“Tea brings people together. Tea makes harmony and brings resolution. Tea brings peace.” – Joshua Kaiser @rishitea
Mr Kaiser’s upbeat statement during the September airing of Samovar’s Tea Mavericks of America was an inspiring comment, an affirmation of tea’s blessed, and inherently good nature. It was also simple psychobabble. Flower power ramble. The assertion that tea makes harmony is both idealistic, and unfounded. Resolutions may, or may not be achieved, but they are not due to the tea. Tea can bring people together, but any drink can make that claim. Remember the Diet Coke commercial, with all the women gathered at the office window to oggle the hunk? Not a tea cup in sight.
Anything can bring people together, anything can tear them apart. To state that by definition tea creates harmony, implies that you do not understand your tea. This drink does not need a pretty label attached to make it palatable. Tea is neither to laude, nor to blame for socialization. Gathering is simply the by-product of the social act of drinking, not the tea itself.
Granted, Mr Kaiser is a fierce advocate of Fair Trade, and to his credit, he has used his company and his influence to move things forward. However, our own research has made us somewhat critical of the Fair Trade movement.
Nonetheless, comments like Joshua Kaisers’ about tea’s mythical properties abound. An online search for “tea harmony” yields over 15,000 results. Many of these are product names for tea accessories, or packaged tea. Marketers have understood that tapping into the unfulfilled desire for harmony sells the leaves. While it is certainly enjoyable to hope and dream, and drink a cup whilst indulging, consumers deserve more than slogans that are mere platitudes. Tea does not need idealization. It is a drink, not an abstract notion.
There are few exceptions, traditional Japanese tea ceremony embraces what it calls; “the four principles of the Way of Tea: harmony, respect, purity and tranquility.” These principles are valid, and important but they do not define tea, they define Japanese culture and thinking. When Westerners claim tea is all about “harmony”, their claim, not the harmony itself, offers insight into western thinking. The primary motivator for the declaration, is the sale itself, not the purported principal.
On the world stage, tea has a complicated history, often fraught with tensions and long, violent conflicts. The desire to consume it, has led to revolution, wars and fueled slavery.
Had the thirteen colonies not enjoyed drinking tea, then England imposing taxes on it wouldn’t have been a major issue. One of the American Revolution’s more enduring moments was the dumping of forty-five tons of precious tea into Boston Harbor. There was no question of tea symbolizing harmony to the Sons of Liberty. Tea embodied struggle and oppression.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, tea was Britain’s most popular beverage, and a good cup, required copious amounts of sugar. By 1800, per capita consumption had risen to eighteen pounds per person. Sugar cane plantations in the West Indies provided the sweetener, and slaves provided the work force.
The Anglo Chinese wars of the nineteenth century, the Opium wars, lasted three and four years respectively, all because the English loved their tea. At the time, Brits brewed up 15 million pounds of Chinese tea annually. To avoid paying in precious metal, Britain began trading opium for tea, creating wide-spread addiction among the Chinese. When China forbade this practice, the British Empire applied creative means to circumvent the ban, culminating in the wars. If only they hadn’t liked tea.
Peace, and harmony is also not likely on the minds of those whose tedious and straining task it is to pick the tea. For most workers on a plantation in Kenya, China or India, tea is neither mythical, nor beautiful. Plucking tea is a job, and tea is nothing but a bunch of leaves you can brew up to drink.
Does that make for a good sales pitch? Probably not. But don’t buy into the hype that glorifies tea. Tea is a wonderful drink, which tastes amazing. You don’t need vendors to feed you nonsense to make you buy it. You’ll buy it anyway – because you like it. Regardless, of how much harmony, or dissonance tea brings.
Tell us your thoughts below about the peace and harmony movement among tea companies and consumers. Is it just marketing nonsense or does it have sincere merit?
Sounds like nonsense to me. I’m not sure how it would work as a marketing tool. Surely tea companies would be too experienced to buy into such a ploy. As for consumers such as myself, I drink tea because I like the taste, not because I believe that it will bring me harmony.
A marketing approach such as this would seemingly only work on the gullible and groups of quasi-new-agers attempting to show off how Eastern and spiritual they can be.
People should concentrate on the proven medicinal qualities of tea and of course the flavour.
Tea is certainly my favourite restorative after a long day at work.
I know many of us watched the broadcast Jackie mentioned together. I admit to having a good laugh when I heard Kaiser say that. I thought I misheard him at first, but I actually did hear him say it. Shortly after, his comment was tweeted out by the folks at Fair Trade USA.
I was a little shocked, to be honest, on a personal level, anything a CEO says in public or in correspondence that is made public is marketing. That's the bottom line, Kaiser's comment has a lot to do with how he wants his company to be seen. Taken on its own, it seems deceptive and unethical. If the man wasn't so sincere in his work and beliefs, I would say that it is an underhanded way of hawking goods. Playing on people's desires for a better world that way, just sounds like salesman talk. But Kaiser is at least honest and works hard. Other companies, Teavana, for example, spread the same message of peace, harmony and spirituality; but they don't seem as socially conscious as Kaiser appears with Rishi Tea. I have a hard time with Teavana…
Of course, I am also of the opinion that it is this very message which has ruined average Americans on tea.
However, I don't think there is anything wrong for Kaiser to claim tea's harmonizing effects. I think it's ok to paint rosy pictures about tea. Very often when an authority, guru or "tea master" gives a statement that sounds odd to me, the statement itself doesn't drive me crazy. What often drives me crazy is how many people would take it as a fact without critical thinking, and even become superstitious about it. I don't think it's the fault of the speaker (very likely he truly believes it). I think it's the fault of the blind followers, especially, not in this case but in other cases, when the followers use the authority's unfounded statement to attack other different opinions.
Gingko
There are marketing ploys and there are heartfelt comments. I have worked with Joshua for the last four years and can tell you that he is not one to ramble flower power or to commit all his words on tea to a marketing ploy. He is sincere and has spent years bringing true tea to consumers. Yes, he is the founder of a company making money but that does not mean that every statement he makes is one that is meant to get you to the website and place an order. I think that statement was blown out of proportion. The whole talk was a celebration of tea. To me, it did not seem like the companies were there to sell their tea but rather they let tea bring them together.
You talk about the hype of tea, but the culture of tea is more than hype or Joshua's comment. It is a wonderful drink and it does taste amazing but I am sure it means so much more if you have the contact that Joshua has with it. He spends most of his time in Asia and isn't solely an American consumer with leaves in his cup. Think about those cultures in Yunnan that value and honor their tea trees. I think for many it is more than just a bunch of leaves you can brew up to drink.
I admit to having a fundamental disagreement with you about statements made by a company's founder. I appreciate the energy Joshua puts into the social-improvement aspects of his business. But every public word a CEO utters has an impact on the company – these things cannot be separated. If Rishi were not a privately-held firm, then there are always direct consequences to dramatic and sweeping statements like that. But there is also not doubt in my mind that the broadcast was a marketing tool. Yes, it was a celebration of tea (we do it too), but it also serves as a tool to market tea, reinforce customer relationships, image the brands, and give face time to the founders of a few influential companies.
For some, I would argue, that tea is more than just a bunch of leaves that can be brewed up to drink. For many, or most, that is all it is a good drink. Ascribing spiritual qualities to the drink is a difficult thing to do for westerners.
A lot of treasure and honor that people in China put on the tea is lost on westerners. It doesn't devalue the importance of it to those cultures, but Americans simply don't think that way. I suppose this is the reason why I find it difficult to relate. To me, tea is such an ordinary drink – one I like a great deal, because there is so much to like about it.
Gingko – In reference to tea masters making statements, you commented "what often drives me crazy is how many people would take it as a fact, without critical thinking." This is one important reason why I wrote this article. Far too often vague generalizations and sweeping statements are made and presented as fact. This is then quickly absorbed by followers without a single critical thought. The notion that tea is just about harmony is far too widespread, and often mindlessly repeated. That's why I wanted to remind us all of the other side of the coin, – or the tea leaf so to speak.
Susana – I don't know Joshua but Peter pointed out that he is genuinely socially conscious, and that's commendable. While his harmony quote was very likely "heartfelt", I wanted to move away from the fuzzy talk about tea, and look at it critically. We clearly agree with you, that tea's a wonderful drink – I just want to pull it back down to earth, and make it a real drink, not a mythical brew powered by cliché.
I just saw this video this week, so I'm late to the discussion, but here's my contribution:
Kaiser himself mentioned that tea brought about wars in the same discussion – I don't know if that got missed, it's a long video.
Tea isn't ordinary – it requires labor, favorable weather, skilled labor to harvest and process. It requires preparation and time to enjoy it properly. The women in the diet soda commercial didn't have to boil water, think about steeping time, or give thought to whether the people who bottled their drink were earning a fair wage. They just flip open a bottle cap.
And I think it's an exagerration to presume that the average American isn't sold on tea. Spend a day in the Southeast – you'll find tea everywhere, being prepared and enjoyed everywhere. There's a reason Teavana's based out of Atlanta. But there's not a huge market for specialty tea – don't get those two ideas confused. You don't have to be a pu-erh or oolong specialist to enjoy and appreciate tea.
This is something I'm absolutely guilty of. I see specialty tea as pretty much anything loose leaf (I know that is an overly broad definition – but I do so because of the experience involved in the preparation). But you are absolutely correct, the southeast has a very definite tea culture. It is also about as American as apple pie. We live on the Virginia/North Carolina border, so we are in one of the places where you can't order an iced tea without being asked "sweet or unsweet". I accept that the sweet tea phenomenon is not something I understand (I don't relate well to southerners – I'm a Californian by birth… 😉
You are absolutely correct about Americans and tea, perhaps my bias is because its not a desire for the kinds of specialty tea that I think are far more interesting.
Thanks, Great post!