I was talking with my lovely grandfather today, html nicknamed papa abuelo, and we began to argue over how to define the category of beverages colloquially known as tea on our way to boba.
My initial definition was any drink made by steeping dried things in water, but he quickly pointed out that this excludes yerba buena, mint tea, and other teas made from fresh ingredients. I couldn't easily think of a way to rectify this without including infused waters, however, which I feel like are not spiritually in the same category as tea.
Eventually, I shot back with the following: A tea is a
This way, I am able to include things like teas from powder, mixed tea drinks like milk tea or arnold palmers, and chai tea, which is steeped in milk rather than water. I know many peoplke would have included something about the tea plant, but it was important to me not to in order to respect the global diversity of other plants used to make tea, like pine tea or roobios tea. My grandfather disagreed on this matter--he feels that thick beverages are categorically disqualified from being teas--but I'm satisfied with it. He also pointed out that under my definition, coffees are teas, which seems right.
And yes, I am aware that technically, in my definition, miso soup could be considered a tea. And I'm fine with that.