Wherin a Coffee Addict Falls Into a Tea Cup

I used to be a coffee addict. I drank it black, and I drank it often. The stronger the better. Coffee fueled the world, I said, and tea was for people who couldn’t handle its bite and energy. I was a red-blooded American girl. Coffee is strong and glamorous. Coffee is Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. Coffee cafes feature baristas with man-buns and skinny jeans, mixing drinks to a soundtrack of jazz or hip hop or Post Malone.

Actually, I have no idea if skinny jeans are still in fashion. Not that long ago they were, but I’m getting old.

Tea, on the other hand, is anything but glamourous. If coffee is Scarlet, then tea is Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion. Something to which you don’t admit in public, and keep at home. Tearooms are silent and proper, crowded with florals and china teacups with fragile handles that require me to pinch them between thumb and forefinger. Tearooms practically mandate I break something.

Tea drinkers are a bit of an oddity in coffee-loving America.

No one understood us when we said,
“You don’t want to see me
without my Irish Breakfast!

– Heather Dockray

So said Heather Dockray in What It’s Like to Live as a Tea Drinker in a Coffee Drinker’s World. I still drink coffee. I love a hot cup of black French press coffee – that slightly-dirty kind of brew that leaves sediment in the bottom of the cup. But tea has become my grounding ritual.

Would you like an adventure now
or shall we have our tea first? 

– J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Coffee Drinkers vs Tea Drinkers

There’s a survey that was supposedly conducted by OnePoll on behalf of the Chinet brand. I find it amusing.

According to them, if you’re an introverted morning person you’re a coffee drinker, and if you’re an extroverted night owl, you drink tea. Coffee drinkers are dog people, and tea drinkers are cat lovers. Coffee drinkers are messy, and tea drinkers tidy. Tea drinkers are more likely to be in a relationship; however, coffee drinkers are more likely to have five or more close friends. Coffee drinkers go for punk, rock, blues, and jazz. Tea drinkers prefer classical, country, pop, or hip-hop/rap.

I fit in neither camp. I’m sure most of us don’t.

My journey into the tea life is a story for another day, but I eventually found out that I was wrong about tea. Despite the tea room cliche, tea is more varied and rich than I ever imagined. As I learned the art of brewing and blending teas, I found that tea has its own edge. It’s grounding and ethereal at the same time. It can be fierce, yet gentle.

Like a woman. 

Perhaps it’s scientific.

The caffeine in tea is balanced with an amino acid called l-theanine. This creates a perfect balance of energy and relaxation.

On Mary Ann Rollanos blog, Life is Better with Tea, she writes, “The combination of L-theanine with caffeine makes tea a unique beverage that promotes mental focus, increases energy, yet reduces anxiety and stress. Studies have shown that L-theanine reduces anxiety and induces calm because it increases the neurotransmitters that balance our moods and controls serotonin and dopamine which makes us feel good.”

She’s a wonderful tea brewer, and has taught me much. Her blog is worth checking out.  How Theanine in Tea can Make You Calm and Happy

Tea tempers the spirit,
harmonizes the mind,
dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue,
awakens the thought and prevents drowsiness.

– Lu Yu, The Classic Art of Tea

Perhaps it’s spiritual.

Tea holds a sacred place in religious and spiritual tradition. Buddhist monks have linked tea and meditation for centuries. Tea invites contemplation. Perhaps it is simply the centuries of tradition that I feel when I cup its steaming warmth in my hands.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it as the axis
on which the world revolves. 

– Thich Nhat Hanh

I can’t deny that tea has brought healing into my life. Its physical healing qualities brought calm and balance to an over-caffeinated, tired body. And its mental healing dimmed the anxiety of a people-pleasing perfectionist.

Tea taught me to slow down. And when you slow down, and don’t fill the empty space with anything else, healing can happen. 

Tea lingers.

It is different from coffee in that it has no limit. Coffee is a bracing drink that doesn’t beg to be repeated right away. A pot of coffee is too much for me; a pot of tea to myself, however, is the best way to end the day. Tea can go on and on, like writing. Leo Tolstoy said, “I must drink lots of tea or I cannot work. Tea unleashes the potential which slumbers in the depth of my soul.”

What is it about this humble liquid?

My hour for tea is half-past five,
and my buttered toast waits for nobody.

– Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

Tea is infinite possibility. It pairs well with solitude or friendship, with Norah Jones or Elvis, with chocolate or fasting. It can bring either energy or slumber, warmth or cooling. It does not ask much of me. The only thing it asks is that I stop, and give it my time. To breathe it in. It does not pair well with hustle.

I believe that it is the physical act of steeping – the silence, the waiting – that grounds me. This is what I love about tea. It reminds me of the most important work – that of steeping my soul. As Ivan said in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov:

I shall steep my soul in emotion. 
I love the sticky leaves in spring, 
the blue sky – that’s all it is. 
It’s not a matter of intellect or logic, 
it’s loving with one’s inside, 
with one’s stomach.

– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Yes, the world may aspire
to vacuousness,
lost souls mourn beauty,
insignificance surrounds us.
Then let us drink a cup of tea.

– Muriel Barbery