Perspective: Is it time for tea or time for change?

I am a tea addict. Mostly rooibos, but not exclusively.

Growing up in a very English home, drinking tea was how we structured the day.

Tea after breakfast, mid-morning tea, afternoon tea and possibly a cup before bed.

When visiting my gran on the farm it was the complete experience.

Tea bags were never unceremoniously dumped into mugs.

My gran would bring out the full tray, complete with pretty porcelain tea cups, tea cosy and home-made biscuits.

The plate of biscuits ensured that the call of “tea time” across the garden and into the farmyard never went unanswered.

My cousins and I would make a beeline for the backdoor to gambol out of muddy gumboots and tidy up before we would be allowed inside.

I never questioned how much tea was part of our culture until I left home and experienced people who did not drink tea.

It was most awkward. How else do you welcome a guest into your home without offering tea?

When one of my dearest friends, Marie, was getting married I visited her in America. Some may remember her family who lived in Salt Rock for a few years.

Her parents, Luann and Tim Kuehl are American missionaries to the AmaZioni.

Leading up to the wedding their house was like a train station with guests arriving and leaving all the time.

At one point I was left to play host – I found myself making trays of tea for all the arrivals and having a good laugh at myself watching it go cold.

Americans apparently do not understand how to be good guests.

Marie confided in me that most homes did not even have a kettle (gasp), let alone a tea pot (double gasp).

Since then I have to admit that I have picked up some lazy habits – like dumping tea bags into coffee mugs – but that is because tea goes cold much too quickly in a dainty cup and they are not nearly big enough, as well.

But let me get to the point.

Recently I completed a plastic-free week challenge (I plan to write about the experience soon), during which I made a horrifying discovery.

Most tea bags are made of plastic (polypropylene – a synthetic resin – which is added during the sealing process) and are therefore not fully biodegradable.

Yes, I was shocked too. If we do the math, I dispose of 1,460 tea bags a year.

What boggles my mind is that this is a single-use plastic (think straws and cigarette filters) but one that is so seemingly innocuous that it had never even crossed my mind that I was creating landfill with my daily habit.

I always assumed loose tea leaves would be a total hack but I have discovered the opposite. Filling my little tea infuser with leaves is such fun and I swear the tea is better.

Trying to find loose leaf tea is not that easy though.

There are long aisles dedicated to all the different types of tea the world could offer, but all in tea bags!

Our consumer throwaway culture is so strong that many stores do not even offer loose leaf anymore, I presume because people don’t buy it.

Or could it be that we have fallen victim to marketing?

We have been told that loose leaf is a hassle and tea bags are so much more convenient, when all time we are simply being convinced to part with more of our hard-earned money for no good reason.

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Tepidophobia – the fear of a badly made cup of tea.

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