Some like it hot

Leigh Dawson, Lesley Pike, Alison Martin and Sunni Vann take a break for a cuppa. (Nick Pearce photo)

It’s been sipped for thousands of years, and Dalhousie students are continuing the tradition of drinking tea as a way of taking a soothing break in their day—an ahhh moment between study sessions and essay writing.

Tea drinking began in ancient China 5,000 years ago, with Emperor Shen Nung. He demanded all water be boiled before consumption as a hygienic precaution. According to legend, one day as he was travelling, his servants were boiling water when leaves from a Camellia sinesis plant fell into the cup. Shen Nung was curious and decided to consume the brown potion.

Whether hot, iced, spiced, flavoured, with or without sugar, honey, milk or lemon, tea is renowned for “vigor of body, contentment of mind and determination of purpose,” according to Shen Nung. But members of the Dalhousie Tea Drinking Society also enjoy tea’s social side.

“It’s an excuse to go out for an hour or so, relax, have some tea and meet some people you otherwise would not have met,” says Alison Martin, president of DTDS.

The society tries to stick to fair trade tea, but the students will drink just about any type of tea there is: black, green and oolong. 

“Tea is one thing that a lot of people — other than grandparents — don’t know a lot about. I think people our age should because it’s a fantastic drink,” says Matt German, a DTDS member for the past two years.

The tea drinkers are looking forward to an upcoming tea party in honour of Lewis Carroll’s “unbirthday.” Unbirthdays can be any day of the year, except the day of the person’s actual birthday. The date of the tea party is yet to be determined.

Like the unbirthday party, the society is trying out some news things, like going to Clay Café to paint tea cups, selling T-shirts to raise money for the Ecology Action Centre and collaborating with other student societies. “Our focus this year has shifted to helping out other societies with their events,” says Ms. Martin, 20.

This includes providing tea and nibblies for the Dalhousie University Chinese-Canadian Society’s recent celebration of the Chinese New Year in the SUB. The event involved trivia games and prizes, too.

“It’s just one of those things where two societies get together and have a good time,” says Mr. German.

Michelle Hampson is a first-year Dal student and aspiring journalist.