S.A. said

LeFanu's Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories

Hello, hope this post finds you well.
Over the long winter, illness forced a week long bed rest. With it, Dover’s edition of “Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories” by J. Sheridan LeFanu, became a fascinating companion.
In “Green Tea” an English pastor drinks green tea in the wee hours of morning to accompany his earnest writing. He ends up with one hell of a monkey on his back, so to speak. Is it physical, psychological, metaphysical? The reader is left to deliberate the root cause of the madness.
The story is set in the early 1800’s around the time Chinese tea exporters were adding chemical color enhancers to appeal to the American colonial market. The English market began to view green tea with suspicion around this time as well, and the popularity of black tea grew even more, as the green was seen as less wholesome.
Question:
Is there any historical account of the color additives in some green tea causing psychological problems in the Western drinker of the 1800’s? Though a lot of the pigment seemed to be ingested without much incident, could there have been batches of tea exported with extremely cheap and poisonous pigments which caused obvious harm? A tea as dubious as bathtub gin as it were.
Any information or rumination is welcome. Thanks for your kind attention.
P.S.
If you’re into little creepy short fiction, check out LeFanu’s “Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories”:)

10 Replies
S.A. said

Thanks so much Whiteantlers! This is exactly the kind of great resource needed. Wonderful information:D
Thank you! Thank you!

AllanK said

Very interesting article

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I enjoyed your post, S.A. and the research was fun while I had my lunch. It reminded me of an old New Yorker article about Absinthe aka The Green Faerie. It wasn’t the Absinthe that was making drinkers insane or killing them; it was toxic additives put into the booze by greedy, unscrupulous merchants. Absinthe, untainted, is as safe as any other alcoholic libation.

S.A. said

Your lunch time research skills are fantastic!
Floundering around and finding scraps of info here and there was becoming frustrating. The article you shared was very enlightening to say the least. Again, many thanks!
That’s a great point about the Absinthe as well. Working in liquor retail when Absinthe was cleared to be sold in the US, we had to explain that fact to overly excited customers.
“No, no, Sir/Madam, you will not be experiencing hallucinations because the product is not tainted with all class of poisons. Yes, yes, no fun at all indeed…sorry for the…disappointment?” The US version also lacks wormwood if I’m not mistaking.
Anywhooo…
Cheers Whiteantlers!

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You’re very kind, S.A. I love ferreting out obscure information; keeps my brain and imagination agile. My sister is a professor of Criminal Justice and often asks me to research things related to odd ball street drugs like bath salts for her classes.

Our U.S. Absinthe does contain thujone, which is the active chemical ingredient in wormwood/artemesia. Thujone causes cholinergic receptor binding activity in the brain which means it improves the brain’s cognitive functions. You could say that makes good old Green Faerie a forerunner to modern day smart drugs. Not surprising that a lot of the creative types back in the day (over) indulged in it. No doubt it was a good, reliable mental stimulant when one had writers/painters/sculptors/musicians block.

Ain’t Nature grand?!

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S.A. said

It’s clear why your sister relies on you:)
Thanks for correcting my misinformation about the wormwood. It must have been a causal theory I overheard about the difference between American and European Absinthe. Allegedly to be cleared to sell in the US it had to be a weaker product.
Now I’m tempted to try a light wormwood infusion as an experiment! Had no idea it possessed such interesting properties. I’ll be careful not to put a monkey on my back though;)
I hope you get an opportunity to read “Green Tea”. I’m sure you would have a fascinating analysis given your extensive research experience.
“…Nature, a mistress above all masters…”-Da Vinci

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My sister, I think, just leads a sheltered married life and thinks Big Sister is the opposite.

I believe there is a lot of deliberate misinformation about absinthe. Adds to the mystique. By all means please be careful playing with wormwood. You only get one liver.

Nice quote from Leonardo!

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S.A. said

Warning headed, I started drinking tea in order to be kinder to my organs, after all XD

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Good for you! Tea has the capacity to heal many ills, I think-spiritual, mental and physical. I raise my cup to its majesty. :-D

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