For as long as I can remember, I have always done my creating with a cup of tea at hand. One reason for that might be that holding a hot cuppa warms my hands, which are usually cold from mid-September until the beginning of May! It didn’t even occur to me that I may have subconsciously longed for tea in my workroom because it stimulates my creativity! Indeed, research done in Peking in 2018 shows just that!
Drinking tea improves the performance of divergent creativity.
In a nutshell: The research demonstrated that drinking tea can improve creative performance with divergent thinking. Divergent thinking, you ask? As opposed to convergent thinking (where there is only one right answer to the question or problem), divergent thinking is there are multiple (even infinite,) solutions to a given problem or task. As an example, convergent thinking would be coming up with the answer to the question, “What word can be associated with these 3 words: blue, cake, cottage?” The answer would be cheese. Divergent thinking would be the multiple answers to the problem, “There’s a new restaurant opening on Main Street that is going to serve home-style cooking. Suggest names for the restaurant.” We can also call that “idea fluency”. (The link to the scientific paper is here. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329317303051 )
When creating, we are in divergent thinking mode. Maybe you have a set of stamps, a piece of cardstock and some inks and you have to make a birthday card. The “answers” to the problem are many and varied. Or, you have one metre of fabric and you need a new skirt. There again, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
So, how does tea help us to be more creative? It’s linked to a substance contained in tea called L-theanine, found in white, green, black and oolong teas (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4787341/). L-theanine is a naturally occurring amino acid found almost uniquely in tea. It sounds paradoxal, but L-theanine seems to stimulate (like caffeine) while helping you to relax at the same time. That’s a perfect situation for being creative!
There are many quotes attributed to famous creative people that boast the importance of tea in their lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Letters and Social Aims, “Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.” Indeed!
I am such a fan of tea AND creativity, that I designed a perpetual calendar using photos of some of my favourite teacups and flowers (for the most part, roses in Hubby’s garden). Even though most of us have calendars and birthday reminders coming at us from all directions (notably our phones), I have a copy of this calendar on my desk with birthdays noted on it. Since you’re reading posts on this site, you have probably already guessed that I am a great fan of pen and ink!
Now, all that’s left to do is put the kettle on!