Sheet with four side labels of a packet of Quality Blend Teas printed in red on a white background. Two sides are the same, one has Save Huge Advertising Costs by buying Our Own Quality Teas and the fourth: We buy direct from Importers. The two sides the same has the weight and specially Packed for W. H. Whyte, Lewis Street, Frankston.business, printers, cambridge press, cambridge press collection, quality blend teas, w h whyte

This early 1900's tin which contained loose leaf blended tea was imported into Australia by those tea merchants who wanted to provide the Australian tea drinkers with quality tea. It could well be early Lipton distributors to both city and rural clients and consumers. This was in a period when most rural families were heavy tea drinkers. It was well before the introduction of coffee as a drink (especially instant) for the early morning, after meals and general "drink any time" pick me up beverage.This relatively large tea tin marks a period in time when loose leaf tea was in great demand and large quantities were not only used by families but also restaurants, workers mess halls and remote large rural families. The ability to obtain a quick tea supply in semi remote rural areas such as the Kiewa Valley was not possible due to the factors of all weather road access and the economics of traders going out of their way. Stocking up with important beverages, such as tea, was a "one of those things" that early rural communities had to endure with. Bulk storage tins such as this item were not only a requirement but also offered storage for other household items. This usefulness was not overlooked by the "canny" rural family.This large metal tin container was specifically manufactured for the kitchens requiring a bulk storage "bin" type of loose leaf tea content. When emptied, it could also be used as a general kitchen storage container for other bulk consumables.On the front side and in the background, there are three sketches of Egyptian pyramids(increasing in size from left to right). At the forefront there is a camel "train" loaded with supplies and handlers, making their way over the sandy desert going towards a large sign(in a freehand script) "PYRAMIDS BLEND". The left side "Specially Selected" and underneath "PURE TEAS" below this and within a circle is the figure of a Geisha clad of Asian appearance (with a fan in a raised hand with boxes(of varying sizes) around her. All these are in (off white design and wording on a green background. On the back in green print on off white background "PYRAMIDS BLEND" and underneath "OF SPECIALLY SELECTED PURE TEAS". On either side are columns of similar print. To the left "THESE UNRIVALLED BLENDS ARE GUARANTEED TO CONTAIN ONLY PURE TEAS".To the right "SPECIALLY SELECTED FROM THE CHOICE GROWTHS OF CHINA INDIAN & CEYLON". Below both columns is "for delicacy & fragrance of flavor, combined with great strength, and are confidently recommended to the public as the best values in teas obtainable" On the last side is a sketch of an " Indian encircled, holding a staph with palm trees in the background and four tea containers on his left, with "PYRAMID BLEND" as a subject heading. There are two Oxen pulling a two wheeled cart with a load of six large boxes. On lid and barely readable "FIVE POUNDS NET"loose leaf tea containers, food storage tins, kitchen tidies

Sheet with the four side labels for a packet of tea. Two labels are the same with Pure Blended Durbar Tea in white with gold edge on a dark purple background and a gold border. One refers to the tea and has the weight. The fourth has Durbar Tea, Coffee & Cocoa. Sole Proprietors. Durbar Products, Arlington Chambers, 229 Collins St., Melbourne C.1. Local Agent. Durbar Pure Flavouring Essences - quality is unexcelled. Printed in dark purple on a white background with a gold border with a flower in each corner inside a double purple border.business, printers, cambridge press, cambridge press collection, durbar tea coffee & cocoa, durbar products, arlington chambers

Take a stroll through the average beverage aisle in your supermarket, and you might get the impression that tea has always come in small boxes with disposable tea bags. But before those easy to come by boxes, there was the rich and intriguing history of the tea strainer, a beautiful little tool that has helped our ancestors enjoy loose leaf tea for hundreds of years. Enjoying loose-leaf tea, and becoming familiar with this tool, can help spark an appreciation for your tea strainer and infuser collection, or simply inspire you to grow one. Documentation of tea tools such as the tea strainer appear in ancient history, the earliest models were likely made of bamboo, and later evolved into stainless steel, sterling silver, china, porcelain, silicon, and linen. During the Tang Dynasty in China, a small book called “Classic of Tea” was written describing tea utensils, and they were made to help Buddhist monks keep living things (such as small bugs) out of the drinking water. However, using a tea tool to keep run away tea leaves out of a cup did not become a cited use of the strainer until the 17th century when Dutch merchants made tea more readily available to those outside of the Chinese dynasty. British royals then increased the popularity of tea as their preferred beverage, and it was not long before a newfound fanaticism for tea in Great Britain spread to the American colonies, as did a growing demand for products that could separate loose tea leaves from liquid with ease and flair. Why did people use a strainer to separate out tea leaves in Great Britain and not in China? While the method of serving tea from a teapot with the tea loose in the pot was a practice used in both countries, the reason China may not have required a tool to remove leaves from their cup likely had to do with the types of tea leaves they were producing. The British owned tea plantations, in countries such as India, produced finer black tea leaves that did not require as much space to expand inside of a tea pot, where as the leaves prepared on the Chinese plantations would expand far more in the pot, and were therefore less likely to land or be bothersome inside a tea cup. This common approach to serving tea with smaller tea leaves required a solution to avoid ending up with a cup, and mouth, full of tea leaves. The obvious solution was a strainer basket. In the Victorian era, tea strainer baskets, similar to those still used in tea parlors today, were made to sit on top of the cup to capture the leaves when pouring the tea from a tea pot into the individual cups. Another solution was a tea-removing device called a mote spoon. Mote spoons act as search and rescue spoons to remove tea leaves from individual teacups. The tea would be brewed loose in the teapot, so any tea that ended up in the cup could be removed with a long handled spoon with holes in the spoon to remove rogue tea leaves and keep the steeped water in the cup. The handle also helped keep the teapot spout free of leaves and could help unclog any leaves trapped when pouring. Stainless steel tea strainers and tea infusers gained popularity in the late 19th century. Big name tea strainer producers, such as Tiffany and Gorham, could use fine silver to create quality, heavy, and sturdy strainers, for those who could afford it. There were many varieties of strainers at that time, but it was more likely that smaller designers who could not afford to mass-produce these quality strainers out of silver made them into unique shapes to attract consumers with lighter wallets. And borne was the tea strainer we are accustomed to today. Things took an unexpected turn for the tea strainer in the early 1900s when Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant, shipped out tea samples in small silk bags. Customers did not realize that they were supposed to remove the tea from the bags, and instead boiled the tea, bag and all! The convenience of tossing out the leaves is obvious, and the popularity of tea bags is still seen today. Most premium bags of tea we are accustomed to today are frequently packaged loose for consumption, and when they are available in bags, the leaves are often crowded and do not have enough space to expand. While pyramid tea bags have become a more recent solution to this problem, due to the additional space at the top of the bag, enjoying a variety of quality tea is easier with a tea strainer in your arsenal. Besides, with the wide variety of strainers for your cup or pot in versatile materials such as mesh, silver, or a novelty silicone cartoon shape, loose tea can still reign supreme. Tea strainers sometimes do require more cleanup and measuring, but the experience and quality is always worth the effort. Besides, strainers also allow for mixing favorite tea blends together for an extra dose of delicious creativity! https://www.teamuse.com/article_170413.html The strainer provided the convenience of separating the tea leaves for disposal later.Metal strainer, bowl shaped, with mesh and twisted wire handle.Noneflagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, strainer