A brand of tea from India called Te-a-Me Teas have sent a truck load of tea bags to the Whitehouse as a gift for President Trump.

The executive director of this brand said the following:

“We firmly believe green tea can do a lot of good to people. We thought green tea will help him [Trump] cleanse his mind, body and soul,” he said. “Green tea is also proven to make people smarter. So our message is, please Mr Trump drink the tea. For your sake, for America’s sake, for the world’s sake.”

Now, the health benefits of tea are up for debate, and we can’t comment on exactly how many bags it would take to cleanse one’s soul, especially since some souls are going to need a lot more cleansing than others, but this is still a cheeky way for this brand to get some international recognition and to make headlines while also doing something they believe in.

The interesting thing is the fact that they don’t even sell tea in the United States, which also serves as a subtle message to the President not to forget about the rest of the world.

“We don’t even sell in the US. I guess with Trump it’s just about the timing (of our gesture),” Shah said.

They have denied that it was a publicity stunt at all, and their goal is to instill responsible leadership around the world. Drinking all of this tea at once could be dangerous, and so could burning yourself with hot water from the kettle, but other than that – unfortunately this much tea isn’t going to make anyone smarter or fix any of their warped world views.

From a tea fanatic’s perspective, it’s also noteworthy that they sent him tea bags rather than loose leaf teas. What does this mean, for someone who isn’t super into tea? Well, tea bags are considered kind of “pedestrian”, and are generally a lower quality than loose leaf teas. Loose leaf teas often have larger, fuller leaves, whereas the bags are used for the less aesthetically pleasing and lower quality leaves. If you break open a tea bag, it’s usually a bunch of little crumbs. If this company sold both varieties, it would certainly be a subtle dig to send him the lower quality leaves.

For a comparison, drinking bagged tea is kind of like the equivalent of eating KFC with a knife and fork. At least coming from the perspective of a tea snob. Unlike certain immigration politics, we welcome all tea drinkers, whether it’s loose leaf or bagged.