An Ode to Tea

As an English major, most if not all of the pieces I write are serious and analytical. They focus on applying complex theories of identity and culture onto works like Shakespeare or Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album. So, when brainstorming what I might write about for this article, my brain immediately jumped to heavy topics appropriate for a research essay. But none of these ideas struck me.  They would have been informative, but they lacked “sparkle.” And I need “sparkle.” So, for this Last Word, I want to take a step back from the serious topics I generally write about and contemplate something I love just as much: tea.

People have a lot of reasons for drinking tea. Some do it as a way to keep warm in the cold winter months (so valid), while others use it as a means to attain much needed caffeine (equally valid)—and while I do sometimes drink tea for these purposes, tea is so much more than a warm, caffeinated beverage to me. Tea is about memory, about shared experiences with my family and friends; drinking tea is an event that forces me to slow down from the rocket speed of being a senior in undergrad and smell the. . .Earl Grey. 

Even though I don’t have any explicit memories about my first cup of tea, a cacophony of images come to mind nonetheless. When I think of tea and my childhood, I think of my Grandma Hess and her obligatory, morning cup of tea. In my mind’s eye, I can see her extracting a brightly colored mug from the cupboard, selecting a bag of Lipton tea from its yellow box, and filling the air with a smooth aroma. When I was young, my grandparents moved around a lot, but tea and my grandparents’ love stayed constant. Even now, so many years later, that mug of tea remains constant every time I visit my Grandma. As this single moment shows, even from a very young age, I associate tea with memory and with family. Reminiscing on this moment warms me right down to my toes. The same warmth that I feel hugging my Grandma, echoed in a cup of hot beverage.

Digging deeper into the notion of tea as memory, for me, tea is also legacy. Relatively recently, my family completed an ancestry test and a significant portion of my ancestry comes from the United Kingdom—specifically England and Ireland. As most people know, tea and tea culture play a pivotal role in specifically English culture. Despite tea not originating from the UK, tea allows me to feel connected to my ancestors and the UK. When I was able to visit England for the first time four years ago, it was punctuated by trips to tea houses and a casual “cuppa.”  There was something euphoric about the familiar progression of tea bag, hot water, sugar, and milk as we drove across England, Scotland, and Wales. This same jubilation continued, if not increased, when I had the privilege of returning to the UK this past March for my birthday with one of my best friends. Staying at my friend’s grandparent’s house in Seaford, every morning began with a piping hot cup of tea. In my mind, tea is inextricably connected with these trips, which have been some of the best moments of my life so far. Tea embodies the brown stone of Edinburgh, the swans of Stratford-upon-Avon, and the rose gardens of Alfriston.

My experience with tea deepened, however, on my initial trip to the UK through my first encounter with formal, afternoon tea. For those who may not be aware, in England specifically, afternoon tea is an event. A proper afternoon tea consists of four “courses”: tea, savory finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and cakes or sweet pastries. Afternoon tea can either be anything from an extremely formal event—for example, the late Queen Elizabeth II held a yearly afternoon tea event on the grounds of Buckingham palace—to a get-together between friends and family. In essence, afternoon tea provides an excuse to get together with the people you love, dress up a little, and eat mouth-watering food. Visiting The Pump Room in Bath, England was my prestigious first introduction to afternoon tea. I was dazzled by the live music and high quality British china. However, my favorite experiences with afternoon tea have been at smaller, local tea rooms. Back home in Maryland, my family frequented Reynold’s Tavern in downtown Annapolis to the point where the servers almost knew us by name. Everytime I would go home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break, my family would get together with my grandparents and aunt to go out and have tea in Annapolis. Afternoon tea invites you to soak in moments of togetherness over tea and fresh food. These memories further solidify my deep association of tea with family. In my experience, tea brings people together.

However, despite tea’s obvious connection to family in my mind, tea also deeply signifies friendship. During the first few weeks of my time here at AU, my friends and I started having weekly tea parties in which we would drink various hot beverages and consume sweets while detoxing from our crazy weeks. Though we unfortunately don’t have tea parties as often, tea still conjures the image of us as baby freshmen crowding around a table in the Student Center, laughing at jokes and playing games. Similarly, tea forms a key part in the studying process of a best friend and me. Every day when we study and/or work together in the English department, we begin or interrupt our studying with a trip down to the Honors office for a cup of  STASH tea and a bag of chips. For the rest of my life, my memories of AU will be steeped in tea.

So, even though I know many people prefer coffee over tea—or, like Ted Lasso, think tea is glorified “brown water”—this hot beverage will forever be more than a concoction of flavored hot water, sugar, and milk to me. To quote Walt Whitman, tea “contain[s] multitudes.” Each sip of tea contains a symphony of memories. Every time I make myself a cup of tea or go to afternoon tea, I’m reminded of those I love and the good times that keep me going. Steeped with memory, legacy, and family (found or blood), tea embodies a looking back but also a reaching forward for the best that is yet to come. In the words of Warsan Shire, through tea, “the past and the future merge to meet us here.”