In the latest “is the income tax illegal?” thread, Lust4Life raises a side issue more appropriate to IMHO:
IOW, ‘tea is the real deal, and how DO you ex-colonists keep drinking that coffee shit?’
It’s simple: coffee has depth and richness, and tea is just hot water with a bit of far-too-mild flavoring from boiled leaves. I honestly don’t grok why anyone would want to drink that weak-ass shit.
Even if you add milk and sugar, it has that “stone soup” flavor to it - you’ve taken hot water, and added milk and sugar to it. If I wanted slightly sweetened, very watered-down hot milk…well, I just wouldn’t, y’know?
For me, it’s the opposite. Tea is the real deal if you add just the right amount of sugar and REAL dairy product creamer (I’d prefer something in between cream and half and half, but would also accept 4% milk.)
Coffee tastes like really strong, off-tasting tea.
Then again, all the actual English tea I’ve ever had also tastes like really strong, off-tasting tea. (As in, tea English people had brought over here on a plane and left, as opposed to imported speciality brands.) As I understand the Brits like their tea that way, I don’t get this objection to coffee that much.
ETA: perhaps those attacking American teas weakness might find the type of daily tea English people drink to be better tasting?
The difference in view comes from the fact that most Americans have never tasted decent tea. Even in a reasonably upscale restaurant, the kind that has $500 bottles of champagne on the wine list, it’s not uncommon for them to bring a tea bag and a mug of lukewarm water to the table.
I am a coffee snob. I like my coffee brewed (not espresso), black, very fresh, and sourced from Africa if possible. I like it a lot and I like it every day (often twice).
Then, I went to England, which has very little to offer someone like me. I knew it was time to give up on finding decent coffee when I ordered one and was given a mug of milk and Nescafe crystals that had been frothed up with a coffee steamer. (I still bear the scars.)
(It put me in mind of the time I was working at a coffee shop in Toronto. My coworker was livid at a stupid mean thoughtless customer. The customer had ordered a cup of tea from the coworker, who filled up a cup with hot water and dropped in a teabag; the customer said “I’m sorry, would you mind making that again but put the bag in first, before the water?” (an eminently reasonable request from anyone who actually enjoys tea); the coworker was convinced this was the most unreasonable request, ever. Despite the bizarre “customer service” dynamic in England, I am sure this would never, ever happen over there.)
So I learned to appreciate tea. I find that while the coffee is indeed (reliably) way better in North America, the tea is (reliably) way better over there. It’s partly because the coffee is much worse, but also because the actual tea (i.e. the teabag) is better, and (in my opinion) that the whole setup is more appropriate for tea, in a hundred different minor ways that add up to a much more positive tea drinking experience.
YMMV, of course. but I will remain a hot caffeinated beverage slut and I don’t care who knows.
Since I moved to the US I’ve found it frustratingly difficult to get decent coffee. At least for any price under the national income of a small nation. Tea, milk, no sugar.
cowgirl, how long ago was it that you went to the UK? Because things have improved a lot recently - but only in about the past five years.
I too am an utter, utter coffee snob. I drink black, unsugared espresso-based Americano, preferably Colombian, Jamaican or African, to the tune of about 8 cups a day (though I do accept cafetière coffee at work, as that’s all there is). I’m so bad that I no longer consider instant coffee to be coffee, but “some other drink” like a thin consommé. I assure you I just couldn’t get by in life if our coffee situation hadn’t improved to a very high degree. We now have Starbucks, Costa, the Pacific Coffee Company, and dozens of other imitators and some excellent independent establishments; not only that, but the vast majority of restaurants now have good espresso machines too. Gone are the days of nasty-ass undissolved powder, at least at professional catering establishments (I actually find much American coffee to be way too weak for my palette, though I’ve never had it in Canada).
Ludovic, the “overbrewed” taste you mention sounds like the tannins have leached out - that’s just a bad cup of tea. Proper strong British tea (even from bags) removes the leaves from the water just before the tannins appear.
It has to be either/or? Let’s save that for politics. We’ve already created an artificial divide between “dog people” and “cat people”. What will be next - those who won’t wear white after Labor Day vs. the fashion-impaired cretins who do?
Just for the record, in case there was an implication that coffee was an entirely American invention: Coffee has been served in England almost since the time of the Mayflower, and considerably before that festive little party in Boston Harbor.
I like both, though I drink coffee far more frequently. Tea can be delicious, but it has to be brewed just so - the water has to be boiled in a pot on the oven, not a kettle; it has to be well-steeped Early Grey; and it needs at least two lumps of sugar. Ideally, it’s served with heavily buttered toast made from white bread.
Coffee, on the other hand, must be thick and black or mixed with enough cream and sugar to taste like candy, like you get when you order a cortado in Chile.
Both need to be sipped slowly, preferably in the late afternoon when you have absolutely nothing to do but laze around in the sunshine, either alone or with friends and family.
Sadly, I rarely get to drink either like I’d like to (see above paragraph), but I still drink coffee every morning and try to avoid the free work coffee like the plague. Talk about dirty water! Ugh.
I drink a lot more coffee than tea, but very much enjoy both. Coffee is my daily must have so I don’t murder co-workers and random passersby. Tea is for relaxing, like curling up on the couch with a good book.
They both have their place and I wouldn’t give up either.
I like the smell of coffee but damn, does it wreak havoc with my stomach. Properly made tea (if iced, must be “Southern Style”) as the folks in the UK make it, is wonderful.
Tea is much more flavorful (note: coffee has next to no flavor; it’s all smell), comes in more interesting varieties, and, as a big plus, doesn’t taste/smell at all like coffee. I can be pretty strong if you brew it right (it takes at least three minutes before the tea releases its flavor; a lot of people think that once it colors the water, it’s done.)
This, BTW, is why Ice tea is popular in America. Aside from being a very refreshing drink which goes well with a wide aray of foods, it’s a good way to use relatively low quality tea. You don’t worry about exquisite flavors but still get a relaxing beverage, particularly on hot Southern days.
Tea is delicious. Coffee is delicious. Indian people drink a British-style cardamon tea which I will happily drink any old time (note - it’s not chai. I mean, it is chai, but American stores have kind of ruined chai. Homemade chai is different.)
Why do I need to choose? Do I need to stop liking Brit humor, too?
That makes no sense.