The Chicago Tribune notes that the relative success of the Tea Party movement has made things frustrating for lovers of tea parties.
Purveyors of fine tea and tea enthusiasts in general find themselves steeped in a linguistic shift, their beloved beverage now associated with a conservative political movement routinely praised or pilloried on talk radio and cable news shows. The tea party movement’s name, a reference to the tax protests that led to the Revolutionary War, has nothing, really, to do with tea. But that doesn’t seem to matter.
“I certainly can see and have seen some confusion with regard to the name they’ve chosen for their movement,” said Dan Robertson, owner of The Tea House in Naperville, a major tea distributor. “When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can sell them some tea.’ Then I realized that probably wasn’t going to happen.”
He said he recently sent tea samples to a prospective client in Memphis, who is starting a business called The Memphis Tea Party. He searched that on Google and came up with nothing but news of political rallies and links to the actual Memphis tea party organization.
Personally, my own rough Google research (consisting of typing ‘[insert city] tea’) didn’t really bring up much confusion. (And lots of good places to get tea in my area.) However, I think that the potential for confusion is mildly humorous. I also agree with one of the Chicago tea sellers quoted in the article:
“I worry that they’re drinking bad tea,” Robertson said. “They don’t know how to relax. If you just sit back and have a good cup of tea and talk, things tend to work out.”
That is some sage advice. And now I’m thinking I’m going to have a nice cup of tea this afternoon.
