Well, I don't know why I took so long to read this. It was a birthday gift from several years ago and while I was obviously interested enough to keep it, I kept putting off reading it. I guess because it's non-fiction and I can struggle with reading that in physical copy. (Audio tends to do better for me with that kind of book.) But I got distracted while cleaning recently, picked it up to dust the cover and thought, "what exactly is this about, anyway?" Then I opened it, skimmed it, and found it quite charming. So, I finally sat down and read it. It's a well written and quick read about exactly what it sounds like: Tea during Jane Austen's time. 

By reading this, you'll learn about the time when tea was first introduced to Britain and its fast-growing influence upon the society in which Jane Austen lived. The drink which we consider so quintessentially British today was once rejected by many people because it was seen as destroying older British food traditions like drinking ale or beer with breakfast. It upset some people so much (especially the brewers of said alcoholic beverages who didn't sell as much after tea came on the scene) that some people accused the drink of making men effeminate, making women look old and ugly faster, and told generalized lies about its impact on health.

On the flipside, tea became so popular there was a black market for the stuff. Legal tea was transported in a responsible and sanitary (for that time, at least) manner, and was so valuable it was locked away from house servants lest they steal some. (Which didn't always stop maids from drying out the leaves their employers had already used and reselling it out the back door.) Illegally smuggled tea was cheaper, but tasted funky because it was shipped overseas inside oil skins that imbued their greasy flavor to the leaves, and then put in bags that hung against the side of horses and got sweat on them so it tasted even funkier. Oh, and lets not forget the totally fake stuff that wasn't tea at all, but Ash tree leaves that got dried, stepped on to make it smaller, and for some reason combined with sheep poop, toxic dye, and occasional floor sweepings because apparently some people had no morals and thought it was okay to sell that for others to consume???

Anyway... I had no idea the history of tea in Great Britain was so complicated. I really loved the way this author used the history of tea to also educate the reader about the Regency era and Jane Austen and her family. She even showed the impact of tea on the fiction of the day beyond just Austen's.

You'll also find short, historical recipes scattered throughout. I liked how the author showed the historical version of the recipe first so you could compare it to the modern day version on the next page. Some of them would have been an outright arm workout back in the day since they told you to mix stuff with your hands for one hour! One old recipe even made me laugh because it actually said to go milk your cow so you have hot milk to make froth with. The author said she had to go research the internal temperature of cows in order to be able to tell us readers how much to heat our milk!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and feel I learned many new things about the Regency Era and Jane Austen as a person. 100% recommended to anyone interested in these subjects!

Content Advisory:
Some passing, non-detailed mentions of immoral behavior, like how "ladies of the street" would sometimes hang around in tea gardens to have a chance to approach men.

A thin little book with a lot of illustrations and quotes in big print, that accomplishes its purpose of exploring tea practices of Jane's era, and in particular of Jane herself. Although mostly a discussion of social customs, the book also includes a dozen or so recipes, most of them offered first as written in Jane's lifetime, and then translated for a modern kitchen. I would have liked some color illustrations, for example of Jane's brother's Wedgwood set, but wasn't surprised by the lack and a bit of googling satisfied my curiosity on that front.

You know there is a stereotype of unsophisticated english cuisine and gosh this book unintentionally strengthens this notion. Oats water, Barley jelly...and on top of all Syllabab - white wine with whiped cream, lemon and sugar - OMG is this even real? :)
But jokes aside it's a really nice quick read that introduces us an english tea culture on the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries through the anecdotes from life of Jane Austen and her literary characters.
But most important - it succeeded to capture the cozy atmosphere of Jane Austen literary world and time better than an Oxford Companion I tell ya ;)

Illustrated with period illustrations and peppered with quotes from the novels and other books of the period, this slim volume contains all you ever wanted to know about the social history of tea in Jane Austen's World. The book is broken down into times of day and explains why and how tea was taken with examples from Jane Austen's writings. There are also a few recipes for tea treats and you can even make them at home with the handily provided modern recipe. The recipes use both British and American measurements so hostesses on both sides of the Atlantic can serve a proper tea. The book concludes with directions on how to make the perfect cup of tea.

I thought this book would be more of a cookbook, but I really enjoyed learning about the history of tea as a meal in 19th century Britain. The period illustrations (in color) and recipes make the book even more enjoyable. This is a good book for the reference shelf if you attend or host a lot of period teas. Most casual readers will enjoy reading this book to learn about the importance of tea, but may not want to own it. Warning! You will find yourself craving tea when you read this book.

I most enjoyed the historical aspect of this book. Very few of us think about the history of food and drink even though they are integral to each of us. This book not only brings in the history but also Jane Austen's works and recipes.

A cute little book; slightly more substance than some books of this type, but mostly just a conversation piece.

When I received this book as a gift, I expected it to be mostly filled with recipes, alongside various Austen quotes which mention tea. It is far, far more than that.

Tea With Jane Austen is a fine piece of food history, detailing how the consumption of tea in England had evolved by the Regency era. Each point is illustrated with quotes from the Austen novels, unfinished works, and letters. The chapters conclude with historical recipes and modern adaptations of them.

Understanding food is a large part of understanding culture, and this book opened the eyes of even this Austen fan to things I hadn't fully understood about the era. If you like Jane Austen or the Regency in general, I highly recommend it.

If you are watching or reading Jane Austen this book will be very helpful. It goes over not just the role tea played in society it also covers numerous other aspects of social behavior in Jane Austen's day. I felt after reading this that I had a better understanding of the social dynamics in th enovels. It does have two other bonuses: an extensive bibliography with other intriguing materials to read, and recipes for foods of the period adapted to todays measures. I also really enjoyed th equotes from the various novels. Knowing for instance that a barouche carriage is similar to riding around in a chauffered limo in terms of social status - just as the role tea played in social status and hierarchical / class expectations in her society -

I just had to borrow this one when I saw it because I love Jane Austen and tea (as evidenced by the fact that I went to the Jane Austen Center in Bath and bought their tea). Tea with Jane Austen is about tea (and food) in Jane Austen's time, which is quite focused compared to other books about Jane Austen and that time period.

Tea With Jane Austen is broken into six parts:

1. Tea in the morning: This is about how people drank tea in the morning, but really more about when they ate and what they ate. But one thing I learned was that tea was considered very expensive and that's why the women of the house (not the servants) were personally responsible for making tea. In fact, when they weren't using the tea, it was locked away in a tea caddy!

2. Tea and Shopping: This was on how people bought tea and why there was an illegal tea trade. I've been reading up on tea fraud these past few weeks and what I found was pretty scary, but this book made me glad that I'm not living in Austen's era! The tea fraud seems to be much worse there because apart from people selling used tea leaves, there's something called "smouch", which is fake tea "made with ash tree leaves that were dried, baked, "trod upon until the leaves are small, then lifted and steeped in copperas, with sheep's dung, after which, being dried on a floor, they are fit for use."" I'm glad that most of the fraud nowadays is origin-fraud (i.e. passing tea from one place off as tea from another place), although more serious health-harming fraud also occurs.

3. Tea away from home: This was on how people took their tea when they weren't at home. This covered whether soldiers and sailors drank tea, tea parlors, and tea during picnics.

4. Tea and Health: Quite a lot of people drink tea for its health benefits, but tea wasn't always seen to be beneficial. During its early years, there was quite a lot of opposition to tea from brewers, and "one particularly indignant fellow wrote a furious letter to Gentleman's Magazine, claiming tea caused feebleness, cowardice, poor blood, barren women, and dissatisfied servants." Very different from how we see tea nowadays!

This chapter also covered the reasons drank tea, from it being the only thing heroines in distressed drink, to being something that also nourished the sick in Austen's time.

5. Tea in the Evening: Like the Tea in the Morning chapter, this chapter is concerned more with how people spent their evening and nights, and the role of tea wasn't as big as in the other chapters. It was, however, interesting to read about how "tea was invariably served at the more splendid evening entertainments, whether they were public affairs such as concerts or assemblies (public dancers), or private balls." Looks like tea was also a sort of status symbol, which is no wonder given its high price!

Each chapter also comes with a couple of recipes. The original is given, and then a recipe for modern day cooks follows so that you can make it without having to time travel.

Overall, this was a short and fascinating book. If you're a fan of Jane Austen, you definitely have to read this - preferably while sipping on a cup of tea.

This review was first posted at Eustea

Hahah, love this quote from an irate fellow who wrote in to "Gentleman's Magazine" decrying the growing popularity of tea:

'Were it entirely wholesome as Balm or Mint, it were yet Mischief enough to have our whole Populace used to sip warm Water in a mincing effeminate Manner once or twice a Day; which hot Water must be supped out of a nice Tea-cup, sweetened with Sugar, biting a Bit of nice thin Bread and Butter between whiles.'

Fabulous little book (97 pages) about tea and it's prominent role in Jane Austen's life and novels. Kim Wilson , like me, is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She has done extensive research on the history of tea and how it was prepared and served in Regency England. I could almost see myself sitting with the Austen family at their morning breakfast while Jane prepared the tea. Very informative, well written and just plain fun to read.

Fun book. I even drank tea while reading it. Includes old recipes and many references to Austen novels. Seems will even help better relate to Austen novels.