Novel teas

SIR – Fancy tea fads are not such a modern phenomenon (Comment, August 9).

Jane Austen often mentions the tea coming in, and in Sanditon she writes: “The tray seemed provided by almost as many teapots as there were persons in company, Miss Parker drinking one sort of herb tea, and Miss Diana another…”

Mind you, the Parkers were a family of hypochondriacs, so perhaps there was a hidden message there. Diana Hindley

Peterborough, Cambridgeshire