Last tea post for a while

I've blathered on about tea here and there for quite a while now. I've even got shirty about tea advertising. And enough is enough. This is the last post about tea for a considerable time I hope.

First, here's an another observation about that Yorkshire Tea advertising. I stress, I have no idea about their data or objectives, but I have a view on how brands work. This advertisingflies in the face of everything I love about tea and especially Yorkshire Tea. This blog does a a far better job of capturing Yorkshire Tea-ness. Here's the guide to making the perfect cup, which I thoroughly endorse.

Once perpetual mistake I make is when I leave the pot to brew, manfully resisting the urge to stir and hurry it up, which would force tannins our and make it bitter. The curse of the absent minded means I start pottering on something and forget the pot. This can result in slightly tepid, over-stewed tea, which is mildly annoying. On the other hand, it's amazing what you can find yourself doing in the few minutes you wait, time you didn't think you had.

What tea means to me is this.

The ritual, the slowness, the rules, the attention to detail, the bubbles on the surface of the freshly brewed cup, the lovely comforting rich taste. It's a moment of slowness. In a world that seems to be always on, always something to think about, somewhere to be, tea is way of pressing pause button. That first cup doesn't just gird your loins for the day, it provides a last reminder of what really matters before the headlong rush into the 21st century re-commences (and the effect is amplified if the first cup is before 7am as someone has observed).

For me it inhabits the same world making my own pesto rather than the jar stuff, getting on the bike outside rather than in the gymn, writing a letter rather than an email or occasionally switching off the telly and just chatting. None of this stuff really matters, but at the same time it matters more than anything else in the world. Every day should have a good dose of realness, ritual and chance for reflection.

Pause.

That's what tea means to me. 
 
 

Comments

[Rob @ Cynic]

New child. New job. New life. New [blog] look.

Nice.

[Katy]

You might like David Hieatt's latest post (he of Howies fame) on the Tao of Tea:

http://davidhieatt.typepad.com/doonethingwell/2010/01/tao-of-tea.html