Between the 1850s and 1870s, the clipper ships were the marvel darlings of the maritime trade route that brought tea from China to Britain. From the port of Canton, these magnificent vessels traveled over 16 thousand miles, crossing the Indian Ocean toward Cape of Good Hope on South Africa’s southern tip before heading north along the Atlantic to reach British shores. So much desire was placed upon the freshest and earliest-picked tea leaves of the season that clipper races were held to accolade that which brought them home the fastest, making a three-month journey that would be won by the difference of twelve minutes.
These sailing ships were daring feats of marine engineering. Powered by wind only, they literally “clipped” the top of the waves as they sped across the ocean, achieving previously unimaginable seaborne velocity of 17 knots, roughly 20 miles per hour. Their brilliance lay in the ability to continue sailing with the tiniest breath of wind, allowing them to “ghost” gracefully in the calmest of conditions. To do so they relied on a captain with nerves of steel and a crew of dedicated and experienced mariners, among the many whose lives had perished at sea for such a mission.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, connecting the Far East with the Mediterranean via the Red Sea, brought the brief but glorious reign of the clipper ship to an end. Long passages of calm, and unpredictable winds gave steamship transport the competitive edge over the clipper. Nonetheless, for a couple of decades, their technological beauty and romantic adventures in carrying the most desirable goods captured the public’s imagination, inspiring many a poem written in dedication to these ships:
“There was a time before our time,
It will not come again,
When the best ships still were wooden ships
But the men were iron men.
From Stonington to Kennebunk
The Yankee hammers plied
To build the clippers of the wave
That were New England’s pride.
The “Flying Cloud,” the “Northern Light,”
The “Sovereign of the Seas” –
There was salt music in the blood
That thought of names like these.
“Sea Witch,” “Red Jacket,” “Golden Age,”
And “Chariot of Fame,”
The whole world gaped to look at them
Before the steamship came.
Their cargoes were of tea and gold,
Their bows a cutting blade;
And, on the bridge, the skippers walked,
Lords of the China trade.”1
Yet, long before the British East India Company dominated the Maritime Tea Route, tea had already been transported along the Tea-Horse Road, also known as the Southern Silk Road. Dating back to the Tang Dynasty, tea was traded with the Kingdom of Tibet in exchange for Tibetan war horses. The road began from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, ran along the eastern foothills of the Hengduan Mountains, then crossed the Hengduan mountain range and deep canyons of several rivers, the Yalong, the Jinsha, the Lancang, and the Nu, spanning the two highest plateaus, Qinghai-Tibet and Yunnan-Guizhou, before reaching the south of the Himalayas in India. From Sichuan to Lhasa is some 2350 km long with 51 river crossing, 15 rope bridges and 10 iron bridges, traversing 78 mountains over 3000 meters high, making this route among the most difficult in the world.
According to the Tibetan book Historic Collection of the Han and Tibet, “In the reign of the Tibetan King Chidusongzan (676-704), the Tibetan aristocracy started to drink tea and use the tea-bowl, and tea was classified into different categories.” Large scale trading of tea and horses developed around the Song Dynasty (960-1279), during which some 20 thousand warhorses per year were exchanged for tea, of which at least half of Sichuan’s annual output, about 15 million kg, was sold to Tibet. The most prosperous period of the tea-horse trade was under the Ming Dynasty (1369-1644), and continued on through the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). With Japanese occupation of the coastal cities during WWII, the Tea-Horse Caravan Road became the source of supply to inland China from India. It was estimated some 8000 mules and horses and 20 thousand yaks were used during Operation Caravan when all other routes into China had been blocked during the war. Both people and horses carried heavy loads. Tea porters sometimes carried over 60-90 kg (132-198 lb), which was often more than their own body weight in tea. Porters were equipped with metal-tipped staffs, both for balance while walking and to help support the load while they rested, eliminating the need to lay the bales down.
By the 13th century, the Tibetan had developed their own tea culture and their own tea concoction called butter tea. Butter tea consists of black tea, yak butter, and salt. Chunks are pulled off of tea bricks and are boiled for several hours. This results in a dark and concentrated tea called “chaku”. Black tea, pu-erh, and oolongs are much more suited for this intense brewing process than green teas, as boiling a green tea for this long would result in an incredibly bitter concoction. The next step is to combine the tea concentrate with butter, milk, and salt. Traditionally this process involves adding the ingredients into a long wooden churn called a “cha dong” and churning the mixture for several minutes in order to emulsify the fats. Once complete, the tea should be creamy with the consistency of stew and have a light froth over the top. It has a salty and buttery taste.
In the 17th century, another Great Tea Route, the Siberian Route, connected China to Russia to transport tea from the Wuyi Mountains to St. Petersburg. Over 13 thousand km, camel caravans traversed Mongolia to the border town of Kyakhta before crossing Siberia, a journey that defined trade, cultural exchange, and tea consumption for over two centuries. The route is credited with giving rise to the Russian Caravan tea blend and promoting a distinct tea culture in Russia, who was the largest importer of Chinese tea. Russian Caravan is a blend of oolong, keemun, and lapsang souchong teas. It is described as an aromatic and full-bodied tea with a sweet, malty, and smoky taste.
The distinctive smoky flavor of Caravan tea has raised curiosity over the centuries. One theory credited the tea’s flavor to be acquired through exposure to smoke from the camp fires lit by tea traders every night, as it took at least six months to make the 6000 mile journey from the Chinese border to Russia. Another theory ascribed it to the tea’s exposure to climate. In the Dublin Review of 1888, it was written: “The southern route by Odessa is far cheaper, but the tea is supposed to suffer in flavour in its transit through the tropical seas, while it improves in its passage through the cold dry climate of Mongolia and Siberia, by losing that unpleasant taste of firing [whereby tea was dried using direct heat]. As Russian epicures believe that a peculiar delicacy of flavor is imparted to it by the slight moisture it absorbs when nightly unloaded and placed on the snow-covered steppes, the enhanced price it commands compensates for the greater expense and difficulty of its carriage by this route.” In 1918, another theory emerged, arguing for the real difference to be in the curing. The tea going by caravan overland in winter was “fired” only once, while for that going by ship through the tropics three firings were necessary, and these diminished the flavor.
Today tea has become everyone’s common beverage. Yet much should be sung upon its arduous, adventurous, technology-driven, romance-filled, unbelievable journey over the course of history to spread its influence to cultures across the world. Inspired by the Tea Route, this dress, crafted from a vintage sari, is embroidered with three rows of beads over three leaf motifs to symbolize the three Great Tea Routes.
1. Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet, Clipper Ships and Captains.
hardlyplaying.blog 