This is called "brick tea." The Russians are great tea drinkers, and whenever any one calls in Russia, tea is served. They call their teapot a _samovar_. Better tea is obtained from Ceylon and India than from China. In these countries Europeans have charge of most of the tea farms, and they have carefully studied the cultivation and handling of tea. There is a little tea raised in our own country in the state of South Carolina. It is very fine in quality and people are willing to pay a high price for it. Some of it has been sold for five dollars a pound. When tea was first brought into Europe, it was regarded as a great luxury, just as coffee was. People paid as much as fifty dollars a pound for it. It is said that some of the tea raised to-day for the royal family of China, is worth a hundred dollars a pound. Many people in this country do not enjoy a cup of tea unless they have milk and sugar in it. The Chinese do not use either in their tea. In Russia it is quite common to draw the tea through a lump of sugar held between the teeth. You know that tea parties are very common. The most celebrated tea party ever held was called the "Boston Tea Party." See what you can find out about it. A CUP OF COCOA On the eighteenth day of June, in the year 1771, this notice appeared in the _Essex Gazette_ of Massachusetts:-- "AMOS TRASK, At his House a little below the Bell-Tavern in DANVERS, Makes and sells Chocolate, which he will warrant to be good, and takes Cocoa to grind. Those who may please to favor him with their Custom may depend upon being well served, and at a very cheap Rate." This seems to have been the first notice of the manufacture and sale of cocoa and chocolate in our country. What is peculiar about the notice? In those days the raw product was brought to Massachusetts by the Gloucester fishermen. They obtained it in the West Indies in exchange for fish and other things which they took there. When the Spanish soldier, Cortez, conquered Mexico in 1519, he found that the people of that country were very fond of a drink which they called "chocolatl." It was served to their ruler, Montezuma, in a cup of gold. When the Spaniards went home, they of course introduced the drink into their own country. For a long time it was very expensive and was not commonly used outside of Spain, for the Spaniards kept the secret of its preparation. Cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. It is a tropical tree and grows in both the Old and the New World.