Well, I love coffee. A lot. Not all coffees, mind you, but I generally will take coffee over tea, when given a choice. Especially lattes. God, I loves me a good latte. When I’m feeling sweet, it’s a vanilla latte, but usually just the straight stuff.
But I’m starting to drink more tea (the fact that my man is a tea-drinker and hates coffee is sort of helping me with that), and learning which kinds I like.
So far, I like Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast Tea. Definitely not a huge fan of the boring Tetley stuff, though.
I like tea and coffee both and I think the trick is quality product and practice making either. I thought tea was nasty until I learned of loose leaf tea. I thought coffee was nasty until I dumped the coffee crystals in the trash and got me some good coffee beans and a cappucino maker and eventually, a french press.
I must argue that tea isn’t any less difficult to make than coffee. Tea involves a pot, strainer (I refuse to drink tea with specks of leaves floating around) kettle, cup, and spoon. Coffee involves a grinder, french press, cup and spoon. I steep both four minutes, so time to grind the coffee beans is the only place coffee loses. Clean up is the same, just a swish and rinse for both.
It’s easy to make a single cup of coffee with a french press as well.
Re-heated tea or coffee are both nasty.
Tea can be even more expensive than coffee if you’re picky about getting the good stuff. When using a french press, you need much less coffee than drip, so it evens out.
Both are enjoyable cold (if you’ve been raised that way) and both are equally satisfying hot, just for different reasons.
And I have a coffee cozy that works just as well as my tea cozy.
Tea can also be used to make a good few dishes and there’s a butter cookie made with finely ground earl grey that I’d smack my mom over claiming the last of the batch.
In the U.S. coffee is safest when eating out. So many places can’t get the water to you when it’s still properly hot and it doesn’t matter anyway since it’s probably some of that anthrax in a bag they think is tea. Uke Ike is correct when he says to do as the natives when it comes to just about anything culinary.
With a french press making coffee is hardly more involved than making tea. No fancy machinery required. And I like the coffee from it far better anyway.
My only problem with tea is that if I drink it on an empty stomach it makes me nauseous. So it’s out as a first-thing-in-the-morning drink because if I do eat breakfast it’s probably going to be a while after I caffeinate myself. Food repels me first thing in the morning. So morning tea is out. Coffee does not do this to me.
Furthermore, fluiddruid, there are plenty other tea-flavored confections out there these days. For example, Chai Luna Bar. You can also get Chai ice cream and Green Tea ice cream. The first time I had Green Tea ice cream was in a Japanese restaurant circa 1981, but now both Chai and Green Tea** ice cream are plentiful at Whole Foods and places like that. Not to mention an old Chinese recipe for tea-flavored eggs that I used to make. You slightly crack the shells of hard-boiled eggs and simmer them in tea. It makes a delicate sepia tracery on the egg whites seen when you take off the shells.
So there are tea-flavored goodies just like coffee-flavored ones. Phfphfphfftftft.
As whiterabbit pointed out, all you need is a French Press to make a really good cup of coffee. No fancy machinery to break or wear out, easy to use, easy to clean, and it tastes better than drip or perked coffee anyway. The FP produces coffe with a richer, fuller flavor. (I sound like a Folger’s comercial, don’t I? )
I have two of them - one for coffee and one for tea. It’s basically a flat tea strainer.
Or, you can be super-macho (or, backpacking and want to save weight), and make “cowboy cofffe”. Toss some grounds in a small pot of water. Boil. Let settle for a second or three before drinking.
(On a semi-related note, I once nearly caused a British friend of mine an anuerism. My crime: making tea by microwaving a mug of water with a teabag in it. Heh.)
When it’s 9:17 am on Monday morning and in a fit of advance Mondayitis I downed half a bottle of white wine whilst watching a British forensic detective series on Sunday night and people are ringing me to check on the TPS Report status, then NOTHING HELPS BUT COFFEE.
But nothing legal helps you be at one with the universe like a strong cup of English or Irish Breakfast tea.
I’ve had at least one cup of tea nearly every day of my life, or so I’m told. My mom used to put it in my baby bottle (heavily diluted with milk). I come from British and Scottish people, and tea is what they drink.
I love the smell of freshly ground coffee, and percolating coffee, but the one time I actually put some in my mouth, all my taste buds revolted at once, and I had to run outside and spit it out.
I’ve learned never to order tea in an American restaurant, though. They give you some industrial grade floor-sweepings in a bag, and a pot of water that hasn’t boiled and has a scum all over the top, and they don’t bring you any milk. Heathens, I say!
Yes, I mentioned this. But let’s look at scale – coffee far outweighs tea in terms of frequency of use. You might as well compare vanilla to mango in use in dessert. Sure, you can use both, but which is more versatile and widely used?
I have to agree with Aeschines’s OP overall. Even though I love coffee, and I pound back a huge mug of ultrastrong black coffee every morning (whoa, I must be one tough Wop bitch!), and nothing jolts my brain like a hot doppio espresso, which is the most excellent form of coffee ever known…
nevertheless, tea is where my heart is.
Nowadays nothing satisfies me like hot tea. Either neat or with honey. I’m talking about Camellia sinensis, but I like lots of herb teas too. Green tea is my favorite. In the afternoon and evening especially, tea makes life beautiful. My love of tea must be a sign of advancing Cronehood, as my Wiccan friends would call it. I’m not all that old yet, but with all the pleasure I find in a cup of tea, I feel like I’m ready to Crone out. <cackle>
I have just one thing to say about black tea: In India, tea connoisseurs in the know prefer Assam leaf as the finest of all for Indian chai. Assam has all the vigor and personality of Darjeeling, but is smooth and mellow to balance that out and it is never harsh. If you want to make friends with anyone from India, serve them Assam.
Okay, whoever said there were only 2 different kinds of tea needs to get their head examined.
Tea with various berries
Tea with various citrus fruits
Tea with various flowers
Various types of Chinese tea black/red/green
Various grades of Japanese Green tea
Tea with frikkin ONIONS in it
The only advantage in terms of variety is that tea doesn’t go well with chocolate. But then again, who wants to pollute a nice cup of hot choclate with yucky coffee, anyway.
You need to go buy a French Press somewhere first. They have them at Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond - those types of places. A regular-size one should cost about $20.
(I’m too tired to search and link to one, sorry)
It’s a glass pot with a strainer/lid assembly thing. You add the coffee grounds (ground kind of chunky, not fine like for a drip) or the tea leaves in the pot, then add boiling water (or for the purists, water just off the boil). Put the strainer/lid thing on, let it steep for about 5 minutes, push down on the strainer thing and pour your coffee or tea into your mug. Add sweeteners or milk as you prefer and enjoy.
Just discovered green tea last year. Have become an addict. Just drink it straight. They didn’t use to have it at Starbucks, now they’ve got Tazo China Green Tips, or whatever it’s called. Love Coffee Bean’s Moroccan Mint too.
Aeschines, can you recommend a green tea with high caffeine content? Just curious. Any preferred brands among the green drinkers on the board, for flavor, buzz, or general quality?
My coffee bean derived beverage: espresso produced at home from recently roasted, freshly ground beans packed just right and brewed under pressure for 25 seconds, producing about an ounce of heavenly liquid which tastes almost, but not completely unlike my tea.
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