I believe that your friend was not basing his opinion on facts, but a general contrarian perspective to insert a memorable comment into your conversation. He could easily defend his perspective on a general basis about the human need for instant gratification, but that is not new thinking. Mankind has benefited as well as lost intangible countless benefits from the efforts of being able to provide faster responses to our needs. We have internet and instant meals, faster travel and the list goes on, and does this give us more time to do the important things in life? There is no right answer of course, everyone is different and that same answer would change on a regular basis depending on the circumstances, but yet we all make a conscious decision to periodically stop what we are doing to relax and drink a cup of tea or coffee, and balance the pace of life that our ‘learned marketer’ is talking about. There are some basic rules that regardless of the effort or eagerness for ‘instant gratification’, the human body responds the same, if you don’t take care of your body, the body will eventually let you know its displeasure. The truth is, we all need to have a balance diet, with home cooked meals, exercise regularly and rest. It helps if you are spiritually guided and take time to share and contribute in your community. Ask Oprah if you don’t believe this. She has tried every diet plan, equipment, solution, potion for instant gratification on her body and health and her response will be that mother nature will eventually show you that you are going the wrong way and short cuts are not acceptable. She now promotes exercise and diet as a must for healthy balance living.

But back to tea. Tea is the fastest growing beverage sector in all markets, not because its trendy or fashionable, although ‘marketers’ do have the ability to promote the shell without substance, tea continues to stand on its own. Tea is a beverage with natural health characteristics, it embodies tradition, loyalty and peace. When the thought or memory of someone coming to you with a problem or chaos in the air, the sensible reaction is, ‘let’s talk about it’… and tea is subtly introduced into the solution. I recall a movie with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts (Nottingham) , where she plays a famous actress staying at Hugh Grant’s apartment incognito, when suddenly the paparazzi shows up unexpectedly and she reacts aggressively towards Hugh. She reacts by packing her things and unjustly accusing him, while he defends himself by asking her to sit and have a cup of tea. She did rush off, but eventually after a few developments in the movie regretting it, coming back and asking him to take her back. Of course this is a movie, but in retrospect, the problem would have been solved much sooner if she stayed and had the cup of tea. How is that for quick gratification? By the way, I’m plugging in a recommendation for cinnamon tea, if you do find yourself in the odd situation and you need calmness and peace to take over a scenario. The mere scent of cinnamon will work wonders in the situation.

I acknowledge your concern about the dangers of tea pretenders, highly sugared teas and even worse, corned syrup sweet and rubbish comments from so called ‘learned marketers’ who generalize their comments to suit a conversation. I agree and the task is huge, but speaking as a reformed sugared saturated iced tea drinker, opening my eyes and palate to good tea was very easy. Exposure to good tea, education and this blog is a step in the right direction. Your comments with regards to the recession are spot on and blame the ‘instant gratification’ quest for it. Consumers eager to get what they wanted whether a house upgrade, car, boat or other without properly assessing feasibility and affordability rushed to purchased based on over inflated evaluations of their homes and when the balloon popped reality set in that they were living beyond their means. Not surprised about increase of tea sales during this period, a lot more chamomile for me as well. Well, I think I wrote more than I intended to; maybe the topic hit a spot, or maybe it was the tea that inspired me to promote it and joining you in defending it whole heartedly. Why don’t you send a box of tea to this friend of yours? He might have another perspective next time you run into him.