Tea is one of Mick Jagger’s “nasty habits”. Photo by Georges Biard – CC BY 3.0

Tea has been around so long in civilization that there are numerous tea quotes. Some are well worth repeating, and others only work in certain situations. Either way, every avid tea drinker should have a few of these at hand at share with our non-tea drinking friends and to just remind us how our tea drinking habit reflects our own personality and how we interact in the world. Most have an Asian or British bent, which is no surprise, but Americans have views on tea as well. Below are just five of of our favorites and little bit about each author. (This was much harder to limit to five than you can imagine.)

“Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims, 1875 CE, British Author

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” -C.S. Lewis, Famous British Author who lived from 1898 CE-1963 CE. His best known books here in the US are the Chronicles of Narnia, but he wrote many more.

“Moderation is the very essence of tea. Tea does not lend itself to extravagance.” Lu Yu, The Classic of Tea, 760 CE, The father of tea, Lu Yu was the first scholar to document in writing how to make tea and his Classic of Tea is one of our favorite tea books (link to tea book blog).

“There are those who love to get dirty and fix things. They drink coffee at dawn, beer after work. And those who stay clean, just appreciate things. At breakfast they have milk and juice at night. There are those who do both, they drink tea.”  -Gary Synder, Pultizer Prize winning American Poet born in 1930, whose work is often associated with the beat generation.

“I have nasty habits; I take tea at three.” – Mick Jagger, Lead Vocalist for The Rolling Stones. The irony in this one makes it too good to leave off this list.

Do you have a favorite tea quote to share?