New Holiday Talks with Teas

A full afternoon tea with delicious scones, finger sandwiches, desserts and more, is served at most all of our seminars, presentations and youth manners lessons and adult etiquette classes. 

We’ll be talking Tea Etiquette, Table Setting Etiquette, Dining History, Antiques for the Table and More 

as we celebrate 125 years of 

Graber Olives this year. 

Beginning Nov. 30th, we have several unique presentations scheduled throughout the holidays in La Casita for 

Traditions and Tea at Georgia Belle et Cie 

We still have open seats at the first two seatings, currently scheduled for Saturday Nov. 30th 

and Sunday Dec. 1st, from 2:30-4:30. 

Each talk is just $32.00 and full afternoon tea is served. 

Seating is limited! 

Call the Graber Olive House 

at 909-983-1761 to reserve your spot at one of our seminars.

For more information 

or to schedule a private group or class, 

call Maura Graber at 909-923-5650. 

“Tea: It’s History and Meaning”

“The story of tea is as strange and as fascinating as any that one can read. A prehistoric event dating back some 5,000 years is bound to be shrouded in many mysteries, but the exceptional qualities of tea are such that many legends developed concerning its beginnings. A highly civilized people like the Chinese considered it a special gift from heaven. In India, too, it was much the same. In Japan, a special ceremony grew around it. The habit of drinking tea is the only purely Asian custom which commands universal interest. Through it, the East and West have met — in a teacup!

Its introduction had a charming influence on our Western culture, even though a great deal of smuggling and piracy helped to bring it about. Discriminating Chinese taste insisted that tea should be drunk from porcelain; and this subsequently had a tremendous effect on world trade and the voyages of clipper ships. Art, politics, and religion were all involved. 

All this mystery and adventure stirred up many superstitions. Even today, some tea companies attach a little saying to each tea bag, such as: "to stir tea in the pot is to stir up strife."

"Floating tea leaves mean 'watch for strangers coming.' To tell the gender and the day of arrival, put them on the back of one hand and tap the hand with the other until they adhere — each tap is one day — and if they are soft leaves, it is a woman; if hard, a man."Fortune-telling from tea leaves is not solely a gypsy custom. Many people have read meanings into the shapes and groups of leaves that form in the bottom of the cup — how accurately is, of course, another matter...’’ - from Table Settings, Entertaining and Etiquette; A History and Guide