What Emoji Tell Us About the History of Tea

🍵 ☕ A story I’ve long wanted to write published today in Smithsonian Magazine about how in many Western countries like America when we think “tea” we think ☕, but for most of history around the world (including in America!) tea has meant 🍵 (green tea from China and Japan).

Here’s an excerpt of the beginning:

When searching for a tea emoji on most text messaging apps, a range of options appear. One shows what looks like green liquid in a white bowl. Another features a saucer and a cup filled with a darker liquid that doubles as coffee.

These emoji’s designs allude to the long history of tea, tracing how this centerpiece of a cherished Asian tradition grew into a global beverage. For most of recorded history, the word “tea” referred to green tea from China and later Japan—illustrated by the emoji officially called “teacup without handle.”

“The whole world was drinking Chinese green teas quite late,” says Erika Rappaport, author of A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World. Black tea, on the other hand, “is almost a 20th-century phenomenon,” she adds. It’s represented by the second, more generically named “hot beverage” emoji.

You can read the whole article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-emojis-tell-us-about-the-history-of-tea-180983128/