27

DIARY
What is a cup of tea? In essence' it is tea piaced within a cup. Or, looked at in another

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way, a cup surrounding tea. of tea as a relief from W" fobt to a cup -burden of living with the claustrophobic do j ustice to our to trying fot.u"t of ourselves,

I There must be a better way to make a cup oftea. - p..p in our hearts there exists a primordial longing to explore other, perhaps more
benificiat, methods of tea-making' Whv are we so determined that water shouldhrst be boiled in a kettle' then poured hot onto a tea-bag placed in a cup or "teapof'?
Fresh thinking is needed. We should'set aside our societal obsession

own ootential and of smrggling to persuade a few people in our limited orbit to take our
ideas and needs seriouslY.

Do vou fancY a cuP of tea? This is what *" *un sav to i friend. By this' we do not n.".rru.ily-tnean that they may be sexua.lly attracted tb a particular cup of tea; merely, that
they may desire to consume it'

A bolder society, less shackled by traditiol, would seek other, more effective, methods' kettle into a cup'

with pouring water from

Instead,-we should place the

tea-bag

When we talk about a "nice cup of tea" we are ascribing human characterstics to an iouni-at" potio-n. Some part 9f us clearly

tr

ALAIN DE BOTTON TEA: A USER,S MANUAL

the tea itself would require our flying to
another continent - most probably India or Cninu - in order to pick the requisite number of leaves from tea-Plants'

straisht into our mouth. S-econd. we should boil the water'

hooes that ihe tea in the cup will be pleasant to us, will speak fondly to us, inquiring after our health, or in some other way answenng to our deeoest emotional needs.

Third, we should pour the boiling water our mouth' from - the kettle straight into Fourth, we should swill the teabag around
time to "brew".

in itre Uoiting water in our mouth, giving it

So ut the heart of the desire for a cup of tea lies a touching, vulnerable and simple aspiration: a longing to be treated nicely'

to us later that tea is a commodity riadily available in a shop' or

I It mav onlY occur

time that, by overtuming pre-ordained societal tnoO.t, un,i rejecting our ruinous globalised

of freshly-brewed tea, rejoicing at the same

Finallv. we should swallow our mouthful

I A cup of tea is not the same as a tea cup' ttro.tgtt itt" confusion is an easy orre to make' A is a cup constructed with tea in mind' l* "l"p *ttittt'u c.rp of teu is a cup already containing a certain quantitY oftea.
Thus your tea cup may sometimes contain tea, but for your tea Cup to contain a cup of tea'

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shoos. But bv then we will have travelled halfuay around the world in order to find the nlant for ourselves. Meanwhile, our friend or acquaintance may well have left our house in order to pursue his or her own life. So, some seven days later, upon our return to ow empty home with the freshlypicked tea, we may succumb to a terrible sense

"uo-deoendencv, o* t.u-Otint ing and brought

beveiage-based drinking habits.

we have

personalised

refreshing

soiritual simpficity - moral, self-aware a'nJ phitanthropic - to this most regular of

of tea? Q: How might we brew the perfect cup generosity, faimess' fulfilment, A: In a spirit of
beauty and kindness. Q: One lumP or two?

would require two separde cups to h1n{' lhe second (that is, the cup containing tea) sitting inside the first (the emPtY cuP).

ofdesolation.

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Millions upon millions of cups of tea are consumed b1 mankind each day throughout
the world. Some of these cups of tea

What do we, as human beings - both human and, at one and the same time, beings - mean whin we say we are planning to "make a cup

oftea"?
Asked by someone else - a loved one, a work colleague, a chance acquaintance - to "make a cup of1ea", our immediate impulse is to go out from an'd buy or ient all the necessary apparatus the^ clay' the wheel' the store: or shop a Potter's ouen, tft" gfat". and' perhaps most important of all, the prJmises within which to mould and fue our proposed cup.

will be too weak; others too strong. Iiut a certain number will be just right: neither too weak nor too strong' buiideally suited to the taste ofthe person or persons for whom the consumption ofthat cup
of tea was intended. What can we learn from this? The answer is both simple and obscure: the only cup oftea orooerlv diserving of the epithet 'iust right" it on. io which thi demands of the individual taster iire provided by the tea ingested' .

A: In an ideal world this is a question we would ask our neighbours each morning, having forced ourselves into their homes' watei upstairs to their bedroom and surprised them with a cup of tea, biscuits,
und u

f.*

useful thoughts on the meaning and

purpose

oflife.
dream. It is bY our to dunk that we judge ourselves'

f, To dunk is to
caoacitv

OunLit g is a tool to help us with a number

nf osvcloloeical frailties which we would

* The burden of these potential operatrons may sometimes seem insurmountable'

particularly when we recognise that gathering

human conflict, and ieasons for optimism; for if tea can be made 'Just right" - neither too weak, nor too strong - then why should the same not aPPIY to human societY?

Within this insight lies the solution to

othirwise hive trouble handling' This much is understood, but there remains a problem: *h"r, out biscuit has grown too soggy, who

will pat it dry?

As told to

CRAIG BROWN
LIGGER