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Those of you of a certain vintage may remember the days when ‘afternoon tea' actually meant stopping what you were doing, and with family, friends or colleagues, enjoying a pot of freshly brewed tea.

Tea in ‘those days' was the loose leaf variety and the rule of thumb was ‘one teaspoon for each guest and one for the pot'. How things change. In the 1960s tea bags made up less than three percent of the British tea market. Now in the second decade of the 21st century tea bags account for a whopping 90 per cent. We can safely say that Australia has followed this tea bag trend.

In this age of constantly looming deadlines and the pressures of multitasking who has the time to engage in the luxury of an afternoon tea? The tea bag, along with the rise and rise of fast foods, epitomises our descent into the mire of convenience. Yes, tea bags certainly are convenient. But what have we lost along the way?

Think about it like this. What does the tea bag represent beyond convenience? It is the material representation of the atomisation of the workplace in which individuals no longer have time to partake in what was once an important national pastime (did you know that on average Australians consume more tea than they do in China?). Go to kitchen. Put tea bag in cup. Add hot water, milk and sugar (in whatever order you so desire). Return to work station.

Dear tea drinkers, where is the sociability?

I've been researching Chinese tea culture for years.  I've come to the firm conclusion that amongst the many treasures that Chinese civilisation has given to humanity, tea has to rank up there alongside the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing.

Tea has literally changed the course of world history. Its popularisation during the 19th Century in many rapidly urbanising Western societies is credited with increased life expectancies due to the simple act of boiling water which in turn reduced the impact of water-borne diseases such as cholera.

Any society that has encountered the humble leaf of the camellia sinensis plant soon succumbs to its intoxicating alchemy. In short, they get hooked and just can't get enough! Chinese dynastic governments realised this early on and attempted to use the tea trade as a way of ‘controlling the barbarians'.

This worked for many centuries until they encountered the British, a different kind of barbarian. The old bag of tricks didn't work. The British East India Company got its tea through the nefarious trade in opium. And when it lost its monopoly on trade with China it literally stole tea plants and tea production knowledge to set up the first industrial scale tea plantations in India. The Chinese tea monopoly was broken and has never fully recovered.

Part of my research involves working with a cohort of Chinese tea scholars and entrepreneurs who have set up a Revise China Through Tea movement, a new branch - excuse the pun - of Chinese tea nationalism.

I think it's about time we all rediscovered tea, and not just the limited range in the Australian repertoire, but some of the thousand or so varieties you find in China (falling into seven major tea types).

We should all make ‘slow tea' a part of our daily routine. Indeed research on the health benefits of green tea, for example, conducted at UWA, seem to implore us to do so.

Most importantly I believe that tea is one of the best windows into Chinese culture and sociability. To this end I would be delighted to share my insights over a cup or two of exquisite tea with colleagues throughout the university. If you would like to follow up with me on this please send me an email: [email protected]