George Orwell writes, “If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points. This is curious, not only because tea is one of the mainstays of civilization … but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.” In this episode I got to sit down with Meagan Francis, a supporter and friend of Ancestral Kitchen and veteran podcaster herself. She is the host of The Kettle with Meagan Francis, which is a lovely podcast, and author of “The Last Parenting Book You’ll Ever Read” which just came out this spring. Meagan also owns a tea and variety shop and in this episode she shared with me some surprising and interesting tidbits on the history of tea and how it was introduced to Western civilization, some of the finer points of sourcing and brewing, where some of our familiar tea traditions came from and what High Tea really means.

We had so much to talk about that we overflowed into an Aftershow which will be available on Kitchen Table Chats, our private podcast of bonus episodes for podcast supporters. As a thank you to our podcast supporters for keeping us on the air, Alison also created a new recipe for Spelt Buttermilk and Honey Scones, which is available where supporters can log in to the podcast downloads section of our website. Sorry Orwell, no violent disputes broke out today, but I learned a lot. Pour yourself a hot cup of brew - whether you’re doing the dishes or just gazing across the lonely windswept moors as you listen - and let’s get into it.

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