The 1st: Spilling the (Green) Tea
Object: Green tea, in its various forms. Specifically, green tea lattes and other green tea flavored consumables.
Circulates: China to Japan (1100-1200s) and then from there to America in the 2000s. Boom in popularity in the last 4 or so years.
Theme: globalization, immigration (?)
Tea is everywhere in China. At restaurants, the drink is served automatically, and when my aunt visited us this past month, she gifted us with a traditional earthenware pot meant for tea ceremonies. Needless to say, tea is pretty damn importan. It’s present at casual outings with friends and family as well as at business meetings and important ceremonies. Of the various types of teas in China, the most popular is green tea, made of camellia sinensis leaves. Actually, camellia sinesis is also the defining ingredient of oolong and black teas. The different flavors come about from the preparation and processing of tea.
The earliest record of tea in China is from 200 BC, from the Western Han dynasty. It had spread throughout central China by 200 CE, and to Japan in the 12th century CE. It is unclear whether or not commoners in China drunk tea in the beginning, due to their histories not being recorded. However, according to legend, Laozi, the famed philosopher as well as the founder of Taoism, was encouraged to write the Dao De Jing after being offered tea by a customs inspector. This means that green tea had trickled down from the upper class to the middle class, and probably the lower class as well. Tea was brought to Japan in the 6th century CE, but didn’t become popularized until the 12th century. It was first used as a way for Buddhist monks to center themselves before meditation, and therefore mostly exclusive to them. It only gained popularity when Eisai, a famous Zen priest, introduced it to the samurai, as a way to improved health. The samurai moved into power soon after, during the Heian period, and brought tea into court with them. From then on, tea drinking spread throughout the social classes, but was mainly concentrated in the upper class.
Fast forward 800 years or so, and the matcha craze has finally lifted its heavy hand (if only slightly) from the tastes of people in America. Matcha, which originates from Japan and has a different growing and producing process than regular green tea, is powdered whole green tea leaves. Because of the natural health benefits as well as some ingenious social media marketing, matcha lattes and frappucinos and even cafes have popped up everywhere in America, and nowhere is that more evident than in Starbucks. The green tea latte (and frappucino) at Starbucks has been growing in popularity ever since its introduction in 2005, and especially so in the last three or four years. To be fair, the green tea latte actually started in Japan, where matcha and green tea has been a part of daily life for centuries. Apparently the Starbucks matcha flavor there is a lot more intense and way less sweet than the American version, which, makes a lot of sense. It’s become obvious, however, that the spread of green tea flavored things throughout America is a fad. Centuries of rich history and culture are either given a throwaway line in the introduction to a recipe, or not mentioned at all. Even worse, the history is sometimes used for a touch of exoticism (as if condensing a few thousand years’ worth of culture and history isn’t bad enough, let’s throw in some lines about how its history makes it the best drink ever, right?)
It’s not to say that green tea or matcha isn’t meant for the masses. Perhaps it wasn’t, in the early 1100s or in 200 BC, but it is now. And yet, people in China still have an acute appreciation for it, beyond the health benefits and other hoopla. When I visited China the summer before senior year of high school, my aunt led me to a small alcove where a few of her friends were performing an informal tea ceremony. She told me, quietly, about the preparation of the pots and cups, the optimal temperature of the water poured onto the tea leaves, and how different types of tea have their own quirks and flavors. Tea is significant in China. It bridges the gap between modern China culture and that of ancient China’s and I imagine that it is almost the same in Japan. It exists outside of diets and foodie fads and consumerism. Green tea is culturally significant, and the globalization of it shouldn’t mean reducing it so that only the product exists, and not the history.
Works Cited
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep18955
https://books.google.com/books?id=AGaTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28#v=onepage&q&f=false
