Walk teaches about tea made from Moraine State Park plants
For people who don’t like tea, sampling multiple teas made from plants at Moraine State Park while learning plant identification, and the inventions and wars caused by tea, could shift their prospective.
About 30 people sampled eight wild teas as they were led by park naturalist Emma Sprowls on an about 1-mile walk near North Shore Pavilion #7.
She pointed out wild black raspberry, spicebush, bergamot, yarrow, strawberry, mountain mint, sassafras and white pine bushes and trees as guests tasted the teas made from them, which she prepared the previous day.
“There’s a whole art and science to brewing tea,” Sprowls said.
She discussed how to identify the plants, make the teas and their purposes. For example, she said wild bergamot in the late 1700s was considered a “heal-all” tea, despite growing mold quickly. Yarrow was used to stop bleeding and sassafras was the main ingredient in early root beers.
Sprowls also explained tea’s historical impacts, including the terms “high,” “low” and “afternoon,” tea inventions, such as tea bags and iced tea, and conflicts in the United States, Europe and Asia in which tea played a role.
For example, Sprowls said tipping after a meal started with tea gardens. The practice began because tea gardens and kitchens were so far apart the tea would no longer be hot when it reached the table. So, tipping began to ensure prompt service while the tea was still hot.
Sprowls said tea became popular in the United States before it did in England. It came from Dutch traders who brought it in the 1640s to their colony of New Amsterdam, which became New York.
She also noted Portugal was the first European country to trade tea with China.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hosts the Wild Tea Walkabout in Moraine State Park each year. It has also hosts tea-sampling cruises on Lake Arthur.
