Op-Ed: My Opinion on Masculinity and Femininity in Tea

Hello hello!

A few weeks ago, a social-media follower of mine forwarded a tea company to me that promoted ‘tea for men’ and they asked for my opinion. To add to this, after being in tea for over 11 years and blogging for 9, I’ve seen a lot of debates about masculinity vs femininity in tea. However, I’m here to tell you my take on this never-ending debate (and before you come at me for talking about an already talked-to-death topic, let me remind you that I’m not giving my opinion via podcast because I go to therapy to actually deal with my issues). 

Question: Is tea masculine or feminine?

My short answer: Tea is a plant and it’s whatever you project onto it.

My hilarious/smart-ass answer: Neither. Tea is actually on the LGBT+ spectrum because it’s asexual and can re-produce through cellular mitosis. 

My long answer: 

Unfortunately, my long answer needs more context. 

Throughout history, Chinese tea has always been a status symbol among Chinese emperors and monks. There’s a several-thousand-year history of tea that was exclusive to the rich, the noblemen, and the monks who consumed, grew, and produced it. While there’s no way to see how tea was viewed by Chinese commoners throughout history, we can pinpoint that the largest event to happen in tea, was when Catherine of Barganza married King Charles II of England in 1662. She was 22, and brought her love of tea to England with her from Portugal. At the time, Catherine was considered a trailblazer within the zeitgeist. Catherine was a very influential and beloved by many.

As legend has it, Catherine would host parties with friends, and would tell them to bring snacks/finger foods, and they’d share snacks while she’d debut a new tea that she imported. While starting this tea club of debuting new varieties of teas, this quickly turned into the practice that we now know as ‘high tea’ or ‘afternoon tea’. With the rise in popularity of tea and British noblemen who were impressed by Catherine’s tea parties, they’d oftentimes go back to their social circles and host tea parties of their own — eventually trickling down the love of tea to everyone else. This eventually led to a trade war between England and China, which was displaced in India. 

This also eventually led to explorer Robert Fortune, who famously stole tea from China and spread it to the rest of the world. This act is known as the largest act of espionage in all of recorded human history. However, tea eventually made its way to America, and the rest of the globe — following the ‘high tea’ tradition up until now in modern history. 

So, how did this lead to tea culture being viewed as effeminate in America?

When Lords and Ladies in England adopted high tea, oftentimes, the Ladies would make tea while the Lords would go into drawing rooms to smoke and drink whisky. However, that culture did eventually cross over into American High-Tea culture. But, that only primarily existed in affluent culture. Many people in the middle and lower class, would often drink tea until King George III passed The Tea Act in 1773 against the American Colonies. 

At the time, one of the only importers of tea to America was the British East Indian Tea Company. Since they had a monopoly on tea, and since their shipments of tea were dumped into the harbor (aka The Boston Tea Party), there was no other supplier of tea available. With these two events, America transitioned into coffee. While only high society would eventually return as the ruling class that primarily consumed tea, the societal segregation of tea continued.

Okay, so, there’s not a lot of information to link the class system of male vs. female social events that continued to lead to today’s viewpoint of tea being effeminate. However, you can conclude from this that the masculinity vs. femininity in tea is a uniquely American viewpoint.

In the modern tea industry, it is known that commercial tea is primarily marketed towards femininity, considering that historically, women were the largest consumer base of tea in America. In fact, females represent 73% of all retail sales of tea. So, logically, if you’re running a successful business, you’d want to market your business to your largest projected consumer base. 

However, as of today, you’d need to ask the question of ‘what came first, the chicken of the egg’? Did marketing come first, or did the consumer base come first? 

Well, the consumer base came first, but marketing became an echo-chamber.

While systematically, only the rich could afford tea, which meant that high-societal norms dictated how it was sold to them. 

So how would you break the mold of tea being made masculine, or gender-neutral in America? 

First things first: Tea is a plant, and ultimately, it’s already gender-neutral.

That also asks the other question that I wanted to address in this op-ed: Is it sexist to market tea toward men?

Over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of teas that were marketed and geared toward women’s health, but none toward men's health. So when seeing a new tea company market itself for men’s health, why is it now inherently wrong? Given that health/wellness is a necessary evil for the tea industry, and that 75% of tea drinkers are women, then why not tap into the men’s health industry as well? If anything, this feels like an opportunity to tap into a market that doesn’t quite exist yet.  

From a business perspective, I’d argue that selling tea as a health/wellness product pigenholes a company from being able to expand outside of the health/wellness industry.  However, if you want an example of a tea company whose utilized gender neutral marketing and found success, you should look one of the only tea-billionaire moguls in America — George Thomas Dave. GT Dave is a gay man who marketed his tea with gender-neutral marketing, and is not just one of the richest people in the American tea industry, he’s one of the richest tea moguls in the entire world. At the end of the day, releasing a product that taste good and is as easily accessible to all, is all that it takes.

Final Thoughts: 

Well, in my opinion, there’s a fine line between masculinity and toxic masculinity. While I do believe there’s nothing wrong with marketing teas with a masculine-forward approach, you also have to ask: Does the marketing that promotes masculinity have inclusion? Are gay men and trans men allowed to partake, or are masculine gay women also allowed to partake? Can CIS women partake as well?

Or, assuming that ‘tea for men’, and tea that’s sold with masculine marketing and it’s done in a way that’s inclusive, then would it be so bad for someone else to see themselves represented as well? Why in tea is women’s health regarded but not men’s health? Because this goes both ways, too. 

On the flip side:

If the societal norm in America is that tea is effeminate, when what’s wrong with men partaking? Why can’t a man feel empowered to do something that’s seen as effeminate? I mean, after all, societal norms change all of the time. Did you know that wristwatches were women’s fashion at one point? Or that wearing heels and the color pink, were also masculine at one point in history as well? So, why can’t men feel comfortable enough in their own skin to do whatever they want without judgment? Is it because straight men know how other men will view them based on the way they judge and project themselves onto other people?

Overall, tea is a plant. This debate has always been an idiotic one because it’s a goddamn leaf off of a tree, after all. If a tree leaf instigates a deep insecurity within yourself in regards to your gender, then you should seriously seek therapy.  

With love,

~Cody Wade

aka The Oolong Drunk

"Blissfully Tea Drunk"