tea, the college years

(pronounced: áwtō - bíh - lóggrəfee )

to see part one click here

It wasn't really until my junior year in college that I really picked up serious tea drinking. From high school until my junior year, I was what one might call a Starbucks obsessed teenager. My idea of tea at that time was a venti soy chai latte with cream or the jasmine tea they served at dim sum or the green tea you get at sushi places - not a very wide view, I understand. That was sort of a tragedy, but is highly reflective of the way most of the younger generation sees tea. Particularly before the "sachet" revolution, and even before the rise of places such as Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, loose leaf tea seemed too difficult to relate to. Perhaps it was too attached to certain cultural stereotypes that were not approachable for those who wanted to seem "hip" - contrast the perception of a tea house and a coffee joint and you can envision the point here (something that certain businesses are trying to change ... and sorry, but Justin Guarini does not cut it).

That didn't mean that I drank coffee, however. For me it was a necessity drug. I only drank coffee to stay up for finals, papers and the like (downing as much as 2 venti lattes a session to stay up). It was not a fun experience let me tell you. Every cup of coffee was like a new game of pinball in my head. Thoughts would scatter and smash together in a flurry of jittery awareness - plus, it left my tongue raw.



Basically, I was your regular college kid. I lived in the dorms, socialized, and did my work in a maximized fashion (i.e. the most bang for the least work - except for the subjects that I liked of course). Yet, all was not lost. That year, they introduced a higher end organic tea bag into our dining halls. I was intrigued by its challenge to the Lipton bag. What did it offer that was different? Instead of pondering, as most of us seemed to do back then, I just tried it and I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't un-enjoyable and it was mildly calming. Soon after, I became a regular tea-bag drinker and even went so far as to buy a small water boiler for the dorm for tea making purposes. At the time, I also had a gigantic Nalgene bottle which I poured every considerable drink into. This Nalgene was my first tea cup. I poured roughly a liter of near boiling water and two tea bags into this plastic monstrosity every afternoon and night to get my fix. To this concoction, I often added an enormous amount of honey to whet my sweet tooth so I couldn't really tell you how the actual tea-bag tasted - also it was Jasmine Green and Chamomile (not really earth shattering flavors by any stretch). Soon, the tea became a habit and I would languidly sip my tea while my roomies chatted and/or played Halo.

That wasn't enough to break me from coffee though. Tea made me sleepy so it wasn't useful for test cramming or paper writing. I still abused coffee like any other college student. Did that make my papers better? Probably not, but at least they were turned in on time. This all changed during the spring of my junior year in college. I had taken this class called Controlling the Passions in Greco-Roman Antiquity with one of my favorite professors. It was a great class for those of us who were big on Greco-Roman culture (me) as well as for anyone wishing to learn the origin and evolution of modern perceptions of modesty and the soul, or for those who want a differing view on the sources for early Christian thought. I loved this class, not only for the subject matter, but because it introduced me to tea.

The class midterm was no cakewalk let me tell you (despite the innocuous sounding nature of the class). It was a 24 page monstrosity ... and I decided to do it in one day. I was not unprepared though. I had done my reading and was secure in my arguments. However, I still needed my Starbucks to get through the night and it was going great until I decided to drink my second cup. The ballistic nature of my thoughts and the foggyness of perception led me to believe that I had finished my midterm coherently and handed it in on time. It wasn't until these midterms were returned to us that I quickly learned my error. Actually it wasn't so quick - it was rather painful. My professor* held back my midterm to share an interesting grading story with the class. Apparently, my answers were all well and good until around page 17 where every sentence slowly became incomplete and sometimes incomprehensible - this was in front of the entire class to which I was a regular and vocal contributor of course (hard to not do in a group of 6 students). Luckily I had managed to get myself back together by the last pages so as to still have recieved a good grade. But that was the day that I decided never to drink coffee ever again. It had scarred me for life and I was not going back. In fact, since that time, I can count on my fingers the number of times I have had a cup of coffee - and all it takes is one hand.

* Professor Veronika Grimm, I owe this blog to you. If it weren't for that midterm, this blog might look more like the logo below:



Tea was waiting for me with open arms, however, and I gladly accepted a new comrade during those late nights of studying.