"Just Dried Leaves, Boiled"

"Now listen. If I want to be toned up, calmed down, invigorated or anything then it’s very simple: I'll just have a cup of tea." - Arthur Dent, from Douglas Adam's The Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The last post on pipe smoking brought to mind the similarities between the ritual of packing and smoking a bowl of tobacco and that of brewing and drinking a nice pot of tea.

Both processes involve the manipulation of a mixture of dried leaves, which is somehow comforting. It's easy enough to believe that the bottles of popular drinks which line our store shelves are filled with concoctions entirely synthesized in a giant lab, somewhere. Though the ultimate source of both tea leaves and tobacco are, in all honesty, a mystery to me (I can at best rely on hearsay), there is reassurance in the seeing, smelling and handling of something organic. I can choose any number of different kinds of loose tea or tobacco.

One may be given to wonder, at times, who first decided that drinking the broth of boiled tea leaves, or smoking dried tobacco, was a great idea. The origins of things like beer, wine and cheese are not difficult to imagine. People just stumbled on these things in the natural course of life before refrigeration. But there had to be a kind of imaginative leap where tea and tobacco are concerned. How many times do we normally find ourelves walking past a plant and thinking "By gum! I'll bet that would be just terrific dried and boiled up into a broth", or something. It had to be inspired.

There is a built-in sabbath involved with making hot tea. You can't really make a pot of tea in a hurry. It gives one a chance to stop and think a bit, to contemplate the warm vapor rising from the cup. I've come to drink less and less of the kind of drinks you find in plastic bottles or cans, and have been drinking more tea, both of the traditional English variety (a hot cuppa), and the traditional brew of the Southern U.S., iced tea.

I never drank much iced tea growing up in Alaska, but in migrating southward to Arkansas I was introduced to the Baptist Tea of my sainted aunt (who very recently passed away). There was not, I don't think, a great deal of tea in it, but what was lacking in tea flavor was more than made up in sugar. A large pitcher of it was light and clear enough that you could easily read a newpaper through it, and sweet enough to put a horse into a diabetic coma. It's an authentically American tradition.

Both the Art of the Pipe and the brewing of tea have the advantage of connecting us with a living, tangible cultural and geographic heritage. They each, in a small way, move Production closer to home, and they involve a calming and contemplative ritual that is pleasant in itself. Try getting all that from a can of soda.

In addition, if everyone drank more home-brewed tea, it would greatly reduce the current practice of shipping unreckoned kilotons of water from point "A" to point "B" on a weekly basis. Shipping dried leaves is much more efficient. Very "Green".

Tea is not, of course, one of those things known since the Dawn of Civilization, like bread and wine. Like tobacco, it came along fairly recently, as reflected in these quotes from Messrs. Belloc and Chesterton;

"You know, I hope (though I myself have only just thought of it), that the four rivers of Eden were milk, water, wine, and ale. Aerated waters only appeared after the Fall." - G.K. Chesterton, from his essay entitled Cheese - Alarms and Discursions, 1911

"Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone." - Hilair Belloc, from his essay entitled On Tea - On Nothing & Kindred Subjects, 1907

Comments

[Shmikey]

Tea has too much of a connection to all things lady like for me. Pour me a good cup of joe and I am in my happy place.

[Tim J.]

You need to try some Earl Grey, Shmikey. A right muscular blend.

[Tobin]

Taylors of Harrogate makes a Scottish Breakfast Tea -- it is supposed to be brewed strong, and tastes like oak. Guaranteed to add two inches to your beard.

[Paul S.]

And then there were those old folks who would add herbs (herbs often used for teas) to their tobacco as an extender but also for certain nuances of flavour...

[Shmikey]

Tim, I do like the occasional Earl Grey and a spot of Twinnings Irish Breakfast is quite good. But the art of preparing a good cup of coffee is much more satisfying to me. I am thinking about attempting to roast my own beans to add a little more to the ritual, and even am tempted to try cold brewing my joe. Cheers

[Maolsheachlann]

Have you read George Orwell's essay A Nice Cup of Tea? He takes some pretty controversial stances on many of the great tea debates that are perpetually raging, especially when it comes to sugar in tea, which he rightly abhors.

The Irish are the tea-drinking champions of the world, drinking more tea per capita than any other nation. I'm inordinately proud of that, and do my patriotic duty to keep us at the top.

[Tobin]

Remember percolators...on the stove? Good times. Good times.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=36104594]

just found your blog, I love it!

[Pierce O.]

The Japanese family that came over to my parents' house for our New Years Party performed a tea ceremony for us; green tea is very tasty. Some of us got to wondering if we had any kind of Western equivalent to the tea ceremony...any suggestions? Perhaps a revival of afternoon tea & crumpets?