Its a new week, and lets start it by getting the kettle brewing for a lovely, and well earned cup of tea - then we can have a chat about International Tea Day, which I tried to bring you once before, on the wrong date. But fear not, for with the addition of a bit of lemon, and a trip to the refrigerator, you can see how I coped with turning a disaster into a fairly reasonable week by going to our newsletter of the 27th of May, 2023
And so to this week`s clue cards, which are about International Tea Day, on the right date, this time.
Saturday the 18th of April saw us start with Frank Soo, who was the first Chinese footballer in the English Football League.
China gives us the birthplace of tea, and also its biggest producer.
And it was Chinese scholar, Chen Entian, who set up the International Tea Day, in 2019, with the first coming in 2020. Though research proves a form of International Tea Day had been celebrated in Asia and Africa since 2005, albeit in December.
On Sunday the 19th of April this amazing card gave us the second most prolific tea-producing country, India, the bulk of whose tea is grown by and for Brooke Bond, who launched their "Red Label" brand in India in 1903.
However the card also gave us "Planter`s" - a planter being the proper name for a person who owns, or manages, a tea estate .
And, even more than that, the card was originally issued in India, in Calcutta, which today, renamed Kolkata, is the tea capital of the entire country - as well as the site of the first ever tea auction to be held in India, on the 27th December 1861.
Our third card, on Monday the 20th of April, took us to the third most prolific tea producing country, Kenya.
Their tea is very different, darker, and much stronger, because the plants are grown at a higher altitude, where the soil is composed of spent lava and ash.
And it is usually taken as a breakfast drink in Great Britain, to wake you up.
Tea was first introduced at Limuru, Kenya in 1903, but it was not grown commercially until 1924, when Brooke Bond, again, sent a man out there to set up tea growing estates. His name was Malcolm Fyers Bell, but that is all I can find out about him. However, there may be one of our readers, into Brooke Bond, who can enlighten me a bit more.
On which note, if anyone else would like to send us any information or scans from their collection which relates in any way to our theme of the week, please do - simply email us at webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and this is the same for any corrections, or for general cartophilic correspondence and chat.