“What kind of tea do you want?”
“There´s more than one kind of tea?…What do you have?”
“Let´s see… Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey.”
-”I.. Uh…What are you having?… Did you make some of those up?”
― Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
Besides the fact that green tea is much more than mere ‘green tea’, not to mention that every other tea mentioned there is not something that comes to mind when I think of ‘tea’, this quote encapsulates the divide between tea and non-tea drinkers.
Or let me sum in up this way: Isn’t tea just tea?
It is true that we tea addicts can get obsessive- pairings of vessels, water, kettles, methods, cups- much to the dismay (or derision) of our comprehending friends and partners.
Keeping it Simple
Then there is this article on overcomplicating a cup of tea. Among the notable quotes are:
“Well, I call foul. This is tea we’re talking about! Delicious, refreshing, normal tea! With milk! In a china cup!”
“But please, enough with the preciousness. Tea doesn’t deserve this – it’s doing just fine, thanks. A working kettle, some boiling water, a decent bag and a splash of milk: simple, but devastatingly effective. Sometimes, the best things really don’t need any embellishment.”
The author of that article got his heart in the right spot- railing against pretension and over-complication in our favorite drink. However, much as I would like to put it down to hyperbole, his ideal of what tea should be is distressing to me.
Tea can be as complicated as you want it to be- that’s why I wrote all these articles on brewing tea and tea appreciation and I haven’t scratched the surface- but it can be reasonably simple.
Distilled to its essence- tea is just this- add water to leaves (or leaves to water), infuse and drink. Re-infuse until there is no more taste and discard.
There are times when that’s all there is to it. I have hosted friends, served them oolong tea (as would you expect a good half Teochew to do) made in gongfu tea style. While they enjoyed themselves thoroughly, most of them doubt they would have time (or more so, inclination) to replicate the experience at home. To which I tell them glass brewing works pretty well too, notwithstanding the limitations.
Within certain confines, if given a choice, if you can call it a choice, between ‘no tea’ and ‘not so great tea’, I would pick the latter.
Where is the line?
‘Not so great’ comes with a limitation though. If tea means infusions of CTC tea bags, then it is less than ‘not so great’ to me. While pyramid tea bags in theory provide the best of both worlds, I have my reservations.
It is like introducing someone to the wondrous world of literature. While you would not start with Finnegans Wake (if ever) or To the Lighthouse, you might do better than stacks of Robert Langdon’s exploits.
So it is with tea, while we like to keep things simple, there ought to be a floor.
“A working kettle, some boiling water, a decent bag and a splash of milk: simple, but devastatingly effective.”
A decent bag? A law abiding terrorist might be more commonplace.
A splash of milk? After I am done with tea, perhaps.
Simple but devastatingly effective, yes it can be achieved, just not this way.