Historical and Literary References
Despite often being considered of mediocre quality, hyson tea was highly prized by the 18th century British and tea tax on hyson tea was higher than for other teas. During the Boston Tea Party hyson tea represented 15 of the more than three hundred chests of tea that were destroyed.
Hyson tea is referenced in the first stanza of "Xenophanes" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1847: "By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls, One aspect to the desert and the lake."
The English essayist Charles Lamb mentions Hyson tea in his essay "Old China", which appears in the collection Essays of Elia (Last Essays of Elia, published 1835): "I was pointing out to my cousin last evening, over our Hyson (which we are old fashioned enough to drink unmixed still of an afternoon) some of these speciosa miracula upon a set of extra-ordinary old blue china".
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