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An Ode to Tea

Ian Kidd sings the praises of one of the great bastions of our culture / gets all excited over a cup of tea...
stand firm, tea lovers! | coffee vs. tea | the religion of aestheticism | no mere cuppa
Stand firm, tea lovers!
Tea, in the opinion of many, is the basis of all civilization. Forget the wheel and numeracy, abandon literature and currency, and cast off the encumberments of sanitation and global telecommunications.
Thomas De Quincey wrote in his notorious Confessions of an English Opium-Eater that tea, ‘though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities ... will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual.’ Of course this would come as a shock to the legions of faux existentialists, authentically clad in their black polo necks and jauntily-angled berets. ‘Surely coffee,’ they exclaim, struggling to reclaim their cool indifference, ‘is the ambrosia of the intellectual?’

Stand firm, tea-lovers!

‘No,’ comes the steady reply, ‘tea is the only possible choice for the parched intellectual.’

Coffee vs. tea
This should not take much demonstration; consider the most immediate fact, that coffee is a stimulant and tea is a depressant. People drink coffee for that caffeine rush – pulsation and stimulation – a sudden surge of energy; chemical enthusiasm. Even Bonnie K. Bealer and Bennett Alan Weinberg, otherwise sympathetic historians, describe in The World of Caffeine the ‘diuretic, antibacterial, bronchodilating, stimulating, and mood-enhancing effects’ of coffee drinking. These physiological and psychological perturbations hardly sound conducive to the cool disinterest of the urbane intellectual.

Mark Pendergast, another caffeine historian, writes that coffee ‘has sparked revolutions, romances, business deals, and friendships.’ It is violent and wearying. Tea, by contrast, implies stillness, conversation, the exchange of opinions and goodwill; it calms and soothes and unifies, rather than prompts ‘revolutions’.

Coffee is an instigator, an arouser, an impetus; it is the spark for the fuse. Yet once its caffeinated fire has burned out - so fast and so brightly - it leaves behind inertia and ash; the apostatic lethargy of the post-caffeine high. So one must order another espresso and get back on with the work.

Tea is never so impetuous, nor ever so quixotic.

The purpose of tea is to calm the mind, to tranquillise, the clear the head of all distraction; it is clarity and stillness and lucidity in liquid form. The tea drinker is forever at peace, in his or her mind insulated from the buffetting and tensions of the world outside; their mind is soothed by that warm sweetness, and the fruits of their drinking are not inspired by the sudden and erratic rousings of some restless latte; no, the tea drinker is calmed and brought almost to a standstill by his preferred choice, and all the artistry and invention and production that follows from his pause to drink are the results of his own will and instigation.

The religion of aestheticism
The contemporary Japanese chanoyu (tea ceremony) master Sen' o Tanaka explained that the tea ceremony is not merely an aesthetic experience, but aims for ‘the attainment of a deep spiritual satisfaction.’ Tea is spirituality; both in the preparation of tea, its serving in elaborate practices, and in the effects of its consumption, it encouraged stillness and reflectiveness.

The tea drinker enjoys independence and autonomy; liberation from any stimulus except that inner and personal will to action and creation. The drinking of tea instils that inner serenity from which self-discipline can emerged. As moreover, as Jennifer Lea Anderson argues, the elborate ritualism of the tea ceremony itself contributed to the disciplining of the mind of the participant.

Okakura Kakuzo wrote in his authoritative The Book of Tea that the preparation and drinking of tea is an art which, like all works of arts, demands skill and patience and an appreciation of the act and experience itself. ‘There is no single recipe for making the perfect tea, as there are no rules for producing a Titian or a Sesson. Each preparation of the leaves has its individuality, its special affinity with water and heat, its hereditary memories to recall, its own method of telling a story.’ Tea is, in Kakuzo's phrase, ‘the religion of aestheticism.’

No mere cuppa
So tea is not simply a quick and satisfying hot drink; of course one can enjoy ‘a quick cuppa’ during the lunch break; although taking care to avoid mistaking the brown water proferred by modern vending machines for true tea itself. Tea is an entire experience in itself: the leaves, the water, the cup, the stirring, the temperature, the time taken to boil, and the colour, aroma and taste of tea are all essential and complementary aspects of the single act of drinking tea.

A cup of tea is no mere ‘cuppa’, no mere ‘char’, no mere ‘quick Tetleys.’ It is – or, can and perhaps should be – a complete aesthetic and spiritual experience. Ignore the protestations of the opium-addicts and the lotus-eaters and the absintheurs; tea is the only invitation to new planes of experience that one ever need.
With or without sugar.

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