I know what this is, but can anyone guess?

[Legacy Hunter]

HOW DID YOU CHEAT YOU GOOGLED IT DID YOU

[saxonman]

CHINIES WELSH CAKE PRESS.......

[Legacy Hunter]

IS IT RIGHT NEIL

[Legacy Hunter]

LOL

[Neil]

Wooohoooo!!!

At last - well done Richy!

It is indeed pressed TEA! This is how it was imported into the UK for many years mainly by Dutch merchants. If you were wealthy enough you would buy a single block. thats why when we find silver tea spoons with the holes in the early ones are so small! tea was an expensive commodity back then.

Well done Richy!

Here comes the science!

Tea, that most quintessential of English drinks, is a relative latecomer to British shores. Although the custom of drinking tea dates back to the third millennium BC in China, it was not until the mid 17th century that the beverage first appeared in England.The use of tea spread slowly from its Asian homeland, reaching Europe by way of Venice around 1560, although Portuguese trading ships may have made contact with the Chinese as early as 1515.
  
It was the Portuguese and Dutch traders who first imported tea to Europe, with regular shipments by 1610. England was a latecomer to the tea trade, as the East India Company did not capitalize on tea's popularity until the mid-18th century.

Tea gained popularity quickly in the coffee houses, and by 1700 over 500 coffee houses sold it. This distressed the tavern owners, as tea cut their sales of ale and gin, and it was bad news for the government, who depended upon a steady stream of revenue from taxes on liquor sales. By 1750 tea had become the favoured drink of Britain's lower classes.

Taxation on Tea. Charles II did his bit to counter the growth of tea, with several acts forbidding its sale in private houses. This measure was designed to counter sedition, but it was so unpopular that it was impossible to enforce. A 1676 act taxed tea and required coffee house operators to apply for a license.

This was just the start of government attempts to control, or at least, to profit from the popularity of tea in Britain. By the mid 18th century the duty on tea had reached an absurd 119%. This heavy taxation had the effect of creating a whole new industry - tea smuggling.

Want to know where to get a really good "cuppa"? You could do worse than to start with The Parlour, South Molton, Devon, which was named winner of the 1999 Britain's Top Tea Place of the Year by the Tea Council.

Smuggling Tea. Ships from Holland and Scandinavia brought tea to the British coast, then stood offshore while smugglers met them and unloaded the precious cargo in small vessels. The smugglers, often local fishermen, snuck the tea inland through underground passages and hidden paths to special hiding places. One of the best hiding places was in the local parish church!

Even smuggled tea was expensive, however, and therefore extremely profitable, so many smugglers began to adulterate the tea with other substances, such as willow, licorice, and sloe leaves. Used tea leaves were also redried and added to fresh leaves.

Finally, in 1784 William Pitt the Younger introduced the Commutation Act, which dropped the tax on tea from 119% to 12.5%, effectively ending smuggling. Adulteration remained a problem, though, until the Food and Drug Act of 1875 brought in stiff penalties for the practice.

Tea Clippers. In the early 1800's ships carrying tea from the Far East to Britain could take over a year to bring home their precious cargo. When the East India Company was given a monopoly on the tea trade in 1832, they realized the need to cut the time of this journey. The Americans actually designed the first "clippers", or streamlined, tall-masted vessels, but the British were close behind. These clippers sped along at nearly 18 knots by contemporary accounts - nearly as fast as a modern ocean liner.

So great was the race for speed that an annual competition was begun for clippers to race from the Canton River to the London Docks. The first ship to unload its cargo won the captain and crew a hefty bonus.

The most famous of the clipper ships was the Cutty Sark, built in 1868. It only made the tea run eight times, but for its era it was a remarkable ship. The Cutty Sark is now on exhibition at Greenwich.

[Legacy Hunter]

THATS INTERESTING NEIL HAVE YOU ANOTHER ONE TO PUT UP? sTART A NEW TOPIC IF I WAS YOU FOR THE NEW ONE
DEBS

[willow tree]

did they give away any p.g tips cards with it  

[Legacy Hunter]

HEHEHE

[Sexy Legs (Leighton)]

I wonder back in the old days if you stole that and the police caught you if they would weigh it, and if it was more than an eighth you'd be done for intent to supply as well as possession.

    

[handyman [Alan}]

so i wonder if the origins of the word TeeTotal is linked into the 18 century heavy taxation

[Legacy Hunter]

LOL LEIGHTON
DEBS

[bymatt666 (byron)]

i was nowhere near identifying that neil.... ....but a very enlightening explanation you gave us....well done.... .....byron

[1morecoin]

A good read there Neil, very interesting, but I still hate the stuff.

Maybe one day they wil make a Tea that tastes like Stella