If we were to enter a fashionable tea-room of the seventeenth century, we should find ourselves in the front of the house in a room furnished according to the rank and means of the proprietor. Rich or poor, it is always exquisitely clean. As carpets and rugs are not common, the floor is covered with bright mats, and the walls are either whitewashed, or encased in blue and white tiles. Upon them hang pictures, more or less valuable. The round table and the chairs are of _sacredaan_ wood, and the latter are furnished with cushions of Utrecht velvet. The chimney-piece is ornamented with Chinese knickknacks that will interest the visitor for several hours, and on either side of it are two oak cupboards inlaid with ebony. Facing the chimney stands the china-cabinet with its fragile treasures, the _vrouw’s_ idol, the object of her tenderest care.
The guests usually arrived between two and three in the afternoon, and were received and extended many formalities peculiar to the occasion. Unless it rained, no cloak or wrap was worn, so the guests were received in the tea-room at once and immediately seated themselves, resting their feet—winter or summer—on a foot-warmer. The hostess takes a sample of tea from her many tea-caddies, each filled with a different kind of tea, and puts them into a different pot, each pot having a little silver strainer in the spout. When the tea is drawn, she fills the smallest cup with a sample from each pot and hands these tiny cups to her friends, so that they may discover what kind they prefer. One prefers this, and one prefers another; but, as a rule, the choice is left to the hostess. Now the tea-making begins in earnest. According to the number of guests, the hostess takes a single or double teapot, and from a larger caddy the tea that has been chosen. While this is being drawn, she takes some saffron, and infuses this in a small _red_ pot, and serves the tea and saffron in a covered cup, so that none of the sweetness nor aroma shall be wasted. In spring the saffron is discarded in favour of young peach leaves. The tea is sweetened to taste, but milk is never served until 1680, when it is used in imitation of the French; for the idea of milk in tea originated with the Marchioness de la Sablière. The conversation at these gatherings turned on tea and general gossip.