WHAT IS TEA?

Tea is the gossip, the truth, the inside scoop — whatever juicy info someone is holding onto and you desperately want them to share. It traces straight back to Black drag and ballroom culture of the '80s and '90s, where "T" meant "truth" (Lady Chablis dropped it in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1994) before drag-show audiences and RuPaul's Drag Race sent it global.

HOW TO USE IT

●Spill the tea: Demand someone reveal the goss. The default move.

●Give me the tea: Same energy, more polite. Used when you suspect there's drama brewing.

●What's the tea?: Casual opener — basically "what's the latest?"

●Sip the tea: Watch the drama unfold without getting involved. The lurker special.

●Reali-tea: The capital-T truth. When the tea isn't just gossip — it's facts.

Tea is sibling to receipts (the proof), lore (the backstory), and gossip (the boomer version). Calling something tea means it's spicy AND credible — random gossip is just chatter; tea has substance.

EXAMPLES

●"Okay but you can't say 'we need to talk' and then leave me on read — spill the tea NOW."

●"I was just sipping my tea waiting for them to finally admit they're back together."

●"The tea is that she's been texting her ex the whole time. Receipts in the group chat."

●"What's the tea on why they unfollowed everyone overnight?"

●"Not me logging onto Twitter at 2am just to catch up on the tea 💀"