Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America’s Tea Cups

by Robert Hellyer

Today, Americans are some of the world's biggest consumers of black teas; in Japan, green tea, especially sencha, is preferred. These national partialities, Robert Hellyer reveals, are deeply entwined. Tracing the trans-Pacific tea trade from the eighteenth century onward, Green with Milk and Sugar shows how interconnections between Japan and the United States have influenced the daily habits of people in both countries.



Hellyer explores the forgotten American penchant for Japanese green tea and how it shaped Japanese tastes. In the nineteenth century, Americans favored green teas, which were imported from China until Japan developed an export industry centered on the United States. The influx of Japanese imports democratized green Americans of all classes, particularly Midwesterners, made it their daily beverage--which they drank hot, often with milk and sugar. In the 1920s, socioeconomic trends and racial prejudices pushed Americans toward black teas from Ceylon and India. Facing a glut, Japanese merchants aggressively marketed sencha on their home and imperial markets, transforming it into an icon of Japanese culture.

Featuring lively stories of the people involved in the tea trade--including samurai turned tea farmers and Hellyer's own ancestors--Green with Milk and Sugar offers not only a social and commodity history of tea in the United States and Japan but also new insights into how national customs have profound if often hidden international dimensions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Tea, Cultural Studies, Food and Drink

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2021

Reviews

[Roxana Chirilă · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely academic book containing exactly what the tin suggests: a history of Japanese tea, in relation to America. As a bonus point, the author is a historian of early and modern Japan whose family used to be involved in the Japanese-US tea trade - I assume that's where his interest spawned from, and it's pretty neat for the rest of us that it did.

While mostly concerned with Japan, "Green with Milk and Sugar" starts long before that, during a time when tea came from China, Japanese borders were closed to the British, and the US threw tea into the sea.

Hellyer shows that tea used to be a staple of American culture, and follows the ups and downs in the popularity of various types of tea (greens, blacks, Oolongs, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Ceylonese), the value of imports, the routes, the ways in which it was drunk and where, the advertising and the mentality related to it.

It's quite a ride. Chinese tea used to be artificially colored with Prussian Blue, for example. When Japan opened its borders, Chinese tea experts were hired in Japan to ensure that the tea made for export would be suitable for American tastes. At one point, there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment, while the Japanese were viewed neutrally; but eventually, feelings turned against the Japanese, too. When Southern Asia started exporting its black tea to the US, it would make claims about Chinese/Japanese teas being impure and tainted by the sweat of Asian workers, unlike Indian/Ceylon tea, which was made by machines. And so on.

The book contains a lot of hard data: how many millions of pounds of tea were imported to the US during some years; what types they were; where they were popular. It also contains anecdotes about some of the people involved, photos and reproductions of ads and labels, stories about the promotion of teas at World Fairs.

The only thing I really felt was missing was a larger context for the tea trade. The book is great as it is, but it's so tea-centered that it's hard at times to figure out what role that tea had in the wider world. What does it mean that Japan exported so many millions of pounds of tea? Was it exporting other things? If yes, how much did it care about its tea exports in comparison with other exports?

Overall, a great read, and one I'd be happy to throw at friends. Many thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for this ARC.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

If an American were to drink tea today, what they would most likely be consuming is a beverage produced by steeping highly oxidized leaves of Camellia sinensis in hot water. Yet this is just one form of tea that is available, and not even one that was always popular in the United States. During the second half of the nineteenth century, green tea — produced by steeping leaves that had not been as oxidized or withered — was the predominant type of tea consumed by Americans. This was thanks to the growth of trade during that period between the United States and Japan, one reflected in the uniquely nationalistic name given to the green tea sold in the United States: “Japan tea.”

Among the merchants who facilitated this trade were members of Robert Hellyer’s family. This piece of family history infuses his history of the tea trade between the United States and Japan with an element of the personal. Yet his book is far more than a family memoir simply recounting what his great-great grandfather did to bring green tea to America’s tables, as he uses it to inform a trans-Pacific account of the industry that describes both the producers in Japan and their consumers in the United States. It’s a story of the turns globalization took during that time and how they shaped the lives of people in two countries, usually in ways beyond their appreciation.

Hellyer begins by describing the importance of tea to both countries. As he explains, green tea was an integral part of life in Japan, where it was consumed with much custom. While tea was common as well in the United States, the disruption of the preexisting trade in British-supplied black teas from China by American independence created opportunities that ambitious merchants sought to exploit. The opening of Japan to Western trade in the 1850s gave them access to a new source of tea, one that was popularized by the related curiosity in the culture of this newly-accessible nation.

This was emphasized in the marketing of green tea in the United States in the decades after the Civil War, which played up this association in a way that distanced it from the growing anti-Chinese sentiment of the era. Hellyer makes this point effectively with a choice selection of images from the advertisements from the era, which contributed to the perception of green tea as exotic and sophisticated. Green tea was especially popular in the American Midwest, where it became the dominant form of tea consumed in homes, restaurants, and social functions. Such was its prominence that ambitious black tea growers in India subsequently funded collaborative advertising campaigns designed to expand their presence beyond the East Coast and the Southeast where they were prevalent.

These efforts contributed to the erosion of green tea’s presence in the United States in the early twentieth century, as the evolving ways of packaging and selling tea diminished its share of the market. Yet even as consumers soured on Japanese products in response to the rise of militarism in the 1930s Japanese tea retained a presence that was only terminated with the outbreak of war between the two countries. While Hellyer could have done more to explain the demise of the green tea trade after Pearl Harbor, this does not diminish the value of his book as a study of it and the links it forged between two emerging economic powers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For its examination of the economic, social, and cultural dimensions of those ties, it has much to recommend it.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-researched history of the development of the green tea market in the USA and how America's taste for green tea has developed and fluctuated over the years. If you are a tea connoisseur, you are very likely to find new knowledge here. I was really engaged starting out, but later found the detail to become slow reading that I would fit in between other reading due to my attention wandering. If green tea is your cup of tea, take the plunge.

Thanks to @netgalley for this read.Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Tea Cups

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this courtesy of NetGalley.

This is one of my favourite types of history books.

1. It's about a fairly niche topic - the drinking of Japanese tea in America - which is shown to have connections with all sorts of issues and events across many decades. Trade connections! Racism and how attitudes towards different ethnicities develops and is deliberately cultivated! What happens to the samurai class when they're moved out of Japanese society! Civil war and foreign war! Marketing and world expos and food regulation. It's all here, and it's woven in and through the overall topic beautifully.

2. There's intriguing and what seem like weird facts. Like the idea of a punch made from 'very strong tea', plus a 1.25 pounds of sugar, a pint of cream AND THEN a bottle of either claret or champagne. I feel ill even thinking about it. Also, the idea that apparently people used to add Prussian blue to green tea, to give it a stronger colour??

3. There's a personal connection to the author, and it's neither gratuitous (I really like tea!) nor tenuous (my next door neighbour's grandfather lived in Taiwan!) nor overly emphasised. Instead, the Hellyer family had been involved in importing "Japan tea" to America for many years, back when that was what it was called and when - as the subtitle suggests - "Japan filled America's tea cups". When appropriate, the Hellyer family experience is used to illuminate particular aspects of the story - Europeans as merchants in Japan, the shipping to America, and so on.

4. It's just really nicely written. Hellyer has clearly done a lot of research, and has been very thoughtful in the way he's put together the material. The overall story is easy to follow - but there's no sense of a steady march towards a definite end. I mean, in one sense there is, because the reality is that American tastes in tea did change (not least away from tea). But it's not all 'oh woe everything was always leading to downfall' - instead, it follows the changes in fashion and expectations and international relations and shows how those things interrelate with the drinking of, and importing/exporting of, tea.

I love history books about food that illuminate a seemingly mundane part of ordinary life and show just how complicated such things really are.

[Catie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green with Mill and Sugar is a fascinating academically minded look at Japanese tea, the United States, and how they are intertwined. Hellyer discusses the popularity of tea in the US and the ways it has changed over time. For instance, green tea, often with milk and sugar, used to be the favored tea. Due to a variety of reasons discussed therein, black tea became more popular in the US and green tea more popular in Japan. I found it very interesting and filled with not only a great about of information but statistics and images as well. While it is a little dry, I highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of tea and/or wondered why we drink what we do.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very easy to assume that current practices (of any kind) have been long-held and entrenched if we've never seen an alternative. For me, the Anglo tradition of drinking black teas (hot with milk or lemon, iced and often sweetened to excess) was one of those practices I just took for granted as dating back to the earliest days of the tea trade between Asia and the British empire. But in Green with Milk and Sugar, I found out the history is much more complex and interesting than that; Americans in particular were drinking Japanese and Chinese green teas well before the 20th century.

Hellyer, a historian with a personal connection to the tea industry (a grandfather who was a Japanese tea importer), traces the history of green tea consumption in America through its colonial history, the politics of pre-Meiji and post-Meiji Japan, and China's long-established tea trade relationship with the west. The midwest in particular was a huge importer of tea, and figures such as Abraham Lincoln were prodigious consumers of gunpowder green and oolong tea. The sections on Japanese history were interesting, but less consistently relevant to the story of tea, and much could be summarized as "former samurai became tea farmers after the civil war".

One issue that came up frequently was how many Chinese teas (and eventually Japanese teas too) were colored with Prussian Blue pigment to make them appear more green, especially with the aggressive brewing practices Americans engaged in. Another thing I didn't know - Prussian Blue is non-toxic, so this practice is less alarming than it sounds, but it's easy to see how the issue of adulteration harmed the market share of Chinese teas in favor of Japanese teas. Hellyer doesn't explain entirely why similarly-adulterated Japanese teas were considered a better substitute, but it appears anti-Chinese prejudice and a rise of interest in japonaiserie in America were part of the story.

And so Japanese tea - typified by the brand Japan Tea - rose in prominence in the US, and the book provides many interesting examples of advertising and tea paraphernalia from that era. The story of the fall of Japanese green tea in America sadly starts with racism and ends with Japan's own hubris leading into WWII. First, Britain began marketing black teas grown in colonial India as better because they were mechanically processed under "white supervision"(!) and thus free from the touch and potential sweat of workers in Japan. Then as Japan's imperial ambitions grew, they encouraged more patriotic domestic tea consumption while cutting themselves off from trade with the US, which was the death blow for green tea in America even before war was declared.

Green tea's comeback in the US was slow-going, but it's finally becoming a mainstream item again, and not just in big cities - even many fast-food chains have matcha lattes on the menu! Black teas may still be the default product when people think of tea, but it seems green tea is finally returning to places it used to inhabit centuries ago.

[Lori Alden Holuta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a decidedly academic style, this book may not appeal to the masses. However, if you have a thirst for both tea and knowledge, this book is a treasure trove. Those interested in American history and Japanese culture will gain a lot as well.

My thanks to author Robert Hellyer, NetGalley, and Columbia University Press for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

[Jifu · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this work courtesy of NetGalley).

I will confess that as someone who sees at least several Dunkins on my way to work and back, I don’t usually think of the USA as a major tea-drinking country (excluding sweet tea’s ubiquity in the south, apparently), much less a land where green tea in particular reigns supreme. However, apparently that was indeed the case, according to Robert Hellyer’s Green with Milk and Sugar. In this history, Hellyer covers how Japanese green teas used to be a preferred beverage all across the United States, particularly in its midwestern heartland, before a combination of market forces, ad campaigns that played upon white Americans’ racism, and eventually WWII upended this position.

Hellyer’s style of writing is very much academic, which admittedly makes for a bit of a dry narrative at times. However, the excellently thorough detailing on the evolution of Japan and America’s intertwined tea-consumption habit still made for an interesting read overall, and Hellyer’s passion for the subject is clear. Lovers of food histories in particular will find much to enjoy here.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a while since I dug into a tea-related book, so when I saw this in the library’s online shelves, I thought it was too interesting to pass over! As it happens, the book is a little dry but no matter, the subject matter of the history of Japanese green tea in America was still interesting.

Green With Milk And Sugar uses the commodity chain to tell the story of how Japanese green tea took over America and how it fell to black tea. If you’re not planning to read this, I’ll spoil it for you: perception (and trade). Japanese green teas rose to dominance amid a perception of Chinese teas as adulterated and dangerous (despite the fact that consumers also liked having coloured teas). But as India and Sri Lanka pushed for their teas to take prominence, there came the impression that black teas were better for one’s health, something which Japanese green teas also tried to claim. The negative advertising campaigns by the India-Ceylon lobbies set the groundwork for the dominance of black tea once imports was blocked during WWII and well… after that America never really regained its taste for green tea.

And that is really the gist of the story. What I took from this book is that perception is everything. After all, when Japanese teas were first exported to America, there were Chinese experts helping them and there was also coloured green tea! It seems like the taste for Japanese green tea was developed in part by anti-Chinese prejudice. The cycle was then repeated years later as the India-Ceylon tea industries marketed their teas as being more hygienic (being made by machines) than the Chinese and Japanese teas.

There are also interesting nuggets of information here. For instance, I’ve never heard of the theory that genmaicha was developed in a hospital in Pyongyang as a medicinal beverage for patients outside of this book. This is something that I’d like to look up, actually. I also thought the stories about the Japanese pavilion at the world fairs were interesting, and the book also mentions a book called “The Wisdom of Tea” produced by the Yamashiro Tea Company which I’d like to read if I can ever find a copy. There really are so many small details here that could lead you down deep rabbit holes if you start researching.

That said, the book is pretty academic in tone. At times, it reads like a dry account of the tea trade between Japan and the US and that’s really not going to interest anyone except fans of Japanese tea. But if you’ve already read similar books, like A Bowl for a Coin, that look at tea as a commodity, then you’re more likely to be interested in what this book says.

Overall, I can see Green With Milk And Sugar having a place on my shelves as a reference text. It’s not directly related to the art of tea or tea culture, but I think being able to look at tea from a commodity perspective helps us to have a fuller understanding of its history.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.

A very insightful about the history of green tea in the USA and how it's popularity changed during the 1900s.

The book is a fairly heavy read and it took me awhile to slog through it. It's quite academic in language and the extensive research, so it may not be everyone's cuppa for a read. (see what I did there?! :P )

If tea and history are your thing, curl up with a nice cuppa and this book for an in-depth read into the history of green tea.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everyone is obsessed with tea and how it got to the US, but I am. This was a fun read for me. It is decidedly academic(meaning well researched) but is still accessible to the everyday reader. It is more fact based than story. I love tea and so this was incredibly interesting to me. If you are interested in green tea and it's history, pick up this book.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class created for teachers wanting to learn more about Japan.
This was a well researched, short book about the relationship between the US and Japan vis-à-vis green tea. A nice short, and somewhat charming study of a very refined topic.

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about this topic, but it was often difficult for me to get through, being a non-fiction book.

[Lisa M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled past lots of statistics, while looking for charming stories about how green tea production in Japan affected the USA and vice versa

[Arlene Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it was very interesting to learn about Americans early love of tea. Learning about how tea trade developed. How it started with China and then Japan really developed a great trade arrangement.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book. Overall, I enjoyed it. Green with Milk and Sugar was a little more scholarly than I expected. What kept me going were the examples of how racism can change seemingly small parts of our day and how those changes radiate out to the rest of the world.