An ode to the kettle

If tea had a collective noun, I’d like to think it would be “a comfort of cuppas”. It’s not just a sense of comfort that has us reaching for the kettle in times of need, but the word does a good job of conveying some of the feeling we get from a well-timed brew. Second only to water, tea is one of the world’s most popular drinks. People all over the globe congregate around the tea caddy at multiple points throughout the day, often in a reflexive response to stress, boredom, sleeplessness, or the need for a break. Tea is served when people are sick, or grieving and exchanged during meetings of friends or colleagues, fuelling creativity, planning, problem-solving and idle chatter. And there are good reasons for all this, as it turns out. Not only comforting, tea has purported physical health benefits and can support our psycho-social wellbeing. 

On a basic level, tea is tasty, often caffeinated and reassuringly hot. It can hydrate you, energise you and research suggests that some of the compounds in tea can help relieve stress and repair or protect cells in the body. There are even reports (some to be taken with a pinch of salt) that various types of tea can help lower blood sugar levels, reduce cavity-forming bacteria in your mouth and stress on your heart, help insomnia, improve your metabolism and even sharpen mental acuity. 

Going back to this idea of heat, though,why does this seem to matter so much? Well, to some, it doesn’t - more than 85% of tea consumed in the USA is supposedly served chilled. To others, though, the warmth of tea is somehow key to it’s enjoyment. A evolutionary bias towards warm food and climates makes sense, as meat is freshest (and therefore less likely to be off and make us ill) when the carcass is still warm, and both food and resources are more plentiful in warmer areas. However, there is also a link between physical warmth and interpersonal warmth, perhaps an association formed in infancy when body heat is maintained through close, loving contact with our caregivers. Hot beverages are reminiscent of being cared for in the youngest, most vulnerable days of our lives: reminders of warm milk at bedtime; of hot chocolate on treat days and of soup lovingly provided when we were ill. Research has also shown that physical warmth might encourage affectionate thoughts and feelings towards others: people who held a cup of hot (as opposed to iced) coffee were more likely to think of other people as generous and caring and buy a friend a gift. Good news if your loved ones are partial to a hot drink!

It’s not just the properties of the drink itself though, that make tea so appealing. Some of the comfort a cup of tea can provide is rooted in the preparation and cultural traditions around the resulting beverage. To many of us, making a cup of tea is a routine we know off by heart. Despite controversy over how the perfect cup is made (milk first or last?), we all have our own time-honoured traditions and preferences, whose familiar rhythms are reassuringly predictable. One step reliably follows the next and the resulting cup will taste as it always does, even if everything around us is more uncertain or chaotic. Doing something so simple and so pleasantly mundane can be a calming experience - surely things can’t be so disastrous if these ordinary, daily routines can still continue?

Those familiar steps of preparation may also provide a distraction from difficult thoughts, conversations or tasks. Tea making is a simple activity, but one that is nonetheless mindful enough to focus worried or grieving minds on for a fraction of relief. Whether we go through these motions by ourselves, or with others, the practical nature of the task offers purposeful movement for restless limbs, idle hands and lost minds. 

Traditionally, tea was taken in company, an intimate cup before bed with a spouse, or perhaps a more social affair with friends. When we are in difficulty, we need those social opportunities to maintain connections with our families and our communities. Over a teapot (and a few biscuits maybe), acquaintances become friends, friends become soulmates and whole communities can be both formed and strengthened. A cup of tea gratefully received can show us that people care about us, while carefully preparing one can help us demonstrate our own love and affection to others in return, or even ourselves. Small acts of tea-stained kindness can smooth over irritations, supplement apologies and help repair ruptures. In difficult, or awkward conversations, the process of tea-making can even offer unladen conversational prompts, via uncomplicated queries about where one can find the tea pot, or whether one takes sugar. 

All in all, the humble cup of tea is a useful, therapeutic tool. A household staple, it’s heartening to know that sometimes the most unassuming, inexpensive and widely-available items can become some of the most significant cheerleaders of our wellbeing. Enjoy!

One more thing: Although we celebrate tea (and we should!), we need to also acknowledge the dark side of it’s history and the immoral practices that still exist in the industry today. If, like me, this post has got you craving a cup, please take a minute to research ethical tea production brands for your next shop.