When I shut down the blog a month or two ago I heard from a lot of regular readers— one said that his daily habit of 14 years was now gone. Another asked if I’d just run out of ideas. But among my favorites was my dear friend CJ Kennedy who she herself runs what I would consider the best blog in the biz— and she expressed her own disappointment. So it was that when I re-launched the blog the first comment came in was hers;
Thanks, Andy, you’re the host with the most. I am surprised that you have hot water for us teabies (I like that expression). You once made a statement that drinking tea was un-American. You said you would write a diatribe, er, blog post, about it. I’m still waiting.
Here it is CJ, I’m afraid it’ll be tamer than it may have been a few years ago.
TEA IS UN-AMERICAN. We didn’t invent coffee the way we (I refer to the royal we of us United Stateseans) invented Jazz and Rock and Roll. We didn’t invent the hamburger either, but I’d argue that’s equally American. Buffalo Wings— well is Buffalo part of the United States? I’ve been there— I’m willing to chip in a few bucks if they plan on seceding. But you can’t argue they didn’t come up with a great wing— although to be fair the wings I had IN Buffalo were nowhere near as good as the wings I had in South Carolina but that’s not the point of this latest digression of nonsense we all know as my blog.
Tea is un-American because a group of patriots on a cold December night in 1773 decided it was and threw it into the Boston Harbor. That’s good enough for me. And note it’s not like the idiots who dumped their own bottles of French Wine down the sewers to protest the French 20 years ago either— this tea didn’t belong to them. It also helped that I didn’t like Tea. Tea was something I drank at Chinese Restaurants (I do like Oolong Tea), when I was sick or when I’m in Japan because they have a really hard time making a decent cup of coffee— but recently I took the same advice I gave someone who came to me and sincerely asked why I felt it’s a silly comment to say “you don’t like coffee or you don’t like wine”— to me either statement displays an ignorance of variety— it shows you have taken one sip and then spat something out and never tried further.
There are certainly wines I don’t like and coffee I find undrinkable, but experience trying new varieties as well as things to accompany it make it far more palatable. A good cheese with a wine changes the bitter taste, cream and sugar can fix almost any cup of coffee (almost).
Well then, I thought quietly to myself, isn’t the same thing true of tea?
My history with tea goes back a long way— cue the Gilligan’s Island wavy flashback screen;
When I worked at the Telegram and Gazette in a 5pm to 2am shift I brought a thermos with me filled with Tea. I found out about a year into my work there that I had gained a reputation as a tea guy— which made me laugh because I hate the stuff— what I was looking for was a hot drink that wasn’t loaded with caffeine or sugar the way regular coffee or cocoa would be and I’ve always hated Decaf Coffee so that was out so Tea fit the bill.
Flash forward to today— I can no longer tell a lie— I often drink tea. I usually have it at night and almost always with either milk and honey or milk and sugar.
I still think its Un-American, but then again so is Sushi, Croissants, School Buns and a whole host of other things I enjoy— and I’m a big enough man to admit when I was wrong.
So welcome tea drinkers— you have a place here with us.