“We are Tea People” my “one love” Jamaican mother repeated to me several times in my life.  I remembered that statement one morning she observed me drink one of two cups of a Puerto Rican dark roast plantation brew before flying out the house with my timberlands untied to catch a bus to catch the train, knowing I was having another cup at work, and then another, in the afternoon, and then another one, another one, another one. Our conversation exchange flashed across my mind after I woke up savagely gagging one night, a guest in my friend’s home, drowning in acid reflux, fighting to find my breath and figure out where in the world was I after a crazy food tour sampling 3 different cultures in one day on my 2022 coming out of the pandemic trip to the far away country of Canada.  I had eaten my way through Syracuse, Kingston, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto.  I devoured everything in my path that Korea, Lebanon, Greece, Vietnam, Japan, France, Texas, Syria, and Allo Mon Coco had to offer.

I remember when I was small child our Caribbean family would drink a nice hot cup of tea with our breakfast.  It was a soft opening to the day.  A cup of tea, a verse from the Good Book, a prayer, an amen, and a home cooked meal.  Sometimes we would drink a cup of tea before and during dinner.  Most times it was herbal in the morning and black in the evening.  This was our tradition.  Tea was the miracle worker in our home.  My Caribbean grandma and great aunties, and all grandmas around the Caribbean would always say as they pour their teas: “It brek up de gas honey.”

TEA

• Break up the gas, Break the fast, stomachache, general comfort – Peppermint  

• Calm your soul - Chamomile

• Nausea, stomach upset - Ginger  

• Anti-Mosquitos and clean your blood, some say in has an effect on diabetes and for persons at risk of high blood pressure.  WARNING: Drink with caution. It looks like the color of apple juice, extremely bitter that it will pucker your face inside out before it puckers your soul.  Cerasee

• Flu like symptoms, headache, sinus running, sore throat – Hot Toddy

• My Favorite – Earl Grey Tea or Black Lipton Tea with a generous teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk. *

My Deviation from the Tradition

The corruption happened in the South Bronx when I was 15 years old.  I was volunteering at a regional convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses held in the House that Ruth Built, the original Yankee Stadium.  35,000+ people attended from the Tri-State area, the United States, and some visitors from other countries.  It was a splash of gorgeous multicolored faces, exquisite suits and dresses from multiple places.  It was a small snapshot of an earlier historical event, marked on the pavement of Yankee Stadium grounds, where on August 3, 1958, a record breaking 123,707 people attended the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in those stands that encircle 3 plates a mound and a home.  Delegates from 123 different lands attended the two venues of Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds.  7,136 people were baptized symbolizing their dedication to their God, Jehovah, and the total present at both sites for this eight day convention was 253,922 people, a quarter of a million people in Da Bronx.

So as a teenager, walking through these hallowed halls I heard reverberating echoes of multiple histories, the snap, clap, and crack of the bat where The Bronx Bomber atom balled that red stitched orb into defenders, or up, out, and over into the Boojie Up before it became the Boogie Down Bronx.  The crowd roar swells higher and higher as the hey batter, batter, batter, hey batter, batter, walks to the plate, while landing planes scrape the sky and what’s left of the sound barrier destroying eardrums on their way to land at LaGuardia Airport.  Just past the outfield the elevated B and D trains rumble, bellow, squeal and brake as little children take, squeal, elbow, and fumble hot dog, fries, ketchup, coke.  That night, poor parents…it’s all she wrote.  Bronx cheers swap out for Christian applause.  Poignant anthems of “O say can you see” chill the spines of those standing at attention while festive jingles of “Take me out to the Ball Game, take me out with the crowd” transition the mood, while at the next venue the faithful sing praises, chant marching chaunts of “Firm and Determined in this time of the end” celebrating integrity, endurance, and determination in the face of torture and the impossible.  I was in at the Show.

My volunteer gig was in the Trucking and Equipment Department.  We brought all materials in and took all materials out.  The office below for volunteer check-in was below the stands in the winding hallways of the stadium.  I intentionally walked in with my friend, just two boys from Queens wanting to help a cause.  A vibrant, talkative bunch of men and women from Jersey and Long Island yakked it up and were working out assignments.  The secretary looked up, saw our approach, and said: “Welcome boys… Go grab a cup of coffee, then we’ll figure things out.”  I haven’t stopped coffee since.

Today, I still drink tea politely and socially at home with my family and my one trip to England.  However, another lifetime ago, before 9/11 changed the world, on the streets of Brooklyn I received my calling.  My first love of tea was awakened.  I was with my bro Ham.* It was a dark and frigid autumn.  The kind of evening that is refreshing and depressing.  The cold crisp air reminds you to thank the Most High for every blessed breath, while what was once the sun drops out of the sky, the game, and the season in the afternoon.  We were brisk walking on Frantic Atlantic Avenue navigating between returning commuters, small dogs, chili dogs, hot dogs and early Salvation army ringing bells.  We hooked a left and a right and left and a right and bada bing, bada boom…we were in Yemen.  Throaty letters and guttural words ricocheted on my virgin American eardrums.  I tried to piece together syllables and concepts from my beginner Alif, Baa, pass the hummus class.  “Salam a laykoom” with a hand placed on the heart went back and forth between men and little men with black and white checkered kaffiyehs with the occasional earth toned and intricate patterned shemagh (pronounced “schmog”).   I breathed in the culture and savored the sounds.  I thought: “This is why I love the Big Apple.”  Bro ham took me to the back of the café next to a large silver canteen.  He grabbed from a stack “We are happy to serve you” washed out blue NYC coffee cup. It was a self-serve station. He pulled the black lever down, and filled up the cup.  He tipped a tad of evaporated milk from a slightly pierced can and deftly poured a tight teaspoon.  He handed it to me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just drink it.” After all that effort, navigation, back streets, time travel to the Gulf, he shook his head slowly and knowingly, slightly frustratingly with the “just trust me bruh” nod.

I brought it to my mouth, and I started to suck in a little air because the intense heat was beaming off the top. 

I sipped a polite, noiseless, slurp and a blast of tones hit me.  It started with the slight bitter of the black tea leaves, following the gradual hit of the caffeine.  Next came the raise of pressure of pleasure sweetness sugar.  Then the chase of the mellow down milk, to then be enveloped by the sweet loving, exotic, pungent mix of cardamum, cinnamon and cloves.  I was a brown Hippy drinking flowers, herbs, manhood and comfort simultaneously. The color was tan like sand.  It was Yemen heaven.

My momma always said: “We are tea people.”

According to the United Nations, International Tea Day is celebrated on May 21st each year, but it has been celebrated annually on December 15 by the major tea producing countries.  Not an exhaustive list but some of the nations are India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Indonesia.   The day mainly seeks to raise awareness on the impact the tea trade has on farmers and workers but is also celebrated by tea lovers worldwide. The tea industry is a main source of income and export revenues for some of the lesser economically strong countries in the world.  The industry, while labor intensive, provides jobs, especially in remote, rural and economically disadvantaged parts of the world.  Tea, a resource, and a commodity can play a significant role in rural development, poverty reduction, and food security in developing countries according to an article written by Vidan Sahu.**  

It is an art, a science, and a tradition to grow tea.  With climate change, fluctuations of temperatures, skewed rainfall patterns ranging from the extremes of flooding and drought mixed with the sensitivity, challenges, and requirements of planting and harvesting tea it combines into a maelstrom that affects yield, quality, livelihood, families and children.

According to random interviews, and research from various sources on the most popular liquid in the world, holding steady between beer and coffee, tea is the world’s third most popular beverage after the king, water.  Tea brings civility in a cup, high class to the evening, rhythm to the chaos, hospitality to the guest, farewell to the traveler, medicine to the sick, religion to the believer, future to a seeker, comfort to the grieving, and conversation to the couch.

Are you a coffee or tea person? Comment below. Type and Blend. 😀

References:

If you would like to try Yemen Tea. Go to The Yemen Cafe. They have establishments in Bay Ridge and Downtown Brooklyn. While you are there get some comfort food.

*https://bootstrapbeverages.com/blog/most-consumed-beverages-around-the-world/#:~:text=1.-,Water,plenty%20of%20water%20every%20day

 https://www.merazone.com/2022/12/international-tea-day-2022-history.html

* Mistofer Christopher does not recommend or endorse any one type of medical treatment or therapy in his blogs.  He for sure does not offer medical advice.  This blog merely relates human stories, adventures and gives readers a place to visit, and a context of present, past, and sometimes the future.  If you do choose to sample any of the aforementioned items for medical purposes, please do your own research.

 * Name has been shortened and changed.