Instead — to put it in other slang phrases of days past — they probably mean “what’s the haps” or “what’s the hot goss” or, for children of the pre-internet era, “what’s the 411?“In other words, what’s going on? They give you dance and great tea [gossip],'” Nate tells Hawkeswood. “I mean, 2014, when we think about it in meme culture, it felt more like the Wild West,” Brennan said. And then when you can also be funny and cool and call it ‘tea,’ there’s something that feels almost sneaky about it.”But perhaps the biggest agent in mainstreaming tea, Brennan said, was the COVID-19 pandemic. So that’s the tea on tea.