Every bit of food and drink in both seasons has a metaphorical significance, even if you don't realize it.
Tea is no exception. Its one of the few times an eastern philosophy creeps into Good Omens, but it still meets with a western ideal. It's also intrinsically linked to Aziraphale and his affected British style.
Coffee gets more of a focus in S2, and has a specific meaning around freedom and liberty, whereas tea appears more in S1. But the metaphorical meanings around them are fairly consistent across both seasons, with stereotypes for the British drinking tea and the Americans only drinking coffee put aside.
Lets start with Muriel on the doorstep of the bookshop, at the beginning of S2E3, asking to come in, because its noisy outside.
Aziraphale, after a moment to take in who they are, is the epitome of politeness as he welcomes them inside.
You might think "well, isn't this just Aziraphale being typically Aziraphale?" in this moment, but soon we shall see its a relevant part of a ritual going on here.
The bookshop is noticeably quieter on the inside. There is just the two of them. Aziraphale offers Muriel tea in a fine china cup, with a blue pattern, and gold trim.
Muriel is not sure what to do with it so they just hold it. Aziraphale makes a point of demonstrating what should be done: He tells Muriel the tea is "to drink," then looks at it, sips, and makes both an appreciative expression and sound.
Muriel seems repelled by this, and declares they are just going to look at theirs. Aziraphale patiently, still polite, lets them do so.
Up to this point, there are actually two levels of meta happening at the same time. The first one is a tea ceremony (which I had a go at once before, and got the wrong one!) and the other is about trying to get Muriel to take the first step in "going native."
A tea ceremony always starts with a courteous invitation. The tea is prepared, then served and offered to others. It should be taken in a tranquil, peaceful setting, perhaps in a harmonious natural environment (such as a Garden) and with only a few people at a time (two people is considered a "superior" experience.) The tea ware is important, as it should allow the fragrance of the tea to be appreciated (we have some fine china, Heavenly-coded.) Appreciation of the tea's qualities is undertaken, first with the eyes, then by smell, then tasting. It is considered an art, a process of spiritual enjoyment, a means of cultivating the moral character - and then Crowley bursts into the bookshop with his flirty comment about going by train and breaks the fragile connection Aziraphale had been trying to establish with Muriel.
*sigh* Timing, Crowley! Can't you see I'm in the middle of trying to subvert a fellow angel here?
I was recently reminded that tea and coffee have a connection in GO, in that that they are both linked to the American War of Independence. While the speech that gives us "Give me liberty, or give me death!" conjures the stormy winds of war sounding trouble approaching, the Boston Tea Party was the initial spark of the brewing conflict.
I realize there is a LOT of stuff written about this particular bit of history, and it can get quite political even in these modern times, so let me frame it in a Good Omens frame of reference if you aren't familiar with it - the colonists in the New World were upset at how they were being ruled from afar by the British and staged a small protest about some new laws imposed on them by dumping ship-loads of valuable tea leaves (a daily consumable pleasure people had become hooked on) into Boston Harbor on the night of 16th December 1773. To disguise themselves they dressed themselves as indigenous people, or "native Americans" as one might have said. This was just the beginning of further rebellion that led to war a few years later.
So here is another reason Aziraphale offers tea to Muriel, and not cocoa; he can see how fascinated they are with with everything Earthly around them, and he hopes to ignite a spark of rebellion in them, too, by introducing them to the more civilized pleasures (*ahem*) that he knows and enjoys so well.
While there is little tea to be seen in S2, there is plenty to be seen in S1. Perhaps the most prominent one for this discussion occurs right near the beginning, when Gabriel surprises Aziraphale in the sushi restaurant in S1E1.
Aziraphale offers to tea to Gabriel, and Gabriel shuns it. He, like most of the angels we meet, have no real interest in Earth. It's "gross." Ah, well. He gets to change his mind in S2.
So where else do we see tea in S1?
The Four Horsepeople: War orders four teas, one black, and a cheese sandwich in the diner where they all meet up together for the first time on Earth. We don't know who the sandwich is for, but I'm going to guess its for Famine. Reasons below, with Shadwell. (Cheese and tea make a nice savoury pair for a snack, if you haven't tried it. I'm partial to tea with cheese and crackers on the side from time to time.)
The Tibetan Tunnelers were on tea break from digging tunnels all over the Earth when we meet them, where they mention they were transported into the tunnels when they themselves stopped for tea back in their real lives on the surface.
Shadwell's infamously sweet tea, with either nine sugars or condensed milk, needs a mention as well, as it appears several times. Shadwell is an Aziraphale parallel-character, living on the fringes of society and starving for attention, even though he makes feeble swipes at Madam Tracey's attempts to care for him. The sugar represents the amount of care or "sweetening up" he needs.
When he first meets Newt he gets the young man to buy him a tea and a packet of cheese and onion crisps. Remember the cheese sandwich War ordered for Famine? A packet of cheese flavoured crisps is a parallel here. Newt has turned up and finally given someone Shadwell someone to sink his teeth into.
Finally, we need to return to Crowley - its coffee, as black as his soul for him, please, and extra strong (six shots is for the number of Hell.)
Because he's already "gone native," just like Aziraphale, and he wants to maintain his freedom. He's left the Garden, and Heaven, behind him, and he'll do anything to keep it that way, thank you.
I'd like to thank my mutual and other food meta writer @vidavalor for discussing some of this off-list some time ago. We mostly see things the same way, I believe, but one must tread one's own path sometimes. They have some different ideas around some of this, but I'll let them say it in their own words.
(This probably has been done before, idk, idc, I thought about this without reading any fic on the topic)
Crowley, of course, isn't really happy about it
But he knows heaven is gonna disappoint Aziraphale, and he wants to be there to help him get away from them as soon as it happens.
(And maybe also just to witness the I-was-right moment)
However, Crowley does not become an angel just by going into heaven. He stays his demonic (?) self, maybe with a bit more colour than black for the show
Aziraphale promised him that he'd be his second in command... not sure that that works, but Azi will do his best to make it happen.
With more colour I don't mean that crowley starts wearing white like the other angels. He may not be wearing black, but there is the whole rainbow to choose from.
Muriel follows that colourful lead
They have a looooong talk about the fact that Azis "nothing last forever" does not mean that he will let the second coming happen and forsake the earth.
It's a last minute decision, like, we had the whole dramatic scene, kiss, no nightingales, "I won't even think about you", driving off, whatever - buuut, Crowley holds the door of the elevator in the last second and is like "you said I can come with you...", Aziraphale just nods. The Metatron is absolutely terrified - 'cause this destroys his whole plan to separate the two.
Gone Native
A 'fic where after the events of the first season / the book, Aziraphale and Crowley turn human.
They will need a few years to realise this
First they seem younger than their corporation were before the almost apocalypse. They think it's one of the things Adam changed...
They start aging
Their miracles work differently, if at all. They don't immediately lose all their power, but they will, over time.
Horrified they try to find out why
None of the sides react - besides maybe Muriel and Shax, but they don't really know what's going on.
They contact the Them, but Adam wasn't the one who turned them human. But in his from-Anathema-fuelled I-know-it-better stance, he also refuses to change them back. (He thinks they will get closer through this, hes a big shipper)
They may learn to arrange themselfs with that, life a more-or-less happy life, together, with a cottage
Alternative endings:
1. When they die, they turn back in higher/celestial beeings. Not really angel and Demon. They are an us now. Their very own form.
2. They keep beeing reborn as human and keep meeting in the next lifetime.
Crowley’s eyes during the Confession weren’t full snakey because there wasn’t anything demonic or miraculous or tempting about that moment. He was saying (and meaning) the words in as human a way as possible.
after rewatching Good Omens, I started noticing a few things about Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s actual powers. Initially i regarded the whole business “Crowley saves Aziraphale” as just Crowley being hopelessly weak for his angel. And of course being Aziraphale an angel, he didn’t feel at ease with doing immoral stuff to get an easy way out, so he waited (prayed?) for Crowley to get his hands dirty ( i know in the books the angel is a lot more ruthless but, as i said, I’m focusing on the show)
Then, tho, when Satan himelf shows up, and Crowley clearly was the one more affected by it, right? so, being a matter of survival, Aziraphale wouldn’t feel ethically challenged for doing anything to save their lives, and yet he don’t. He waits and “ “ “ “ threatens “ “ “ “ “ Crowley (or warns him? idk really i don’t know @ gaiman give me answers), who eventually stops the time and get themselves a breath.
So, i started thingking that showwise, Crowley is actually a really powerful demon, if we can call him that. Or else, by being someone “go native”, he adapted so well on life on hearth that he somewhat evolved, so his powers changed too (in fact, all the other demons are rotting), hence as long as he stays on hearth, he a fucktons stronger than any normal demon.
And what about Aziraphale?
I honestly don’t know. Like, the fact that in presence of Satan he felt just a tingle means that his angelic nature protect him in a way, so he didn’t “go native” like Crowley did, but now that he understood that heaven has broken all the connection? maybe he’ll let himself go a bit. Do the things in his way more than he already did. When he’ll embrace his “angel of the hearth” status he’ll probably start benefit from it.
But all of this is just random speculations, I guess. Even if, the simple fact that Azi and Crowley probably started at the same level but then Crowley got more powerful and still he trusted him says a lot
tell me what you think please, i love speculate on stuff like this
THE CHOCOLATE DREAM - Cacao Farming, Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, and Community in Necoclí, Colombia
Don't forget, join us tonight (Dec. 18 2021 @ 5pm PST) for the special live premiere of our new documentary on cacao farming and how chocolate is helping communities to transform their futures for the better.
Join us for the live premiere on YouTube tonight, December 18 2021, at 5:00 PM PST! Available from then and onward in perpetuity, or at least as long as YouTube is around…
Every December, on the coast of the Gulf of Urabá in Colombia, the communities of Necoclí and Caribia host the Festival of Cacao, a celebration of the biannual cacao harvest and all the benefits it brings. In 2019, I traveled…
