Women drinking tea…
At first, I thought it would be easy to write about that topic and say out loud that the tea drinkers are not all old grannies drinking their tea in English china but I found out I was wrong.
Now, I will probably have lost half the people reading this and angered the remaining half but if you can bear with me for a few more lines, I will try to explain why I found that out.
So why?
Because after thinking a lot about it, after watching people at their places, at work, in tea salons,… I found out that there is no such things as a specific or more womanly way of drinking tea. It is more the result of a tea culture (the famous 5 o’clock tea, the Japanese tea ceremony, the Chinese way of doing it,…) and of personal preferences/experiences.
True, most of us like to take our time to drink our tea and to appreciate it but we can also prepare and drink it as quickly (and perhaps even quicker) as any coffee drinker.
Why don’t we do that more often?
This comes from the spirit behind tea drinking and in this way, drinking tea is more akin to wine drinking than to coffee drinking.
Would anyone think that wine drinkers that take their time are old grannies and grandpas? The answer is no. Why? Because in the French culture, it is the way, wine must be drunk and the French think that people drinking it like the Russians are supposed to drink vodka (one shot and all down) are sinning. To see that, just send a French to a Scandinavian party and look at his face when they will drink everything quicker than their shadow as if it was water.
But to come back to the initial idea, people who think that tea drinkers are old grannies drinking their 5 o’clock tea with their small cakes are all wrong
This is just one way of drinking tea and people might go from one to another depending what they think is right, on their mood, the people they are with, the places they are in, the teas they are drinking…
So whether or not you are in a hurry or have time, are alone or with friends, are travelling or at home, working or relaxing, you are more than welcome to make yourself a tea and to drink it.
I am sure you will find a way to enjoy it.
People also adjust their tea rituals to their circumstances – a couple enjoying a leisurely high tea at a top hotel may sadly be the same people who through a teabag in unfiltered water in the mornings.
I also found the French attitude to the drink I usually refer to as “old grape juice” a bit over the top, just like it is here. I live in a wine district and I don’t find it an overly exciting product.
No way @thedevotea and I agreeing on something.
As for wine, I think you are underestimating the cultural and historical approach.
I don’t drink wine (bad French :() but I understand some little things about wine and how you can sometimes find connexions between it and tea.
“Savoring the moment, time and place” is how I have always viewed drinking tea as opposed to coffee which is more a quick fix. Especially now as I explore new teas especially loose leaf I pay attention to all the details.
Pingback: From one cliché to another - Teaconomics