Essay: Tea Is Love

 

 

 

It's not what they ask that startles me. It is the comeback the drink makes itself. Tea is love, I say, but some people do not understand.

If you ask me why I love tea like how the drink loves itself, sometimes, my answer will be just a smile. Some people say it is neither sweet nor it contains nutrients they think I need. But have they tasted cold tea on a sunny day? Have they permitted their tongues and lips to collide while tasting that perfectly-made drink?

Tea isn't just a drink for me. It is life. It gives me the power and courage to wake up every day, put my shits together, and do my work. Knowing that I will take tea after a long day makes my mind refresh which births a productive day. When its irresistible aroma knocks at the door of my nose, my nerves smile and that leads to a holy day.

Tea is always there for me. It is that best friend that never gets tired of helping me. It saves me from hunger and thirst and is easy to make. It is not standoffish; it loves company. Anywhere, anytime, tea is made and it tastes as sweet as the first kiss from your long-term crush. It is that girlfriend that never wishes to break up with you; the one that solaces you when your mental state is as appalling as a fire alarm.  

One day, I walked for around six kilometers; from school towards home. Reaching there, I was thirsty and ravenous. My lips were as dry as toy deserts. I couldn't even talk to someone until I opened the fridge and found my grey-coloured flask of mukaru sitting beside a container of milk that couldn't impress me. It was waving me like "Come and get saved, bro".  I smiled and let it kiss my lips. I didn't have to pour the tea into a cup first. I poured it inside my growling stomach. That moment still counts as the best in my life. Being saved by something you love makes your life anew. You feel alive again.

Let me extend this straight to book lovers. Have you ever sipped tea while reading your favourite book? What a feeling! It reminds you that you are alive and compels your mind to perceive different worlds where you realise that you can fly as high as a dignified butterfly. Tea's scent resembles a feeling of revival. The one that makes your lifetime anxiety vanish like a fired ghost.

When I was six, I lived with my grandmother at Gatuna, near the Rwanda-Uganda border. I remember she used to give me black tea, saying it was the only drink that could quench my thirst. She knew how great it was and loved It. She was attached to it whether sugary or not. It had become part of her life and essential like the air she breathed. I sometimes thought she was addicted, but it wasn't so. Grandma had found love in tea and kept it close for she knew it was there to stay. That demonstrated to me how tea is love. It loves you back if you ever come to love it.

So, someday when you ask me why I love tea, think about love first. Understand how love works and allow yourself to feel it. When you ask me why I love tea, at least consider interacting with its smell. Tea will elucidate itself. Don't ask me why I love tea if you have never tasted it. Taste it and feel love. As you do it, my answer will be as close to your heart as the silhouette of your arteries.