Tea party politics leave tea lovers cold
Source: Agencies |
March 18, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE anti-tax tea party movement has riled plenty of Americans, but especially those who actually drink tea.
Strange things are happening as the refined world of tea parties - the kind where you mind your manners and consider proper brewing temperatures - collides with the rowdier milieu of the other kind of tea party, the kind where you brew political dissent.
Activists are capitalizing on voter discontent with high unemployment and the government and are harkening back to 1773 and the Boston Tea Party, when colonists boarded British ships and threw tea into the harbor in a symbolic act of protest.
"It's certainly an exciting time to see this kind of fervent activism, but for our industry, it has been very damaging in an overshadowing type of way," said World Tea Expo president George Jage.
Take Jack Cheng, co-founder of Steepster, a New York-based online tea-drinkers community.
"It's becoming harder for people to find relevant information," said Cheng, who was visiting San Francisco this week. "You always find some politically driven tea party as opposed to what you're looking for."
While tea is a long way from knocking coffee off its perch in America, it has become more popular in recent years, especially specialty teas. Devotees include people like Kaya Mindlin, a yoga instructor who was sharing a pot of tea with friends in Berkeley this week. "To me, the political tea party is divisionary," she said. "Real tea parties are the opposite of that; it's bringing people together."
Political opinions in the trade vary; some are neutral while others lean left or right. But all seem bemused by the idea of blending tea and tumult.
Strange things are happening as the refined world of tea parties - the kind where you mind your manners and consider proper brewing temperatures - collides with the rowdier milieu of the other kind of tea party, the kind where you brew political dissent.
Activists are capitalizing on voter discontent with high unemployment and the government and are harkening back to 1773 and the Boston Tea Party, when colonists boarded British ships and threw tea into the harbor in a symbolic act of protest.
"It's certainly an exciting time to see this kind of fervent activism, but for our industry, it has been very damaging in an overshadowing type of way," said World Tea Expo president George Jage.
Take Jack Cheng, co-founder of Steepster, a New York-based online tea-drinkers community.
"It's becoming harder for people to find relevant information," said Cheng, who was visiting San Francisco this week. "You always find some politically driven tea party as opposed to what you're looking for."
While tea is a long way from knocking coffee off its perch in America, it has become more popular in recent years, especially specialty teas. Devotees include people like Kaya Mindlin, a yoga instructor who was sharing a pot of tea with friends in Berkeley this week. "To me, the political tea party is divisionary," she said. "Real tea parties are the opposite of that; it's bringing people together."
Political opinions in the trade vary; some are neutral while others lean left or right. But all seem bemused by the idea of blending tea and tumult.
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