But is it Tea?
There’s a heated controversy going on in the chat rooms and message boards of the online tea community. It’s not about the price of tea in China, even though the price for a cup of pu-erh can run as high as $1000 in Hong Kong. In fact, it’s not even about tea itself, but about the English language and the meaning of the word “tea”. Some people don’t approve of some of the ways that word is used.
True tea, that luscious brown liquid that fills your cup and sharpens your brain, all comes from a plant called Camellia sinensis. Whether it’s black, green, white, or oolong, it all comes from either the Camellia sinensis var. sinensis or the Camellia sinensis var. assam. The only difference is the way that it’s processed, the white being not processed of all and the black being the most processed.
The language problem comes up when you mention “herbal tea” within earshot or computer screen of a tea purist. Before you have a chance to so much as close your mouth, the tea purist will be screaming, “it’s not tea!” In a way, that person would be right, but in a way, he is also wrong. It all depends on what you mean when you say, or write, the word “tea”.
All languages are in a constant state of change, constantly adding and adapting new words. The word “tea” came from the Chinese, the ones who first introduced tea to visiting Europeans and the rest of the world. However, when the word was brought back to the English language, it took on additional meanings. Very quickly, the word “tea” became synonymous with the word “infusion”, a substance made by steeping any part of a plant in hot water.
Tea purists would like to revoke this term from the English language on the grounds that herbal tea is not true tea. What they don’t seem to understand is that no one is saying that herbal tea is tea. The word herbal is a modifier that changes the meaning of the noun. It lets us know that the beverage is, indeed, not tea. It’s the way we know a hotdog is not really a dog or a hedgehog really a hog. It refers to the way that the beverage is prepared, not what it’s made from.
The argument is that calling herbal tea “tea” is confusing, but that doesn’t make a great deal of sense. Herbal tea has been called such for well over a century, so why should it suddenly be confusing? There’s a perfectly simple way to know for sure whether you have a true tea or an herbal tea. All you have to do is pick up the box or the tin and read the label. If it contains true tea, it will be in the ingredient list because that’s what product labeling is for.
brewed on Feb 10th, 2010
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