"We are tea drinkers, not barbarians...."
“…we’re creative, alternative, organic, sustainable. We play the oboe in our spare time; we make our own hummus. We’re caffeine-free, and we all went to Oberlin – and we’re gonna make a big deal about ourselves.”
This is a characterization of American tea fetishists by the Guardian’s Tim Hill (article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/teavana-starbucks-brew-cuppa-tea?CMP=twt_gu).
What do you think? Are we participating in something “crushably pointless” or even doing tea injustice by exploring the lands beyond the simple cuppa?
Ha ha. That description so so far off what I would describe myself as. I am clumsy, sarcastic, blunt, nowhere near alternative, I tried making my own hummus once and it was gross so I buy it now, and although I do believe in sustainability, I recycle cans and bottles for the money and other things because I am forced to through my city’s “sustainability plan”. I like caffeine- please don’t take that away from me. And I like to think myself creative but everyone else would probably describe me as traditional or classical. I am certainly no gentle, delicate tea drinker.
I like my tea how I like it, it is rarely ever in a tea cup, nor does it follow “classical guidelines” for water, steeping, milk, sugar, etc. I do however, like to try frou-frou teas and drinks such as those one would purchase at the new Teavana Boutique.
I think the article is spot on for describing what Teavana is doing with their new boutique, IMO. But I think to generalize to all Americans (even though I am Canadian but we are like cousins) shows the writer is quite uniformed of (North)American tea culture. But I am thinking they were going for more shock value.
I make my own hummus but that’s just because I love cooking and eating food. And tea. Mmm, consumables!
“I am thinking they were going for more shock value.”
Yep, this type of inflated consternation is pretty typical for the British press.
Wow, this person is waaaaaay over-reacting. Yes it’s true some people are just silly about tea (as people can be about any of their interests) but they’re being equally silly in the opposite way.
I might’ve agreed with them on some points (I roll my eyes whenever I see the phrase ‘tea journey’), but they’re totally over-reacting. If the place feels too fancy for them, then … go somewhere else? If someone would rather eat out at a more casual place like Tim Horton’s, no one is going to force them into the fancy high-end French restaurants where you have to wear a ball gown just to be admitted.
Wow. I’d agree with what’s been said so far.
I’ll also note that while Teavana’s approach might be a tad pretentious, the arrogance required on the author’s part to say “No, you’re all doing it wrong, the one and only correct way to drink tea is like this…” is kind of mind boggling.
Also, I can’t get over the inherent contradiction (to me, at least) in being a tea snob and being caffeine-free. Like… how is that supposed to work?
It’s kind of cute how some Brits seem to think supermarket bagged black tea with milk is the be-all and end-all of tea culture.
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