The Story of Tea

All tea comes from the same leaf, it’s how it’s processed that determines what type it will be; just as the life experiences that we all have will determine who we become.

All tea processing has 7 elements in common: harvesting; sorting and cleaning; primary drying or withering; manufacturing specific to each type of tea; final firing or drying; sorting and grading; and packing. This processing can be broken down into three stages. The first three elements prepare the tea for manufacturing, while the last three prepare the tea for consumption. What happens during the second stage, manufacturing, determines what type of tea the leaf will become. Even though there are only a few types of tea, due to the complexities of manufacturing there are hundreds of varieties; and each variety requires a different process where the tea leaf is effectively killed. Some teas suffer more than others; some are steamed, some roasted; other teas are bruised and battered, rolled and twisted; others are suffocated, then stone ground into a powder; others still are stamped in cakes, thrown in a cellar, and abandoned there for years. Each tea goes through a different process, each tea has its own story to tell, but always each tea has to die. It’s what needs to happen for it to reach it’s full potential.

The tea leaf’s journey is ours as well. Just as the tea leaf needs to suffer and die, so do we to reach our full potential. As Christ tells us, “If it dies, it bears much fruit.” We too have to go through a three stage process, one best articulated by Pope Francis: “When the Lord wants to give us a mission, He always has us enter into a process purification, a process of discernment, a process of obedience.” As for tea, we will prepare the leaf for its mission. When we harvest the tea leaf we enter it into a process where we prepare it for manufacture; here, it reaches its final form, then we prepare it for consumption, for our enjoyment. Just so, the Lord will prepare us for our mission. When He chooses us He enters us into a process of purification, where we acknowledge and repent of our sins and are forgiven, which prepares us for discernment; here, we too take our final form, then He prepares us to enter into a process of obedience, where we will give ourselves fully to the world, to serve His purpose for us.

Pope Francis also adds one last stage, a process of prayer. While the tea leaf dies, it completes its transformation. Its last stage is when it’s given a new life with water. For us though this is a time for prayer. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2559) states: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” Preparing tea, brewing tea, drinking tea is a time to meditate on, and appreciate, what He had to go through for us.