Tea

ART DIRECTOR RHEMY CRAWFORD PHOTOGRAPHED BY AVA RUPP MODELS CHI-AN LU & ISABELLA COPE WRITTEN BY JORDYN CENTERWALL DESIGNER LAYNA BEALE

I always forget how impressionable I was, and still am. Green tea serves as a reminder.

I remember starting to drink the beverage in high school because of the metabolic benefits. I would add honey until the liquid was sickly sweet and left a film on my tongue.

Tea is bitter, but honey is sweet.

We’re taught that bitter is bad. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Sweet on the other hand is good. We’re meant to have sweet dreams and to be sweet is a compliment.

What they don’t tell you about bitter and sweet, about life even, is that it’s not a dichotomy. Not really. The bitter and the sweet blur together, they coexist.

It’s beautiful really. And encouraging that a person can be more than one thing at once. “You’re like an over-honeyed cup of tea. I shouldn’t like you, but you go down easy.”

“You’re like an over-honeyed cup of tea. I shouldn’t like you, but you go down easy.”

I wrote this poem at peak tea consumption. Now as I look back, I can’t remember if it was a metaphor. I could have been talking about a person, experience or the beverage itself.

I always go back to the bit about going down easy. It seems to encourage what is easy to swallow. Hiding the bitter by covering with the sweet.

It makes me sad for past me. But at the same time, I’m grateful that she outgrew the diet fads and this mindset. She doesn’t try to make herself small anymore.

It does make me angry for all the young women and girls still in the throes of society’s narrative. The “that girl” trend is the newest narrative. In this trend women are encouraged to eat clean, exercise regularly and go about their day with a certain level of aesthetic. How to shrink yourself both literally and personality-wise are lessons taught to women at far too young an age. Lessons that shouldn’t be taught to begin with.

Society tells women to be compassionate, polite and presentable. To be good friends, daughters and partners. At the same time, we are expected to be strong, driven, intelligent and good role models. To push the envelope and bring about change. It is both exhausting and empowering.

The act of balancing what society expects from you versus what you want for yourself is a difficult one. But it’s a lot like tea in that it doesn’t have to be just one thing.

Step 1: Add hot water. Step 2: Let steep for three to five minutes. Step 3: Add honey. Step 4: Combine and consume. Take the bitter with the sweet. And brew it strong.