Exclusive Extras
Mea Culpa, Midnight Pleasures
A tea expert named Lois wrote with a fascinating note about the history of tea. Midnight Pleasures mentions Patrick’s “man in Ceylon” in reference to black tea. However, tea was first planted in Ceylon as an experiment in 1841, as a result of the Opium Wars. England was looking for places outside China to cultivate tea, and they chose Ceylon and Assam in India. Even as late as 1867 there was very little tea grown in Ceylon, only 1000 acres. At the time of Midnight Pleasures all the tea consumed in England came from China and was mostly green tea.