Tea
I love tea. Right now I'm finally writing this blog post over my 5th... Or
is it 6th cup of tea, I honestly don't remember. Coffee is good and all but, in
my eyes, tea comes first in so many ways that the competition is
unbeatable.
Let’s start off with one of the things that I deem most important, how well it pairs with sweet foods. Bitter drinks like tea and coffee in general pair well with sweets, because, the sugary taste of sweet foods help to both offset the bitterness of the drink but also highlight the flavors in the sweets. But when competing against each other, Tea is the obvious winner. To start, tea is not as bitter as most coffees, meaning that super sweet foods aren't required to help balance the flavor. Now I am willing to give that with very sweet foods I always prefer coffee, but the more aromatic nature of tea, and the various different types of tea, help better to contribute towards the flavors of cakes, pastries, candies, pies, and other sweets of the like. Now as for the usage while eating regular food, although the saltiness of the food may help to better accent the flavors in coffee, I think in general tea's less imposing taste may work better in most salty food.
Next is accessibility. I think it’s the biggest reason I'm put off by coffee. It's way more annoying to make and clean up after making coffee than it is with tea. With coffee you have to grind the beans, than afterwards you have to get rid of the grinds and any remnants that may be left in your coffee maker. In addition, there is never enough coffee, and you can't share large amounts of coffee among large groups unless you prepare it beforehand. Tea on the other hand, can be prepared with a tea bag if you don't have the energy, or with tea leaves. Throw it into a cup, or a teapot, your choice, boil up some water and pour it in. Except make sure to put the tea in before the water, so it’s not messy, has flavor, and doesn’t float to the top. And if you have a large company, you can make a pot of hyper concentrated tea, and then just have each individual pours in water as they see fit to adjust the concentration. Or, like Russian used to do, use a Samovar(It’s basically a very large boiler with a keg like tap to pour boiling water on demand).
Let’s start off with one of the things that I deem most important, how well it pairs with sweet foods. Bitter drinks like tea and coffee in general pair well with sweets, because, the sugary taste of sweet foods help to both offset the bitterness of the drink but also highlight the flavors in the sweets. But when competing against each other, Tea is the obvious winner. To start, tea is not as bitter as most coffees, meaning that super sweet foods aren't required to help balance the flavor. Now I am willing to give that with very sweet foods I always prefer coffee, but the more aromatic nature of tea, and the various different types of tea, help better to contribute towards the flavors of cakes, pastries, candies, pies, and other sweets of the like. Now as for the usage while eating regular food, although the saltiness of the food may help to better accent the flavors in coffee, I think in general tea's less imposing taste may work better in most salty food.
Next is accessibility. I think it’s the biggest reason I'm put off by coffee. It's way more annoying to make and clean up after making coffee than it is with tea. With coffee you have to grind the beans, than afterwards you have to get rid of the grinds and any remnants that may be left in your coffee maker. In addition, there is never enough coffee, and you can't share large amounts of coffee among large groups unless you prepare it beforehand. Tea on the other hand, can be prepared with a tea bag if you don't have the energy, or with tea leaves. Throw it into a cup, or a teapot, your choice, boil up some water and pour it in. Except make sure to put the tea in before the water, so it’s not messy, has flavor, and doesn’t float to the top. And if you have a large company, you can make a pot of hyper concentrated tea, and then just have each individual pours in water as they see fit to adjust the concentration. Or, like Russian used to do, use a Samovar(It’s basically a very large boiler with a keg like tap to pour boiling water on demand).
And for me, I think the last part is personal ties.
Drinking tea is just something ingrained in our household; and a lot of other
Russian households as well I think. It’s not too strong so kids can drink it, but
grown ups can also enjoy it. I’ve also grown to correlate it with Winter time
and books, and to mark the coming of the end to the large Russian parties our
family used to host. Each holding its share of good memories. And lastly,
something I couldn’t really incorporate anywhere else: a bad or cheap cup of
coffee is really easy to conjure and is generally undrinkable. While usually the
worst you can do with a cup of tea is to either buy it for dirt cheap(I’m
talking like a 4 cent bag of tea or something), reuse tea for more than two
cups, or put milk in it. Especially the last one.
Coffee is a commitment--you have to be ready to handle the inability to sleep for several hours, coffee breath, and dehydration. Meanwhile, teas can be drunk at pretty much any time of day with generally less consequences. However, coffee really isn't that messy if you buy pre-ground and use a decent coffee maker. And it warms your heart.
ReplyDeleteBut tea is great. It's relaxing, can be healthy, etc. Throat coat is pretty cool, kinda expensive though. And sorta weirdly sweet. I agree, milk in tea is just...ugh. Tea is a large part of Chinese culture as well--when I visit Hong Kong our entire family comes together for the purpose of drinking enormous amounts of tea (and eating food). I liked this blog post.
Up until a few months ago, I didn't drink tea and I didn't get the hype. It just seemed like some kinda hot water stuff that everybody was always freaking out about. But oh, how wrong I was! I've finally been converted to an ardent tea drinker. There's just something so comforting about sitting down with a nice, hot mug of tea, a cookie, and a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. While coffee requires huge amounts of cream/sugar to become palatable and you gotta be careful to drink decaf, tea is easy and simple and fast. We stan.
ReplyDeleteI hate drinking coffee. No matter how much sugar I put it's somehow always too bitter. Coffee can easily be categorized as a bitter drink, but I find it hard to do that for tea. The taste of tea is much more unique and taste has some other indescribable quality that bitter doesn't really fit. Anyway tea is awesome; I love all kinds of tea,even the "fake" ones like milk tea, bubble tea, ice tea.
ReplyDeleteI love both as well. In most cases, I'll take a large cup of black coffee (hot or iced) over tea. I've come to appreciate bean water, and the depth of good coffee's flavor, as well as the variety in flavor, and strength, that often seems to go unnoticed. Tea is great too, but it's more often a drink I seek out in specific situations; later in the evening, when I'm sick, or trying to relax. But I really liked reading this post, coffee and tea are superb drinks.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me how you mention that in Russia tea is an important beverage - Romanians, despite being in the same Eastern European area, are significantly more attached to coffee than tea (from what I've observed so far). It's really common to hang out in coffee shops, or drink coffee as a dessert right after dinner. So, I guess I absorbed that, since I am an infinitely a coffee person over tea person. However, I respect tea drinkers - I think it's a healthier habit. Cool blog post!
ReplyDelete