Note 84 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

Tea is differently esteemed by different people; and I think we would be as well, and our purses much better, if we were both without tea and coffee. However, I must be impartial, and mention in praise of tea, that if it be useful, it must certainly be so in summer, on such journeys as mine, through a desart country, where one cannot carry wine or other liquors, and where the water is generally unfit for use, as being full of insects. In such cases, it is very relishing when boiled, and tea is drunk with it; and I cannot sufficiently describe the fine taste it has in such circumstances. It relieves a weary traveller more than can be imagined, as I have myself experienced, together with a great many others who have travelled through the desart forests of America; on such journeys, tea is found to be almost as necessary as victuals84.