Tag Archives: tea

White Sage Tea

Age: 21

1. If you have a cold you should drink white sage tea.

2. This participant, born and raised in San Diego, recounted the fact that while she was growing up, her family was very much into holistic medicine and would often give her and her siblings various teas and “natural remedies” for any sickness. One specific medicine she remembers was white sage tea. Whenever she had a cold or a cough or just generally complained about feeling ill, her parents would give her a hot cup of white sage tea to make her feel better. She very distinctly remembers the flavor – she said it tasted incredibly “herb-y” and “earthy” and that she used to complain about the taste until her parents would agree to at least add honey or some type of sweetener to appease her. While growing up, the participant states that she never really thought about the origins of this treatment and simply thought it was normal. Now grown up, however, she has since learned that the treatment is rooted in local customs and traditions of the Kumeyaay – a tribe that has historically inhabited the San Diego area. Although she stated she never actually asked her parents why or how they came across the remedy, she assumes it’s just through the fact that they had always been tapped into holistic remedies, they probably just encountered the remedy through the local community.

3. Interviewer’s Interpretation: Natural remedies or holistic medicine is something that has existed for generations, outdating modern medicine by centuries. This specific interview reveals how localized these practices often are. I myself also have parents who are fairly tapped into the world of holistic medicine, and yet despite this – having not grown up in San Diego – I was completely unaware of white sage tea as a remedy. Although this is a fuzzier distinction to make in the age of technology and globalization, since holistic medicine is not necessarily a mainstream practice, I would argue that it still relies on one’s local environment and historical communities on its upkeep and continued practice.

Empacho

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 38
Occupation: Mechanic
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: Spanish and English

Text: “When I was little, if I had a stomachache or was constipated, my grandma would say I had empacho. She would rub my stomach with oil while massaging my stomach and back. Then she would give me a té de manzanilla boiled with the pit of an avocado. I wasn’t allowed to eat cold food after that, only warm soups. No doctors were involved, just her hands and prayers.”

Context: The informant explained that he and his cousins were often diagnosed with empacho by their grandmother when they had constipation, bloating, or stomach cramps. He explained that empacho is believed to be caused by eating too much, eating improperly, or food “sticking” in the stomach. His grandmother learned the treatment from a neighborhood curandera (a folk healer) in Michoacán. He doesn’t fully believe in the diagnosis now, but he did say the treatment did make him feel better. It was comforting. 

Interpretation: Empacho is considered to be a folk illness in Mexican medicine. The idea that food can cause an internal imbalance that requires hands-on shows how healing illustrates how illness is perceived not just as biological but also energetic. The act of rubbing or even pulling the stomach is a way of drawing out the illness. Using warmth (like tea or massage) is a way to counteract the “coldness” in the body. This ritual becomes not only a form of medical intervention but a cultural one, preserving heritage and asserting identity. 

Tea

Nationality: British
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: United Kingdom
Language: English

“It’s not my cup of tea.”

My informant mentioned that both parents growing up would use this phrase. Their British mother would use it more than their father, who is Irish. The phrase though has always been in their lives. They would use it to explain that they didn’t like something or that it wasn’t for them.

This proverb is an English idiom that means something is not to you’re liking or preference. The English, in my opinion, use this proverb in a polite way to say that they aren’t enjoying/are not interested in something.

Chinese Tea Rhyme

Text: 

Original Script in Mandarin Characters:

甜配绿, 酸配红, 瓜子配乌龙。

Pronunciation in Mandarin Pinyin:

tián pèi lǜ, suān pèi hóng, guā zǐ pèi wū lóng.

Transliteration:

Sweet matches green, sour matches red, sunflower seeds match oolong.

Translation:

Serve sweet food with green tea, serve sour food with black tea, and serve snacks like sunflower seeds with oolong.

Context: 

I first heard the rhyme when I was enjoying a traditional-style tea party one day with my family when I was in middle school. I randomly asked my paternal grandparents how did they manage to choose different tea on different days, and my grandma replied with this tea rhyme and said the choice was dependent on what flavor of food and snacks we were having. Later when I interviewed my grandma for this project, it appeared that she couldn’t remember when, where, and from whom she learned this rhyme. Having circulated orally among people, this tea rhyme has been and still is a popular phrase across different regions in China.

Analysis: 

Historically, China is known for tea culture and tea serves a vital role in people’s daily lives. Tea-drinking is not simply a pleasant gustatory and olfactory experience, but also facilitates social and spiritual activities. When it comes to deciding which tea to drink, this tea rhyme is a shortcut that speeds up decision-making, though many may have their own preferences and theories. 

Broadly conceived as an agreeable saying, this rhyme reveals the basic logics in matching tea with food. According to the informant, this rhyme can be broken down into three parts and each part has a solid backing to it. To begin with, one should serve sweet food with green tea since its relatively bland taste tones down sweetness. Though not known to the informant, it has been proven scientifically that gallated catechin (GC) found in green tea acutely reduces blood glucose levels, resulting in the consensus that green tea makes sweet food and dessert “healthier”. Contrarily, the rich flavor of black tea is thought to be best served with sour food to reduce bitterness as well as add depth to its smell and taste. Lastly, sunflower seeds are a popular snack in China that tastes nutty, slightly salty, and savory. Despite literally specifying sunflower seeds as oolong’s “partner”, this tea rhyme generalizes a category of nutty and less flavored snacks compared to the aforementioned sweet and sour food, saying that oolong’s flavor will not be sabotaged but enhanced when served with this snack category.

In terms of the rhyme’s pronunciation in Mandarin, the three short phrases rhyme perfectly together with the first ending in a downward tone and the last two ending in an upward tone. Furthermore, the rhyme strictly follows a rhythmic structure (3 characters, 3 characters, 5 characters) as the last two phrases rhyme with two different characters but they sound the same vowels and the exact same tone. The rhyme’s catching pronunciation helps it withstand the test of time and remain popular among its specific folk group.

As much as Chinese people value tea and food, the theories behind matching a food with a specific tea are passed down generation to generation, and this tea rhyme not only allows us to take a glimpse into this rich tea culture, but also helps distill collective wisdom in tea-drinking.

Turkish Coffee Fortune Telling

Background Information: 

The informant is a residential real estate developer who learned a lot of traditions and superstitions from their mother. They currently live in Detroit, Michigan but emigrated from Turkey. 

Main Content: 

ME: So can you tell me a bit about using Turkish Coffee to tell someone’s fortune? 

GD: Yeah so, um, after you drink your Turkish coffee, in your Turkish coffee cup, its a small cup, maybe about like 5 mL ish, you turn it upside down and once the bottom is cool to the touch, um, you turn it right-side up, and there are people who claim they can tell your future and your fortune from what they see in the coffee grounds. 

ME: Do you know what they look for in the grounds? 

GD: If they see, like, it really depends on the person’s interpretation, it’s very subjective. But, like, you know, if someone sees something that looks like a mountain, one person will tell you that it looks like there will be a big obstacle in the way, while another person will tell you that it looks like you will be traveling somewhere soon. It’s very subjective, it’s like an art, really.

ME: I’ve seen you do it a number of times before, in cafes in Turkey with your friends, do you believe in it at all, or do you just do it for fun? 

GD: Kaya, some people absolutely believe in it, and they have people they go to regularly to read their fortunes. But if we’re doing it, it’s just for fun. I don’t believe in it, but there are definitely people who believe in it, and there are definitely people who know what they are talking about. 

ME: Do you know how it started, or how you learned about it? 

GD: I have no idea, you would have to look it up. My family is Turkish, and, um, I grew up with my aunts and family friends, that, after they drink their Turkish coffee, they turn their cup upside down and have their fortune read. 

Background: 

This interview happened at my house. 

Thoughts: 

This tradition is very popular in Turkey. The informant is my mother, and I remember seeing her do this countless times with her Turkish friends. However, to them, it was always something that they laughed about and nobody really took it seriously. Upon further research, this is a tradition that has been around for thousands of years and can be referred to as Tasseography. Trying to find the origin of this tradition was very difficult, and I could not find a credible source citing one place where this began. However, some say that this practice did indeed begin in Ottoman Turkey in the 16th century. However, other sources say that this tradition started with reading tea leaves in ancient China, whereas others claim that it first began in Victorian England. Regardless, this is a very old tradition that has a lot of history. To Turkish culture, it is something very old and cherished, and even though some do not take it seriously, most Turkish people take pride in doing this activity, just like the informant.