A Cup of Tea Makes Everything Better

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

The tranquil pleasures of tea have special relevance for many of us with British family backgrounds.  My mother and grandmother, both born in England, were inveterate tea drinkers, with plenty of milk and sugar in the mix.  Naturally, I prefer tea this way.  

On both sides of the Atlantic, the history of tea is steeped in turbulence.  Although the American colonists adored tea, they resented the mother country’s tax on it.  Following the Tea Act of 1773, 30 cheeky Bostonians thinly disguised themselves as Indians and dumped 342 barrels of British tea leaves into the harbor. In retaliation, Parliament closed down the port, insisted on restitution, and forbade town meetings.  Within two years, moves like this triggered our war of independence.

Recently I rediscovered the sturdy role tea plays in the mental and emotional health of the United Kingdom.  In his best seller, The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson documents the eccentrically heroic home life of Winston Churchill and his family during the Nazi blitz of London in World War II.  Larson devotes an entire chapter to tea, calling it the “universal balm for the trauma of war.”  He writes, “It was the thing that helped people cope.  People made tea during air raids and after air raids, and on breaks between retrieving bodies from shattered buildings.”  

When tea was rationed at two ounces daily, enough for just three cups, Churchill’s closest scientific advisor warned of a devastating effect on morale.  Somehow, as long as there was tea, there would be an England.  Thankfully, stiff upper lips prevailed until the restriction was finally removed in 1952 amid great celebration.  Nowadays 63 percent of the British drink tea daily.  

I think of the Brit’s amazing ability to carry on despite adversity every time I see the saying on my wife’s tea mug, “Keep calm and drink tea.”  Popular quotes about tea testify to its importance in our lives.  For instance, when I dislike something, I am likely to say diplomatically, “That’s not my cup of tea.” My favorite is attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: “A woman is like a tea bag—you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”

The venerable history of tea dates back to China 5,000 years ago.  The past has always reflected a balance between medicinal properties and pleasure from refreshment.  Especially in East Asia, the government traditionally maintains tight production controls.  Ceremonies around serving tea are almost sacred.  Before the 17^th century, all tea was fresh and green, but once a fermentation process was discovered, it became black tea and could be preserved.  Thereby tea could spread globally.  

Despite stiff competition from coffee, Americans consume 1.42 million pounds of tea every day.  This amounts to 3.6 billion gallons.  On any given day, more than 158 million of us drink it, including myself, morning and night.  We like it hot or cold. 

We invented iced tea at the 1904 St. Louis trade fair.  Today about 80 percent of our tea is chilled.  We also invented tea bags.  They were the ingenious adaptation of a New York City merchant in 1908.

Real tea derives from the leaves of camellia sinensis, a small tree native to Asia.  Many different varieties worldwide include orange pekoe, oolong, white, and the  expensive and rare Darjeeling grown in the mountains of India.  Herbal teas are not truly tea, but certainly they appeal when mixed with herbs, spices, and other plants like chamomile and mint.  All variations have gained a legitimate reputation for reducing the risk of liver disease, depression, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Besides water, tea is said to be the most popular drink in the world.  It shows up everywhere.  For example, Turkey is where the biggest per capita consumers of tea can be found -- 10 cups daily.  When my wife and I visited Peru recently, we were urged to guzzle coca tea to curb the ill effects of high altitude.  I am not sure it worked, but we felt better.

As I sit here with a steaming cup, I think about my family’s tea customs: the way my mom used to save and reuse old tea bags; my wife’s British cousin’s insistence on brewing tea leaves in a beautiful china teapot; the tea ceremony our son had to learn as an exchange student in Japan; and how I consumed gallons of tea for company on lonely nights as I struggled with school writing assignments.  Whatever the circumstances, a cup of tea just makes everything better.