tea Drinking In nineteenth century Ireland, tea could be a symbol of cultivation and respectability or ill health and chaos, depending on who was drinking it. Vintage engraving of young girl pour her sick mother a cup of tea, 19th Century Getty By: Livia Gershon June 12, 2023 June 9, 2023 2 minutes Share Tweet Email Print In many places around the world, hospitality means offering guests a cup of tea. As historian Tricia Cusack writes, this was increasingly true in nineteenth-century Ireland. But when the people doing the drinking were from the lower classes, many medical and social commentators raised alarms. Cusack writes that the practice of taking afternoon tea spread from fashionable Dublin to upper and middle classes around Ireland in the 1800s. Women could demonstrate their families' status with tasteful tea parties governed by rules of etiquette imported from England. Among these were that the tea must be of good quality, refreshments should be placed on a silver tray, and nothing serious or controversial should be discussed. Moderation was also crucial. As one etiquette manual advised, "It is not usual for a lady to take more than one cup of tea." Tea was part of a larger package of Victorian femininity, which called for women to focus a great deal of effort on keeping a bright, clean home. Upper-class commenters warned that tea-drinking by the poor, particularly poor women, was not just unhealthy but dangerous to social order. But when it came to the urban poor and farm laborers, popular discourse was very different. As early as 1745, a treatise on tea by British writer Simon Mason promoted afternoon tea drinking as a digestive aid for elites who enjoyed large meals and many glasses of wine. On the other hand, he discouraged "an imprudent Use of Tea, by Persons of an inferior Rank, and mean Abilities." In particular, when it came to women who "work hard and live low," he argued, tea "makes them peevish and unkind to their husbands... These poor Creatures, to be fashionable and imitate their Superiors, are neglecting their Spinning, Knitting, etc spending what their Husbands are working hard for." Cusack writes that many commentators also disapproved of the way the lower classes prepared tea. Where genteel guides called for tea to be steeped only briefly, the practice among the poor was to keep a kettle continually brewing on the hob or in the ashes of a fire, ready to share with neighbors who stopped by or to drink with meals. Medical authorities argued that the continual brewing extracted all the tannins from tea, resulting in gastric distress, nervous disorders, and even hallucinations. Upper-class commenters warned that tea-drinking by the poor, particularly poor women, was not just unhealthy but dangerous to social order. For example, in one nineteenth-century "improvement" story, a young woman warns a servant that if she began drinking tea "you would be hankering after it, when you got the way of it." Another describes an unwholesome family in which the wife's tea-drinking habit drives her to thievery and threatens financial ruin. Cusack concludes that the very different judgements placed on tea drinking reflected its place as "an ambivalent practice, deemed as important for supporting civilized social life as it was claimed to be instrumental in undermining it." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Support JSTOR Daily! Join our new membership program on Patreon today. Share Tweet Email Print Have a correction or comment about this article? Please contact us. healthteaThe Canadian Journal of Irish Studies JSTOR logo Resources JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. "This pernicious tea drinking habit" By: Tricia Cusack The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 41, THE FOOD ISSUE (2018), pp. 178-209 Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Join Our Newsletter Get your fix of JSTOR Daily's best stories in your inbox each Thursday. [ ][Subscribe] Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] Read this next Two waitresses at Kate Cranston's Willow Tea Room Politics & History The Top-Secret Feminist History of Tea Rooms Nearly all American tea rooms were owned by women. They often opened up rooms in their homes or set up tables in their gardens. Trending Posts 1. The Dangers of Tea Drinking 2. Bodies of the Titanic: Found and Lost Again 3. Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos? 4. The Habshis of India 5. Tape Heads More Stories The noble Ikhlas Khan with a petition, c. 1650 World History The Habshis of India Amongst the hundreds of minorities within the Subcontinent, Black Indians of African origin stand out. Margaret Chase Smith being sworn into the House of Representatives on June 10, 1940 U.S. History Declaration of Conscience: Annotated In June 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaigns. She was the first of his colleagues to challenge his Red Scare rhetoric. A general view of the National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station on June 22, 2022 in London, England. World History Windrush Day There were British African Caribbean immigrants to the UK well before June 22, 1948, but it was the arrival of Empire Windrush that got the media's attention. The Northwestern University Gay Liberation Group attending the anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Washington, D.C. U.S. History Coming Out Against The Vietnam War The war radicalized many draft-age men, gay as well as straight. They helped normalize certain expressions of homosexuality while trying to avoid the draft. Recent Posts 1. Monique Truong's The Book of Salt 2. The Habshis of India 3. Declaration of Conscience: Annotated 4. Deimos: A Chip Off the Old Martian Block? 5. Plant of the Month: Indigo Support JSTOR Daily Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. Become a member About Us JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. * Contact The Editors * Masthead * Newsletters * About JSTOR Daily * Submission Guidelines * RSS * About the American Prison Newspapers Collection * Submissions: American Prison Newspapers Collection * Support JSTOR Daily * JSTOR.org * Terms and Conditions of Use * Privacy Policy * Cookie Policy * Cookie Settings * Accessibility logo JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. (c) ITHAKA. All Rights Reserved. JSTOR(r), the JSTOR logo, and ITHAKA(r) are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. Sign up for our weekly newsletter Get your fix of JSTOR Daily's best stories in your inbox each Thursday. [ ][Subscribe] Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] x