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Tea — The Way of TeaLesson 1 of 16

Tea, and the Plant Behind Every Cup

Goal: After this lesson you can name the four lenses this episode uses and the one plant all true tea comes from. Subject: Episode introduction | Run time: about 3 minutes

Welcome

Good morning. This is Anthony McDonald, and this is Better Vice Club, Episode 2. If you took the Coffee episode, welcome back. Today the cup is tea, and the short lessons ahead take it apart one idea at a time.

Why this matters

Here is the part that surprises people. Green tea, black tea, oolong, white tea, they are not different plants. They all come from one plant, Camellia sinensis (kah-MEE-lee-ah sih-NEN-sis). What makes them different is what happens to the leaf after it is picked (Mair & Hoh, 2009).

The idea

We read tea through the same four lenses we used for coffee. Geography asks where tea grows, why it grows there, and how it traveled the world. Social studies asks how tea went from medicine to ceremony to a trigger for revolution, and who did the labor. Economics asks how one leaf becomes teas worth a dollar or hundreds of dollars, and who gets paid. Language asks why half the world says some version of "cha" and the other half says some version of "te," and what the great writers made of a cup. Each lesson is short, made to be heard, and ends with a quick question.

Remember this

Hold two things. One plant, Camellia sinensis, is the source of all true tea. And four lenses, geography, social studies, economics, and language, are how we read it. The whole episode hangs on those two ideas.

Quick check

Quick check. Green, black, oolong, and white tea all come from which single plant? Camellia sinensis (Mair & Hoh, 2009). The type is decided by processing, not by the plant.

Key Takeaways

  • All true tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis; the type depends on how the leaf is processed (Mair & Hoh, 2009).
  • Tea is a global market of about 55 billion dollars and roughly 6 million tonnes a year (International Tea Committee, 2023; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2023).
  • Better Vice Club reads tea through geography, social studies, economics, and English language arts.

Sources

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2023). Tea market report 2023. https://www.fao.org
  • International Tea Committee. (2023). Annual bulletin of statistics 2023. https://www.inttea.com
  • Mair, V. H., & Hoh, E. (2009). The true history of tea. Thames and Hudson.
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Tea, and the Plant Behind Every Cup · ElementaryMBA