English 1010
Professor Tatum
November 12, 2014
Justifying an Evaluation
In Britain, having a ‘stiff upper lip’ goes hand in hand with breathing. From the beginning, where the native islanders were sieged by Roman legionaries, and through the ravaging World Wars, the hard nosed, war torn British people have kept their upper lip stiff as a board thanks largely in part to a small, unassuming plant. Camellia sinensis, or the tea plant, has been responsible for all sorts of large scale controversy through the centuries. Many wars and economic industries can be directly credited to the worldwide want for tea. Tea was not always easy to obtain. At its popularization, tea was hard to come by and quite expensive to make. Nowadays, the average cost of one serving of tea is only three cents, making tea one of the most economically sound beverages available. It contains no sodium, sugar, carbs, or fat thus also making it extremely healthy. It is still a British tradition to have ‘tea time’ around four o’clock in the afternoon to help get through the day. In America, tea is often iced and sugared. The mascot drink of the South is sweet tea. Tea can be purchased in cans or bottles from vending machines anywhere for instant drinking pleasure. Tea comes in many varieties and flavors around the world and remains an extremely important economic industry in many countries - but none as much as in Britain. Britain and its irresistible lust for the tea plant has led to many millions of deaths worldwide throughout the centuries.
The British people simply must have their daily tea in order to live with themselves. If you lived on a cold, wet, and rocky island up north, you would be a bit bitter too. The tea industry, one could argue, has given the Brits something to live for. Its basic delectability and easy-to-make recipe leave no room for doubt as to why this once irrelevant plant became the incentive for many industries, trades, empires, and more. Of course,