Healthy Tradition

Packaging of Yogi "Ginger Tea"

       I have been a tea-drinker for as long as I can remember. Whenever I felt groggy in the morning, my dad would prepare some green tea to enliven my senses. Whenever I had a stomach ache or a bout of some illness, chamomile tea was brewed and saturated with límon and honey (and chugged by me). Whenever my family and I played cards on our dining room table, a steamy pot of Earl Grey tea was passed around the table for everyone to share. So if you could not understand before, I will reiterate this idea: I am a tea fanatic. So, when I was browsing over at the local Whole Foods Market the other day, I became extraordinarily excited to happen upon Yogi’s “Ginger Tea”. Not only was the packaging quite aesthetically pleasing (simple with clean lines), but the tea itself was affordable, organic, and the description of the tea was irresistible.

Description of tea on back of packaging

       From reading this description, there is an overarching theme present. By drinking this tea, I would be continuing a healthy tradition. I would delight in how they perfected their product and how tasty the experience would be. Below I have bolded the key words in the description that are important to consider:

Savor the Tradition of Ginger Tea

For millennia, herbalists throughout the world have known of the healing, soothing, and invigorating qualities of Ginger, considered the “universal medicine.” Naturally warming, ginger supports healthy digestion. Ayurvedic practitioners have used ginger as a way of activating the body’s internal energy to help regain balance and harmony. In our organic Ginger tea we build on this therapeutic tradition by adding a unique blend of herbs and spices to complement ginger’s piquant flavor. Yogi’s Ginger tea tastes delicious and offers the highest quality of a timeless herb.

  How did I surmise this present theme? Reference the following table where I categorized the terms by their purpose in the description.

Communicated Characteristic	Words/Phrases in Description
Healthy	healing, soothing, invigorating, warming, healthy, ayurvedic practitioners, digestion, activating internal energy, balance, harmony, organic
Tradition	tradition, millennia, throughout the world, “universal medicine”, therapeutic, timeless
Their Process	unique blend, highest quality, organic
Tasty	savor, piquant flavor, delicious

  It seems to be that Yogi finds it of the greatest concern to let their customers know that they care about our (the public’s) health. Highlighting how soothed, balanced, warmed, and harmonious we will feel from drinking their product convinces us that we are guaranteed to feel as if we are a rejuvenated picture of health afterwards. I had no idea what an “ayurvedic practitioner” did, but it seemed very professional at first glance and health-conscious so that I feel comfortable to trust the company. For reference, Ayurveda pertains to the traditional Hindu science of medicine (Oxford English Dictionary). So wow! What an experience to be had! Why is so much importance placed on being healthy though? What does the word itself mean?

The origin of the word “healthy” and other derivatives like “health” or “heal” date back to the Proto-Germanic root word "khailaz," This means literally "to make whole," which as many can guess eventually gave us our English word "whole." Old English itself carries the word "haelan," which also meant "to make whole" with the additional concept of "to make well.” This ultimately gave us the English verb "to heal." The word "health" followed a similar path, adding an abstract suffix to communicate "the condition of being well." From there, "healthy" meaning "possessing good health" was the only step left. 

Yet how about this concept of tradition? Where did this word originate? 

The word itself derives originally from the Latin word "traditio," which means: delivery, surrender, handing down, delivery of doctrine. Initially, its usage in the English language was in regard to theological doctrines and to judicial practice and law. Eventually, it was used in alternative ways (and especially in the worldly use of "delivery of doctrine."  Now, not only the church handed down beliefs and doctrine, but the common people could as well (i.e. family traditions). 

  The English took the word from the Old French word "tradicion”. Gradually, the "c" was replaced with the "t" which is the Anglicized version of most words adopted from other languages (Online Etymology Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary). 

  What I find most interesting about all this wordiness is the importance placed upon these two key concepts: health and tradition. English speakers, as I am assuming from this packaging description, value feeling lively and maintaining customs of the past. The organic nature of holding onto a past idea from a lost generation is intimately engaging for anybody really.  It would be interesting to see that should Yogi advertise to consumers of a different language, what would they say? If only Yogi expanded their market and advertised their products in another language...