Suit to a T, tail over teakettle & tea

Harvinder Khetal

Feeling low? Let’s have tea! In a celebratory mood? Let’s have tea! Beset by boredom? Have tea! Have guests over? Let’s have tea! A business meeting? Arrange for tea!.... Nothing works better than a cuppa! 

Tea seems to suit any situation to a T (to be very appropriate, exactly; to perfection). Even if you don’t drink tea! For teatime is a flexible, umbrella term for a meal; each one has the leverage to go with his choice of beverage: coffee, lime water, lassi, shake, smoothie… Complement it with some snacks and a heart-to-heart chat, and you have a brew potent enough to double your joy, or, drive the blues away. It’s one of those small pleasures of life that gives you big moments of delight, of insight into the so many issues you end up discussing over the golden hued drink in those dainty china cups. Apparently, the phrase tea and sympathy (kind and attentive behaviour towards someone who is upset or in trouble) accrues from this philosophy.

I am reminded of a contrasting state of affairs so simply and eloquently expressed in Dr Seuss’ Beginner Book “Green Eggs and Ham”. I relish the author’s signature rhymes and easy words as much my little niece as we together read this children’s classic. Sample this:

“Do you like green eggs and ham?” asks Sam-I-am in this Beginner Book by Dr. Seuss. In a house or with a mouse? In a boat or with a goat? On a train or in a tree? Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox? Not in a box. Not with a fox. Not in a house. Not with a mouse. I would not eat them here or there. I would not eat them anywhere. I would not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. Would you? Could you? In a car? Eat them! Eat them! Here they ...

Interestingly, Sam-I-Am goes on to list a number of places to enjoy green eggs and ham, and friends to enjoy them with, and the list gets longer and longer. He insists that this unusual treat is indeed a delectable snack to be savoured everywhere and in every way. Much like tea, thus, it also fits into a T almost everywhere. 

The origins of this idiom, often extended to form other phrases such as ‘down to a T’, ‘suits to a T’, ‘fits to a T’, ‘generous to a T’, are mysterious. Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1867, records that the phrase to a T comes from another idiom: to a tittle. Tittle is a prick, dot, jot. A tittle was in use nearly a century before ‘to a T’, and in exactly the same constructions.

So, even as some bleary-eyed people need their ‘bed tea’ first thing in the morning to get going, the customary time for tea is late afternoon or early evening. But people are generally game for it anytime, what with an amazing multitude of types and flavours and cooking preferences of tea vying to woo your taste buds. You could sip ‘chai’, ‘doodh patti’, ‘masala chai’, iced tea, lemon tea, green tea, chamomile or jasmine varieties….and so on. And, we haven’t even mentioned the other equally tempting soft drinks! No wonder the pots of Starbucks, Café Coffee Days and Baristas are always brimming with the brew, and inspiring so many local clones. Of course, this is not to discount that hot-selling piping hot ‘kadak chaa’ served by the humble roadside tea-stall.

Just a few days ago, I read about a software engineer couple who gave up their high-paying jobs to set up a teashop in Nagpur. However, instances of individuals giving up everything to pursue something different and risky are very rare. Most of would not give up a cushy lifestyle for all the tea in China. Meaning not at any price or never, the term all the tea in China originated in Australia in the late 1800s and alludes to the presumed huge quantity of tea in China. 

Taking career risks is not everybody’s cup of tea. What if one fails? It would be quite like tail over teakettle (alluding to a fall, as if in a somersault or). Normally, when one is carrying a teakettle on a tray, the kettle is up and one’s tail below. The position reverses as one tumbles upside down. Such a position would definitely raise more than a storm in a teacup (great outrage or excitement about a trivial matter) in an average person’s life.

That there are so many phrases built around the word tea is testimony to the fact that the English took to the tea in a big way, though its leaves reached them only in the 17th century. People were using ceramic teapots in Asia and the West Asia for thousands of years before them. When Portugal’s Catharine of Braganza married King Charles II in 1662, she is introduced tea to England. And, when in the 1800s, the tea prices dropped drastically, it became affordable for the common man and the culture of tea (tea plus cakes, cookies, sandwiches, scones, and other nibbles) took root. They were having tea at regular intervals as the names imply: 

Elevenses (tea at 11 am, is a traditional way of their life) and afternoon tea (a fancy affair with etiquette, followed by the royalty and the socialites to satiate their hunger pangs). Something like what our mothers serve when we have special guests, complete with the best china cups, saucers, cutlery, tea-cosy, teakettle, adorned with delicately embroidered napkins.

Interestingly, the high tea that we these days get invited to has rather humble origins. The lower working classes, in the 1800s, didn’t have the luxury of an afternoon lunch break. Famished by the evening, they took tea right after work with heartier fare - like pies, meats and cheeses. This evening meal was served at proper (high) dinner tables, rather than on low couches or armchairs in which the rich savoured their tea. 

A cuppa, anyone? The kettle is on.

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