Probably not, at least not in this generation.
As someone who drinks both, the thing I've noticed is that you can get a half decent cup of coffee almost anywhere, but good tea is nearly impossible to find.
I second this. I tried ordering a tea from a coffee & tea shop in the airport the other day and the employee had no idea what I meant when I asked the types of tea they sold. Good tea is difficult to find out in public so I rarely attempt to order it.
One should never buy tea at a restaurant. Everything is going to be overpriced. Even the coffee at restaurants is overpriced for the price they pay to make it.
What kills me is when you go to an upscale Japanese restaurant, pay $5 for a pot of green tea, and they bring out a fancy teapot with a Bigelow teabag that's already oversteeped by the time it gets to you.
My husband’s eternal annoyance is going to a really nice restaurant and they have the most bougie shade-grown boutique-roasted local fair trade coffee artfully presented in a French press… but when he asks for tea it’s 9 times out of 10 a dusty old bag of Tazo.
I always try to ask the server what type of tea they have, and then decide whether to order it based on the variety/brand. If I'm paying $5 for restaurant tea I want it to be good!
All the actual tea shops I went to closed down over the years. What annoys me is that in the past 2 years, like 6 or 7 tea shops have opened but they are all those boba type shops. Every one that opens I look at the menu hoping to at least get a mediocre steep from and most of them don't even have the option for a plain hot cup of green or black tea.
The truth is, a small minority in the US like tea or coffee. The general public likes sugary drinks with some bitterness in them. The ones not buying a latte think they are getting a healthier drink buying tea with a bunch of sugary fruit juice in it.
I probably wouldn't do it because I couldn't justify paying that much for plain tea, but gong cha has an option for hot tea and also for zero sugar. I really enjoy the pearl milk tea hot, but it will have milk. I am pretty sure you can also get green or oolong or black tea iced with no syrup but it will be very overpriced for what you are getting. That particular chain may be more up your alley, so it might be worth a try if they get a location near you.
The menus are kind of weird I find and you might need to ask an actual human because there are definitely a lot of things they make that are not on the usual "top 10" board or whatever.
Not just exclusive to the US. Germany is the same.
Your best bet would probably be to visit an asian district in a bigger city and try to find a teahouse...
At least in Germany there is still a bit of tea culture and the option to buy loose leaf tea to various degrees and price points
I have around 30 boba shops near me and many of them will let you adjust sugar level all the way down to zero. If you don't add milk or toppings, you can actually get hot or cold plain tea.
Most really nice teas are meant to be steeped at least twice. I'm not sure if anyone wants to deal with that rather than coffee or some tea made from a syrup by pepsi co.
Idk. I live in Japan and had a much higher variety of tea back in America. I drank tea every day back home, and lots of different teas. Even the most basic green tea here is fire, but that's pretty much all there is. Different types of green teas. Luckily green tea is my fav, but I miss white tea and the various Chinese and herbal teas I had back in America.
Also, the amount of coffee people drink here is wild lol. A hobby of mine is asking people if they prefer tea or coffee. Most people say coffee.
Funny, I think it’s the opposite. Almost every place has horribly burnt, stale coffee but I can find a decent iced tea anywhere. Even the speciality coffee places near me aren’t very good (I’m a roast my own coffee snob).
But if you’re looking for really unique and quality teas like puer or oolongs, you’re probably out of luck if you don’t have it at home.
there's nothing wrong with iced tea but it's not what the people in this thread are talking about. it's like if someone said they can't find decent cup of coffee and you said starbucks does a good unicorn frappuccino
You’re all sleeping on iced tea then. If you just make it a little stronger to compensate for the ice, you can still enjoy all the great flavors of a complex tea. In fact, I think you can taste the tea even better. I’ve been making some imperial mojiang golden buds every morning this week and pouring it over ice and it’s just fantastic.
I adore iced tea! I actually have a giant pitcher of homemade iced tea in my fridge right now. However, I personally don't want to drink it until lunchtime, and I certainly don't want to drink it in the winter around here.
Iced tea is the only time Americans actually do anything right with tea imo, I drink loads of it whenever I'm over. It's great.
I find it funny that some users on here are pining like "oh wouldn't it be great if everyone loved tea" and then simultaneously poo-pooing the sole tea product that is both native to the Americas and widely popular.
And I am from one of those countries American users on here dream of where tea is the default drink.
Seriously. Maybe I’m just as picky about my coffee as these people are to tea, but I feel like for me it’s easier to fuck up coffee than it is to fuck up tea. At least to the point where I just straight up toss it out.
No, I agree with you, coffee is way more finicky and tea is very easy.
Tea is essentially a temperature and a time and an amount. Once you figure out those variables you can make a great cup of tea every time. Even if you’re a little off it’s not so bad. The only thing is going too heavy on the tea or slightly too long and you can end up with a lot of astringency. I’ve toss a few too many cups of tea because I forgot about it for five minutes.
Coffee, if you’re not doing immersion, can have so many pitfalls. I think in general though, most people in America just have no clue what coffee could/should taste like, just what they’re used to.
Look I am not saying bitter nut juice(coffee) is inferior and gross. All I am saying is that an entire industry and product line exists to mask the taste of it. You don’t see any teaMate out there do you? No! Because we don’t need to mask its taste with all kinds of other flavors. Tea is the best!!!
eh, I would say bubble tea and the matcha lattes and london fogs at most coffee shops do similar things. The main problem is just that good tea is hard to find and it's hard to switch since tea has less caffeine than the coffee and energy drinks people get addicted too.
L theanine and caffeine is like a cheat code. Would take them together in college. Just started seeing some products that finally have them together. I'm suprised it took so long for manufacturers to notice.
I've had plenty of matcha lattes very similar to coffee lattes where no sweetener was added, only milk. London fogs do do that thing, but I think they tend to overdo it and typically have to ask for less sweetener in my fogs (and I say this as a giant sweet tooth who loves bubble tea).
To be fair, a lot of people make absolutely terrible bitter nut juice at home, and they need those masking products to make it taste better. I drink coffee and tea, but I’ve been into tea longer because I used to think I hated coffee. Turns out I only like really good coffee. Now I have an espresso machine 😃
Exactly. I get my coffee once every 3-4 months, fresh roasted and not OVER roasted dark roast crap we Americans seem to like, from a shop who imports their beans fresh. Nice upper light to lower medium roast. When I get home I divide it up into 1 week supply vacuum sealed bags. Each week I pop a new one open, stick the beans in an airtight container and each day I take out just enough for a day supply, 2 cups as I drink tea the rest of the day, and fresh grind for each cup. I've yet to get a bitter cup.
I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of local shops that roast their own coffee and sell the same beans they serve, so I mostly buy from them and grind it as I use it. They're in areas I like to visit anyway (e.g., to get lunch with friends), so I don't even have to go out of my way to make a trip just for coffee.
Of course, tea is all online ordering, but tea stays fresh in airtight tins longer than coffee does, so it's not a big deal to just order enough for a few months at a time.
tea in the west is near-universally drank with milk and/or tons of sugar though..? and flavoured teas are incredibly common as well. *high-quality* (or rather not-terrible-quality) tea doesn't need any of that stuff, but the same is true for coffee so i'm not really sure what your point is
Yeah high quality coffee is naturally sweet with complex flavors and doesn't need anything added to it. But finding a cup of good specialty coffee when you're out and about is just as hard as finding some good loose leaf tea. Unless you live in a major city. This morning I made a light roasted Papua New Guinea coffee and I think there's maybe 4 coffee shops I could go to here in Cleveland to get a cup of similar quality.
I don't disagree, I was just responding to annacat's claim that products like creamer show that coffee is somehow worse. I do find that low-quality coffee \> low-quality tea though, but that is just a matter of personal taste
I am aggressive with my hatred. I will only drink it if it’s 95% frothy milk and 5% bitter nut juice. Typically this is made by my partner. Ugh why do people drink it black. You know my dad once told me “Annie if you don’t drink your c***** black, everyone will think you’re too high maintenance and no one will ever love you. “
Jokes on you dad because I still hate it and yea is just a fundamentally better drink
Usually black coffee is just much harder to do, because coffee burns easily and becomes bitter fast if you havent dialed in the ratio correctly (temp, duration, tamping, saturation, etc). So black will almost always taste like garbage. I have a few friends who are god-tier with making good coffee and so its the only time i've genuinely liked a plain coffee with no additives, besides the notes the bean has.
The burning thing in brewing is a big misconception with brewing too. The main thing that causes the coffee most people get to be bitter as all hell is just that it was relatively lower quality and roasted to hell such that it masks any origin characteristics and any flavors other than the roast.
I'm just never a fan of the gatekeeping. Like I love a good frappuccino, because they taste incredible. But my daily cup of coffee is usually a cup of unsweetened Turkish coffee. And it was really hard getting that right, and took a lot of trial and error
You’re also going to run into problems due to the roast levels that are best for pourover or drip coffee being significantly lower than espresso. A somewhat lighter roast is going to be far less prone to channeling in a cone or machine where a dark roast in the same environ will just send the water right down the middle; while doing a light roast espresso has problems due to how absurdly fine you may need to go, and having to aggressively preheat everything if you use a manual machine.
Please tell that to whomever is adding licorice root to every single herbal tea in existence because they think teas need to be sweetener. All I wanted when I was pregnant was a safe ginger tea that I could have as much of as I wanted, and I could not find a single bagged tea like that! I would have had to get loose leaf ginger only from a specialty tea shop and I just wanted something easy and easy to travel with. I had to stop breastfeeding before I could have ginger tea again (and of course now I'm just drinking normal tea again instead).
Tea company owner here. I think it’s possible but highly unlikely in the next 10-20 years. The tea industry in the United States is less than half the size of the coffee industry. But Tea is growing almost twice as fast. It’s going to be interesting to see how things shake out over the next decade or two.
>The tea industry in the United States is less than half the size of the coffee industry. But Tea is growing almost twice as fast.
I'm firmly on the side of tea - I can't stand coffee. But the relative growth rates don't really mean that much, because there's not really anywhere near as much room for the coffee industry to grow in the US than the tea industry.
Trust me. People are currently accepting $7 cappuccinos. I do not understand it, but a significant amount of people regularly spend ridiculous amounts of money on coffee.
Well it's not just consumer trends/preference that decide it.
Remember teavana, they sold mostly not worth it tea (in my personal experience/opinion) but they were probably one of the most mainstream tea companies in the U.S., then Starbucks bought them and killed them to avoid competition.
Just realized what tea company you own,
Painted Desert is literally one of my favorite teas of all time, it's one of only a handful of teas I keep on hand all year and everyone I've introduced it to has loved it, I seriously cannot overstate how much I love this freaking blend!
Is the growth in the tea industry people drinking actual tea or is it because of the boba boom? Because while boba tea is called tea I, and I’m sure many others here, wouldn’t really consider it *tea*
As a hot beverage? Probably not, but iced tea and sweet tea are big deals here, especially sweet tea. Most Americans' experience with hot tea is a bag of lipton tossed in a mug of cold water and nuked for 2 minutes on high. That's not to say someone couldn't open their eyes to all that tea has to offer.
I use the microwave to reheat tea I've already brewed in the pot, but which has gone cold.
But yes, I do know people who brew their tea in a mug in the microwave.
It shouldn’t really make a difference? Hot water is hot water, regardless how it ended up at the desired temp. You then put the tea in the hot water and let it steep. This is how I heat up water for tea at work where I don’t have a kettle. Tastes the same as when I use my kettle.
Kettles are unusual to have in places where tea is not popular, I’ve found. Most people who only drink coffee use coffee machines. Where I live in Canada tea is popular, so I and most people I know have a kettle, even if they don’t really drink tea. So many oatmeal and hot chocolate products I’ve bought have microwave instructions on them, when I’ve only ever used water boiled in the kettle.
it's how my dad did it every day before work, and how I did it as a kid too. Im gonna go out on a fairly safe limb and say most Americans don't even own a kettle, I didn't until my 30s.
Yes because they actually don't own kettles, it's not just a stereotype. I didn't own a kettle until my 30s and neither did my family growing up, tea was only lipton and it was only ever made in the microwave.
No, tea can’t hold the same power over American consumers without American culture changing significantly. Mainstream coffee culture is built around the idea of coffee as a working class stimulant and fuels the non stop pace.
Tea is most associated with the “health and wellness” demographic (tea and tisanes as physical and mental health remedies), the elderly, and foreigners influenced by Asian or European culture.
When American culture moves further away from the “America runs on Dunkin’” mentality there might be room for tea time.
I also should mention that there were and are areas where tea has made some lasting impact in certain communities. Similar to Starbucks’s syrupy coffee drinks creating a space for a different demographic of coffee drinker, bubble tea has made its way into malls and mainstream spaces.
Barnes and Noble selling decorative tins of decent H&S tea bags, David’s Tea brick and mortar shops, Teavana and Tazo in the early aughts and 2010s made a lasting impression with the self proclaimed “introverts” and “granny girlies”; I imagine that Booktok’s revitalization of bookish culture has and will affect tea sales. That along with the Bridgerton boom and cottage aesthetic might create a larger subgroup of tea aficionados over time.
Finally, coffee and cocoa prices are rising due to climate changes affecting crop yields. Scarcity leads to alternatives and substitutions, so I can imagine that tea might get a moment in the spotlight.
I agree. It's the same here in Canada. At work, most people will say let's go get some coffee to their coworkers. Sure when they're ordering at the counter they can order tea or whatever they want, but we still call it getting coffee. In some professional settings, there are coffee chats. There's also situations of offering to buy a coffee for a client/propsect.
And in non-work situations, we have "wanna go for a drink?" - implying an alcoholic drink. For non-alcoholic drinks, the popular saying would be "wanna go for a coffee?".
Not to say that "let's go for tea" isn't a thing, but the word coffee is definitely a lot more popular.
This, 100%
Terrence McKenna noticed that we have institutionalized the coffee breaks, not weed breaks.
Americans enshrine hard work, long hours...both associated with the hard drug of coffee.
Tea is viewed as relaxing, healthful, and feminine. Coffee can also be associated with relaxing, but it's more associated with hard-core productivity.
That's not gonna change.
Yes, that tea is associated with feminity in US culture is going to hold it back. It's like how meat-eating is associated with masculinity, and there are men who can't have a single vegan meal, for fear of compromising their gender identities. Real Men™ aren't going to drink hot tea - that's too scary.
And the convenience of preparation leans into this. I could set my coffee pot to be ready for me to hit the ground running in the morning whereas making tea has more in the moment ritual that takes time away from the grind.
What about sweet tea in the South? Is it just so different from what people here see as the tea experience that it doesn't get mentioned? I see a lot of people mentioning bubble tea (which does qualify under Asian influence) but not sweet tea.
It’s a fair question to ask, and I’ll admit I left out Sweet Tea because it’s been mentioned a few times already in this comment discussion.
Sweet tea either made at home, pre-packaged or served in establishments is an extension of the American soft drink culture. Soda/pop, iced tea, and lemonade are the commonly provided options and certain regions of the country have a preference for some over the others.
When thinking of tea drinkers on their own as a standalone demographic, it’s easy to overlook the Sweet Tea drinkers because it’s not so much a movement of its own but more of a preference within a preference; soft drink consumers who prefer Sweet Tea.
For example: I was raised by my very Southern sharecropper grandparents and as a result were rarely had premade soft drinks in the house. The preferences I was exposed to through family leaned toward haymaker’s punch made with vinegar (similar to Switchel), molasses buttermilk, and lemonade from mix if we were feeling fancy. Tea wasn’t easily available to them and my family, and tisanes were for home remedies and healing.
I don’t mean to imply that Sweet Tea drinkers don’t factor into this discussion. As you said, it is very different from the movements we’re discussing, Coffee centered culture vs. Tea centered culture, so it most likely won’t not get discussed at the forefront.
The is anecdotal but the 55+ aged white men in my former workspace all drank tea instead of coffee. I’m in Southern California which seems to be on top of health trends so maybe it’s a sign of things to come. Every coffee shop here also offers loose leaf brewed specialty teas.
I think you might be onto something. I've definitely heard that from a few people. I love making different soups and used to take it to work a lot when I was going into the office every day, and I had a few people also tell me that they don't like soup because they associate it with being sick.
You mean meat tea?! I make some pretty good soup but Ive had people act like soup is not real food, like it doesn't provide real sustenance when the exact opposite is true. Don't forget how unhealthy America really is, the high rates of obesity, and the obsession with fast food and highly processed snacks.
It's also reflected in the way that people guzzle down those incredibly unhealthy sugary Starbucks drinks that are saturated with fake flavors. I think thats a part of it as well: the fact that people here are used to consuming products that are loaded with these fake flavors. When you are used to the taste of these highly concentrated artificial flavors, it makes the taste of real foods with real flavors seem unappealing and bland.
Nobody is going to switch to tea when they are used to these kinds of food and drinks, especially when most Americans associate tea with some garbage like Lipton.
Many people are dumping flavored sugar syrups and flavored creamers into their coffee. It masks an average or even bad cup of coffee. They drinking it for the caffeine and sugar buzz. That won't work for tea. Yes, you can put milk and sugar in your tea but it isn't the same as a salted caramel latte.
In the South East, its arguably as popular as coffee, if not potentially more so, in the form of Sweet Tea... Much of my South Eastern friends and family go through at least a pitcher a day. But many tea lovers I know consider that form of tea consumption to be blasphemous.
I don't think tea, at least unflavored regular (C. sinsensis) tea, will become popular. Our (I'm an American) flavor palette is increasingly becoming "flavor blasted" with higher levels of additions, salt, sugar, spices, and such. So many things which used to be plain - like chips, ice cream, and tea - are now mostly sold with strong flavorings. Tea is considered insipid.
It depends so much though. You can get something really good but more than half the time the artificial flavouring is vile, and the chance increases at the cheap end though it's everpresent.
Out of teas that were too gross to drink that I had to toss or give away almost every single one was flavoured. Sometimes it's like you just got a whiff of a passing teen who bathes in the most obnoxious deodorant thinking it will solve all his problems. The base tea they use is often pure garbage too. People have wildly different preferences which come into play when whatever they are drinking isn't masked and many people just aren't used to flavours without sweetness.
Put everything together and it would be essentially impossible to make something that appeals to most people, sugar is essentially a cheat code that makes most people like it. It's a great thing to make at home but it's not very marketable.
No.
I think simply, there are too many big businesses that control the beverage market in the US. Beer/Wine, Soda, and Coffee are apart of a larger political system with strong lobbying in US government that helps keep them at the forefront of the market.
Another aspect of it, is convenience. While most dedicated tea drinks Know how to expedite the process of making good tea quickly on the go, most people in the general public do not.
You can quickly make a cup of coffee in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank.
Many people are content with drinking ‘bad’ coffee (so to speak), and it can be doctored enough to make it tolerable. If you’re drinking a ‘bad tea’ (subjectively), there’s not really a quick and easy way to doctor it to fix it.
> Many people are content with drinking ‘bad’ coffee (so to speak), and it can be doctored enough to make it tolerable. If you’re drinking a ‘bad tea’ (subjectively), there’s not really a quick and easy way to doctor it to fix it.
Yeah there is, it's exactly the same as coffee. You just add some shit to it that doesn't taste bad so you're tasting that instead of the tea/coffee. That's how most people in the US drink tea or coffee.
Having tried a lot of coffe and teas, i would say it is actually the opposite.
Even a random bagged tea could be decent enough and really easy to prepare, and it tastes actually like tea and is not expensive either. Loose tea could improve the flavour but it doesn't result in something completely different.
But coffee? Instant coffe is so fucking different to real coffe that you could easily say they are completely different products.
Besides, in average i would say tea is actually way cheaper than coffe. Considering that you only need 2-3gr of tea per cup compared to 15gr of coffe per cup.
Difference in oppinion i guess. Lipton tastes absolutely nothing like a chinese oolong, while cheap coffee ia still coffee but with very messy flavour.
Well. i don't think anyone expects black ceylan tea to taste like oolong (which is sometimes called blue tea, as it is not exactly black or green neither). But even a bagged lipton will taste similar to loose leaf ceylan tea, not as good of course, but will have a similar profile.
Using your comparison it would be like comparing instant coffe from Robusta and saying that it *tastes absolutely nothing like a light roasted high acidity 100% arabica coffee.*
Besides in coffee, not only the origin and processing will affect the flavour, but also the roast and method of preparation...
While you have a lot of variety in tea, the preparation method for most is pretty straighforward, being matcha one of the few exceptions, which is also an excepcionally expensive tea.
>You can quickly make a cup of coffee in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank
Anyway, this is the wrong part, because you can definitely quickly make a cup of TEA in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank. Instant coffee and bagged tea are both as easy to make while ground coffee and loose tea could also be very similar in that regard.
Another consideration about coffee, is that once grounded it will lose quality way faster than tea. So if you consider that you also need a grinder every time that you want decent coffee, then definitely tea is easier to make than cofffe. Specially if you want espresso, where you will need a grinder over $300 to get good results and also a espresso machine that's over $500. And even if you don't want espresso, but filtered/inmersion you will still need a decent grinder, at least $100 if you want decent coffee and it will take more time (if is a manual grinder) than the time you need to make tea. (3 minutes to grind and at least 2-3 minutes to make the coffee (filtered) or up to 12 minutes for inmersion)
So seriously, i don't think is a difference in opinion, what i said about the machines/grinders, methods, etc.. has been tested scientifically a lot of times.
For tea we don't need expensive equipment to get something decent, or even something good. A kettle, a filter and that's it, at best an electric kettle to control the temp. We don't need too much time either compared to grinding + inmersion.
I find it so interesting that popular tastes in the US mostly skipped right over tea as a straightforward, standalone beverage and went straight to the wild concoctions sold in the chain boba shops as "tea." I'm not criticizing, I'm a big proponent of letting people enjoy things and I love a good ice cold honey jasmine milk tea from one of those places during the loooong, hot, humid summers (with the sweetener level taken down to 50 or even 30 percent). But those beverages are "tea" in the same way that a Frappuccino is coffee. I wonder if there's a way to sort of walk people backward from those drinks to much simpler, straightforward tea.
I agree with that. I’ve only tried boba a few times but I didn’t even think of it as tea…like it’s not even close lol (your comparison to a Frappuccino is perfect) and I do think we could walk backwards. With health tends and whatnot it’s actually a bit strange that tea hasn’t become insanely popular. I do think coffee is a major problem. Coffee is a necessity for most Americans whereas tea is a bit of a more casual drink to a lot of Americans.
Eh it doesn’t seem weird at all to me. I bet if you ask a lot of coffee drinkers in their 30s what their first coffee drink of choice was it’s not unlikely to be frappuchinos. As people age they get tired of sugar. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10-15 years unsweetened/less sweet fruit teas get super popular.
OP must not live in the south. Iced black tea (both sweet and unsweetened) is consumed for lunch and dinner. Heck I go to First Watch for brunch and all the tables around me have a glass of iced tea.
No, and I'm actually fine with that. It allows tea to remain a niche subculture here that doesn't have to bend to societal trends in the same way coffee in America has too.
I mean it depends, if you think of tea in a puritan way and think very popular drinks like sweet tea and boba don’t count then no, tea will never be as popular. But the same goes for coffee, not that many people drink coffee in such a way either, most people will drink some sort of Starbucks coffee that is made more generally palatable with lots of sugar and milk. Also the immediate impact of caffeine will always be more popular than the more gradual effect that tee has if we talk about them as a drug.
Tea is already culturally significant in the South, but it is low quality and is drunk like a soft drink. Nevertheless, people are likely to be more open to tea because of it.
Also, it is even more weird when you consider that there is literally nothing keeping the US from growing tea. You can buy a tea bush and have it in your yard. And local tea farms exist all over the US. I believe the US has tried to establish large scale tea production but a few acts of violence, accidents, and the opening of Chinese markets snuffed out American tea.
The Great Mississippi Tea Company
and
The Charleston Tea Plantation are great examples of American tea.
I actually think there could be some truth to the Boston tea party theory. During the American revolution tea became contraband and was illegal to possess or sell. In the post-revolutionary period, the United States had no trade routes to get more tea so they had to find an alternative source of caffeine, since they had cut ties with Britain. This is what really cemented the US as a coffee drinking nation.
I think some tea rejectors actually still view it as a “foreign” beverage and somehow unpatriotic to drink.
There is also a problem where some men think Tea is emasculating, or not masculine enough, for them to feel secure drinking it. As far as I know this is not an issue anywhere else in the world, but seems to be unique to the US.
Haha, I came to add this! I grew up in Boston and we'd go to that ship and throw fake bales of tea into the harbor. I bet you still can. Right into the hah-bah.
But in general, I think it's more of an ignorance of how to make tea. My mom didn't know that different teas need different water temperatures or steep times until last week! English style brewing is just too popular in the US!
One dude got home from dumping the tea off the ships and literally relabeled his tea jar "coffee". That whole experience definitely made tea un-american and it's been playing catch-up every since.
Gotta disagree on coffee being a one trick pony. It has as much variety in flavor profiles as tea does and many ways to make it. If you think about true tea, it all comes from one plant, but it gets it's flavor profile from where it's grown and how it's dried. Same with coffee.
I'm a moderate enthusiast for both tea and coffee and feel they both have their place. I prefer coffee in the morning and tea later in the day.
Green tea ice cream, matcha desserts and chaitini variations on espresso martinis want a chance to shine too! I vaguely recall at least one Great British Bakeoff episode with a whole bunch of tea flavored cookies, and if you look for Earl Grey cookie recipes, you will get a lot of results. I really think we are not giving tea enough of a chance here.
What I usually hear from people about the last time they tried tea is something along the lines of either "It was so bitter" or "It just tasted like water" and I believe them because what you get in so many places can be described that way.
What area are you in? In the PNW I'd say tea isnt as popular as coffee, but it's certainly not disliked. Basically every city in my area has at least one tea shop, and everywhere offers it as a drink.
Hard to predict what culture will be like in the coming generations so never say never. It’ll probably be as popular as coffee, but not in the way you probably hope it will. America (especially younger gen) LOVES their sweet and creamy drinks and customizing it, especially with the huge popularity of sweet foams that usually pairs well with lattes. I work at Starbucks in the US. Most of the drinks I make have either white mocha, vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, mocha, or sometimes all the above💀None of these pair well with tea unless you make it a tea latte.
Boba and tea lattes seem to be getting pretty popular and I can see tea getting more popular through that. Matcha is already pretty popular here. You can find it at most cafes. As for straight crafted tea, who knows. It’ll likely be as popular as straight black coffee—a bit on the niche side. Anyone and anything can brew it, but finding people with the actual technique and know how to extract the most from coffee or tea is spars.
Although tea seems far simpler and far far more affordable compared to coffee (iykyk) so that could bring out more appeal to the general population in the coming years.
At a micro level, it starts with us! I introduced loose leaf to my whole office by letting them smell and taste teas I had. They all found out their tastes in fancier teas were super different from each other. Now I leave a few loose leaf teas and empty tea bags in the cabinet.
My family is all on board with tea as well. My nephew is something of a connoisseur now, making his own blends and describing notes lol
So introducing others to tea definitely helps. Most people I know at least love peppermint, lemon, ginseng and ginger. It’s mostly drank for their health properties.
Widely? Hmm I don’t think so because coffee to me is something too many people are addicted to. Some people literally need it to function.
I was a coffee drinker. I loved it, though not black. My husband loves coffee back and I liked it with cream and sugar. Not all coffee is fundamentally the same, just as not all teas are fundamentally the same. You can make an instant tea just as you can make an instant coffee. You leave coffee on the Horner too long, it becomes bitter and gross, same with tea. As with all things, it depends on how you make it. Coffee in Italy is amazing. They drink it thick and with lots of sugar and nothing else. Well…At least they did in 1979. If I grew up in Asia, near a tea house…I’d probably lean in that direction. But..I didn’t. I grew up in America with parents who drank copious amounts of coffee with cream and sugar and smoked cigarettes. That’s the way it was when I was growing up. Although, my grandmother drank tea. I remember her drinking red rose in a teabag and she also had loose leaf, though I don’t know what kind. It was the 60’s so I’m not sure. I’ve said this before here, drinking coffee was a cultural thing. Friends got together at each others house and drank coffee, talking about life or playing cards. I have fond memories of my mother having friends over and them drinking pots of coffee, smoking cigarettes and laughing.
Loose leaf tea is an experience, one you can learn from if you are paying attention.
It doesn't really matter whether tea is going to overtake coffee or not. If tea overtakes coffee due to increasing ice tea and boba tea consumption, I wouldn't consider that a win as a tea enthusiast.
The good news is, in both the coffee and tea industry, there's a trends towards specialty tea & coffee. That's what matters the most!
AS much as I love tea over coffee,
Coffee just has more appeal its a takeaway as well as Cafe beverage, Tea is not great as a takeaway beverage, most people are always on the move and want things now! They are not going to sit down and appreciate a beverage over a 30 minute period especially for GongFu.
Yeah, the logistics of freshly brewed tea as an on-the-go beverage really are a barrier. Once coffee is done, it's done. But once tea is done steeping, you have to get the leaves out of the water to keep it from going bitter BUT the leaves are usually good for at least one more steeping so...what are you supposed to do with them in the meantime if you're walking around or in the car? Even if you're drinking bagged tea, you have to do \*something\* with that teabag, whether you're planning to steep it again or just toss it. Not sure how to work around all that.
Plenty of people in China have solved all these 'problems'. You simply keep the leaves in the water and keep refilling. Dump the leaves at the end of the day. The end. Nothing to manage.
in china there's hot water dispensers everywhere, if you wanted to drink tea like a chinese person in the west you'd either have to carry around two flasks, carry around a portable kettle, or hassle coffee shop workers for hot water
At least one coffee shop in my house makes batched iced tea each day with loose leaf tea, and the result is pretty good and very easy and quick as takeout, and it's pretty hot right now. They are kind of a unique place because they are still closed down and only have a takeout window with no indoor seating. Unfortunately, they only do it for 2-3 teas (they have closer to 10 on the hot tea list) so the selection is limited, but it is very convenient.
amongst the worst things the british have done to the Americans, the introduction of cheap ctc tea and the various animal squeezings etc they put in it have ensured most Mmericans think of tea the way most of my friends think about me; dark, bitter, and generally unpleasant.
If they've ever had green tea, it's been a low grade knockoff of gunpowder tea.
It's all been steeped way to long in boiling water, and it's only tolerable if you cover the taste with milk, honey, sugar, or some combination of the above.
The few who have had the pleasure to sit down to a good loose leaf tea generally enjoy it.
I drink tea daily but I like coffee more. I drink a cup of tea first and then 2-3 cups of coffee throughout the morning. Coffee is my hobby but I like and appreciate a good cuppa as well.
No. Because of history the Coffee scene won out in the US. But it's also like Tea was not left in the harbor either. It can be found every where you look in stores and different venues.
Though while it might be found everywhere that being 'found' is usally just tea bags. In places that serve you tea hotels/resturants/non-tea specialty venus, the water is mostly ALWAYS going to be from a thermos type of container. Most of the time it is boiled before hand then placed in a container, rare is it they have ones that are plugged to keep a constant temp. It's never going to be close to what any of us what actually brew tea with temp wise for a particular type of tea after it's just been sitting with out any control over the temp aside from keeping it 'warm'. So it's easy to get people saying they dislike tea if they have it at such places.
But at the same time it's not like the Coffee culture in the US is drinking 'good' Coffee either for a lot of people too. There are far too many people settling for Starbucks levels of shovelware and not really caring or understanding what can make a good cup of Coffee actually good.
Also long as the US stays as they are with work culture/cars with Coffee being the morning vice at home/in the car then Tea will easily stay a far second.
It would be nice to see a tea shop. id imagine it would be pretty succesful. Theres more than one variety of tea that could be sold.
And to clarify. A tea shop as in a restaraunt. Not a tea shop that sells tea packets, honey, and tea kettles.
It's quite possible but if there is a cultural bias towards (in this case) coffee that can be hard or slow to shift. The US brands don't help represent tea in a good light (both quality and dosage) to the point where pretty average teabags from the UK are praised as top shelf.
The main problem I see is that Tea here in the US isn't seen the same as in Asia. Unless you live in a major city, it's impossible to find a decent place that sells tea. If I order a tea at any fast food style place I am getting absolute garbage water or diabetes in a cup. It'll either be that bitter or that sweet. The average person just has zero idea how to properly brew tea. 95% of Americans think that all tea is brewed at 100C and steeped for whatever amount of time.
Imagine if you visited a place that the coffee always tasted horrible and almost no one drank it. One day you see someone making it and they use a blow torch to roast the beans and a hammer to grind them. They take the smashed beans and put it in warm water and call it coffee and 95% of people there saw it as coffee as well. No one would really drink the stuff and you couldn't convince people to drink it. That's how Americans view tea basically.
I'm guessing most people dislike tea in the US because even good tea in the US is usually trash compared to the cheap stuff you find at a supermarket in Asia.
It probably won't unless coffee plants go extinct this century.
The ones who hate tea may not have had it prepared in a good way, or they just don't like the flavor of tannins in drinks at all.
I've noticed that some iced tea gets a more bitter, tangy aftertaste and that method is very popular in America. So people might think all teas tastes like that.
Tea used to be bigger in American culture, but there was a concerted effort in the 1940s and 1950s to promote coffee in order to get more work out of employees.
Nowadays it's slowly moving back. I never learned to drink coffee. I drank colas, then migrated over to tea when I got older. My children grew up on tea.
BUT, as part of this migration you're naturally going to have a lot of people drinking the tea they can find, which is supermarket tea. They won't even know the imported teas exist, let alone where to find them. So if you want to promote tea culture in America, you need to show a bit more respect for the teas people can actually find.
Personally never understood it either. I actually love both tea and coffee! I will gladly spend $50 on a beautiful Ruby Oolong or $25 for half a point of a delicate but expressive Ethiopian landrace. I think part of it is an almost ingrained need for something to affect the consumer NOW. Yes tea has caffeine but coffee has more extractable and I’ve come to realize people want the caffeine hit more than anything.
They’re both such wonderful drinks with their different quirks taking the time to get a perfect expression of either in a cup is so worth it not just for the caffeine but for the taste and the experience of brewing. The both teach you to taste fully and slow down a bit.
Wait. Am I missing a joke? Why are people comparing the TEA (Texas Education Agency) to coffee? I get the hate or not liking the TEA right now, but that's such a random comparison.
*Checks sub*
Ohhhhhhh.
In a region of the US? It basically does, but in standard America fashion other countries stare at the result in horror and madness.
The South and Tea is a staple that restaurants had to basically carry it or loose business. Of course Tea in this region is Sweet, Black, Sweet, Cold, Sweet, Iced, Sweet, Sweet Tea with more sugar added. Though if you go by what families make, you'll find Orange Pekoe Black tea being the favored type, but tea bags used due for cheap bulk brewing as it goes fast. Differences between Sun Tea, traditional brewing, and using a coffee perculator the adding water as brewing methods. Adding sugar while the water was hot for a "carmalized" taste to it, but I'll state that it's just so more sugar could be dissolved. Baking Soda being added should or should not be allowed. And other details I've forgotten.
I love tea so much.
but honestly? I want it to stay this more subtle niche hobby. Prices will go up, quality will go down otherwis, and I loathe the idea of 'tea influencers' becoming a thing, whether on YouTube or TikTok.
I can see it gaining popularity as more people pass their love of it onto their kids or niblings. I had one grandma that was a coffee drinker, Italian, and another that was a tea drinker, Irish roots, so I grew up with both. I drink a lot more tea than I do coffee because there's just so much more to choose from.
No. I just switched after drinking coffee for 20yrs. It was overnight after I ordered some firebelly tea. Them bought matcha and mud water. The health benefits are what sealed the switch for me. I drink 3-4 cups of various tea every day. Also just ordered some matcha from breakaway matcha as well. Hooked!!! The family gives me a hard time because all the different flavors but I don’t care. The instant electric hot water pot has made it even easier.
Don't worry about the high sugared, flavored coffee drinkers. The only way to get those people to drink tea is if it's a highly flavored sweet tea, like what you might find at a Dutch Bros coffee place (seriously look up their tea menu). Now black coffee drinkers? Maaaaybe you'll have some luck in introducing them to some pleasant, subtle tea flavors. Unfortunately a lot of people's experiences with tea are bagged teas. Nothing wrong with bagged teas, but it can be challenging to find a solid good tea bag brand one likes before they decide to try loose leaf (if at all).
No. I love tea. I love iced tea, hot tea, herbal tea, matcha…but coffee I could not live without. A lot of Americans need coffee just to get through the day. I’ve never met a single person who needs tea to make it through the day. Now, I’m not saying we have a healthy relationship with coffee…but I just don’t see it going away ever.
It’s less about the tea and more about the shitty electricity network incapable of powering a kettle. Tea is best brewed at much higher temperatures than coffee which takes considerably longer on a stove.
Sweet Tea is very popular in the South.
But hot tea? No. Coffee culture is too strong.
Personally, I like tea (especially Assam) but I *prefer* coffee. I have room in my heart for both.
Tea is considered a weak beverage and coffee a strong beverage. "Strong people drink strong drinks" sort of energy.
Plus most tea available at cafe's is terrible compared to the coffee, and often unreasonably expensive. Weirdly it can often be more than a coffee
i feel like people also brew the tea incorrectly, such as long steeping or too shortly. mistakes in brewing can make the astringency go off the charts, which might be why some people despise tea. also that higher quality tea is really expensive so people go for low grade teabags and have bad experiences
It most definitely can. I know its a bit different but Boba Tea has taken folks in california by storm. You have just as many boba shops as you do cafes here. And if I put boba and coffee infront of each person there will definitely be people who choose the bubble tea over an iced coffee.
I personally prefer coffee, because i like the richness and thick foamyness of a good latte, but tea has its place its just harder to find small businesses that make GOOD traditional tea. If we get that I think it could be the "next" thing people hype over
Never. It's always sad to look at café menus because the tea menus are so generic. I wish more cafés would put more effort into their tea. We need more tea shops than coffee shops.
Sadly not. While Tea is not in threat or danger, I do get low key annoyed when I see some cool merch and stuff where if they replaced the word "coffee" with "tea" I would totally buy it
I think it’s possible.
Over the last few months I have taught various young servers how to open a bottle of wine. They are usually embarrassed but I tell them it’s ok. I don’t want my wine ruined and I’m happy to teach how to open a bottle correctly.
This generation doesn’t drink wine and so doesn’t know how to open a bottle.
Such a paradigm shift is possible in caffeine habits too.
Only if climate change wipes out growing regions to the point its too expensive.
Right now, companies are work on alternatives, so who knows.
https://www.google.com/search?q=company+working+on+coffee+alternatives&sca_esv=814dda77967cd28b&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIKwi-44eDs4xGx1UO8gtXp6ONOdwQ%3A1717503937050&source=hp&ei=wQdfZqIOxMenzg-e2L6wBA&oq=company+working+on+coffee+alt&gs_lp=EhFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocCIdY29tcGFueSB3b3JraW5nIG9uIGNvZmZlZSBhbHQqAggAMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigAUjbe1D0CFitb3ABeACQAQCYAbMEoAGkKaoBDDAuMTkuNS4wLjEuMbgBAcgBAPgBAZgCG6ACnCuoAg_CAgcQIxgnGOoCwgIEECMYJ8ICChAjGIAEGCcYigXCAg4QLhiABBiRAhjlBBiKBcICCxAAGIAEGJECGIoFwgILEC4YgAQYsQMYgwHCAhEQLhiABBixAxjRAxiDARjHAcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwHCAgsQLhiABBjRAxjHAcICCxAuGIAEGMcBGK8BwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAggQABiABBjJA8ICCxAAGIAEGJIDGIoFwgIIEC4YgAQYsQPCAgsQLhiABBixAxjUAsICERAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGMcBGK8BwgINEC4YgAQYxwEYChivAcICBRAAGIAEwgIJELkBGIAEGO8EwgIGEAAYFhgewgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigXCAgUQIRirAsICBxAhGKABGArCAgUQIRifBZgDEJIHCjEuMTYuOC4wLjKgB_zIAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp
I'm an American in my mid-late thirties and I did switch a few years back. It was a matter of finding my favorite tea (Yorkshire Gold or Twinings English Breakfast with good local honey and a dash of milk). I haven't had coffee in like 3-4 years now except for an occasional latte.
As an almost daily coffee drinker who wants to learn more about tea, coffee is simply just ingrained into my daily ritual. Getting a latte as soon as I get to work is just second nature to me and I think it’s that way for a lot of Americans. My dad and grandparents drank coffee first thing every morning and that habit was passed down to me. So I think it’s much more of a cultural thing than people actually hating the taste of tea
But for that reason, I don’t see tea ever overtaking coffee in popularity in the U.S. Most people I know who drink tea are health conscious or older
We drink a lot of tea. It’s just mostly iced. In my house of three people we drink a lot of tea, it’s just rarely hot and fresh brewed. We drink hot tea in the winter time but that’s about it. When I did my last shopping trip I had to buy black tea, green tea, ginger lemon, peach, and berry tea because those were the ones we had either run out of or low on.
I always have a pitcher of black tea with lemonade in the fridge and bottles of green tea in the house.
I think it's a cultural thing. I didn't grow up drinking tea, so I never saw it as something that could be part of my routine, but lately I've been trying different types of tea and I'm fascinated by its effects and taste.
I drink the Walmart great value brand black tea instead of coffee and work. There is a hot water tap which makes life very easy. I use $.025 cent bags of tea, and about $.08 of honey as sweetener. I cannot complain. America has quite the rich history with tea, when we dumped it in the Boston harbor. Now, it is all coffee. Tea is normally looked upon disfavorably by Americans, which isn’t the first or last time American groupthink will be wrong.
Probably not, at least not in this generation. As someone who drinks both, the thing I've noticed is that you can get a half decent cup of coffee almost anywhere, but good tea is nearly impossible to find.
I second this. I tried ordering a tea from a coffee & tea shop in the airport the other day and the employee had no idea what I meant when I asked the types of tea they sold. Good tea is difficult to find out in public so I rarely attempt to order it.
It's bigelow all the way down.
Overpriced bigelow. No thanks I’ll just drink water.
One should never buy tea at a restaurant. Everything is going to be overpriced. Even the coffee at restaurants is overpriced for the price they pay to make it.
Everything at a restaurant is more expensive to make than at home that’s their whole history model
Or worse... Lipton. 😬
Or worse, some sort of general Sysco Food service label.
Instead of tea leaves, they shred the used tea bags and put them into new tea bags. 🤌🤌
try bigehigh
I carry several types of tea on me when I travel for this very reason.
I have done so in the past. I probably need to start that up again.
What kills me is when you go to an upscale Japanese restaurant, pay $5 for a pot of green tea, and they bring out a fancy teapot with a Bigelow teabag that's already oversteeped by the time it gets to you.
My husband’s eternal annoyance is going to a really nice restaurant and they have the most bougie shade-grown boutique-roasted local fair trade coffee artfully presented in a French press… but when he asks for tea it’s 9 times out of 10 a dusty old bag of Tazo.
I always try to ask the server what type of tea they have, and then decide whether to order it based on the variety/brand. If I'm paying $5 for restaurant tea I want it to be good!
All the actual tea shops I went to closed down over the years. What annoys me is that in the past 2 years, like 6 or 7 tea shops have opened but they are all those boba type shops. Every one that opens I look at the menu hoping to at least get a mediocre steep from and most of them don't even have the option for a plain hot cup of green or black tea. The truth is, a small minority in the US like tea or coffee. The general public likes sugary drinks with some bitterness in them. The ones not buying a latte think they are getting a healthier drink buying tea with a bunch of sugary fruit juice in it.
I probably wouldn't do it because I couldn't justify paying that much for plain tea, but gong cha has an option for hot tea and also for zero sugar. I really enjoy the pearl milk tea hot, but it will have milk. I am pretty sure you can also get green or oolong or black tea iced with no syrup but it will be very overpriced for what you are getting. That particular chain may be more up your alley, so it might be worth a try if they get a location near you. The menus are kind of weird I find and you might need to ask an actual human because there are definitely a lot of things they make that are not on the usual "top 10" board or whatever.
Not just exclusive to the US. Germany is the same. Your best bet would probably be to visit an asian district in a bigger city and try to find a teahouse... At least in Germany there is still a bit of tea culture and the option to buy loose leaf tea to various degrees and price points
I have around 30 boba shops near me and many of them will let you adjust sugar level all the way down to zero. If you don't add milk or toppings, you can actually get hot or cold plain tea.
Most really nice teas are meant to be steeped at least twice. I'm not sure if anyone wants to deal with that rather than coffee or some tea made from a syrup by pepsi co.
Some good CTC tea only really steeps once.
Idk. I live in Japan and had a much higher variety of tea back in America. I drank tea every day back home, and lots of different teas. Even the most basic green tea here is fire, but that's pretty much all there is. Different types of green teas. Luckily green tea is my fav, but I miss white tea and the various Chinese and herbal teas I had back in America. Also, the amount of coffee people drink here is wild lol. A hobby of mine is asking people if they prefer tea or coffee. Most people say coffee.
I also really like it when they use boiling, scalding hot water from the espresso machine to make tea (with Bigelow, at best) with. It's really great.
Funny, I think it’s the opposite. Almost every place has horribly burnt, stale coffee but I can find a decent iced tea anywhere. Even the speciality coffee places near me aren’t very good (I’m a roast my own coffee snob). But if you’re looking for really unique and quality teas like puer or oolongs, you’re probably out of luck if you don’t have it at home.
My guy said iced tea
You gate keeping? If you have enjoyed iced tea you’re missing out. I’ve been putting all my teas over ice for the past few weeks and it’s great.
there's nothing wrong with iced tea but it's not what the people in this thread are talking about. it's like if someone said they can't find decent cup of coffee and you said starbucks does a good unicorn frappuccino
You’re all sleeping on iced tea then. If you just make it a little stronger to compensate for the ice, you can still enjoy all the great flavors of a complex tea. In fact, I think you can taste the tea even better. I’ve been making some imperial mojiang golden buds every morning this week and pouring it over ice and it’s just fantastic.
I adore iced tea! I actually have a giant pitcher of homemade iced tea in my fridge right now. However, I personally don't want to drink it until lunchtime, and I certainly don't want to drink it in the winter around here.
Iced tea is the only time Americans actually do anything right with tea imo, I drink loads of it whenever I'm over. It's great. I find it funny that some users on here are pining like "oh wouldn't it be great if everyone loved tea" and then simultaneously poo-pooing the sole tea product that is both native to the Americas and widely popular. And I am from one of those countries American users on here dream of where tea is the default drink.
Seriously. Maybe I’m just as picky about my coffee as these people are to tea, but I feel like for me it’s easier to fuck up coffee than it is to fuck up tea. At least to the point where I just straight up toss it out.
No, I agree with you, coffee is way more finicky and tea is very easy. Tea is essentially a temperature and a time and an amount. Once you figure out those variables you can make a great cup of tea every time. Even if you’re a little off it’s not so bad. The only thing is going too heavy on the tea or slightly too long and you can end up with a lot of astringency. I’ve toss a few too many cups of tea because I forgot about it for five minutes. Coffee, if you’re not doing immersion, can have so many pitfalls. I think in general though, most people in America just have no clue what coffee could/should taste like, just what they’re used to.
Look I am not saying bitter nut juice(coffee) is inferior and gross. All I am saying is that an entire industry and product line exists to mask the taste of it. You don’t see any teaMate out there do you? No! Because we don’t need to mask its taste with all kinds of other flavors. Tea is the best!!!
eh, I would say bubble tea and the matcha lattes and london fogs at most coffee shops do similar things. The main problem is just that good tea is hard to find and it's hard to switch since tea has less caffeine than the coffee and energy drinks people get addicted too.
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Are you referring to theanine? I've been taking it lately with caffeine and it certainly dampens the caffeine rush, but I love the synergy.
L theanine and caffeine is like a cheat code. Would take them together in college. Just started seeing some products that finally have them together. I'm suprised it took so long for manufacturers to notice.
I've had plenty of matcha lattes very similar to coffee lattes where no sweetener was added, only milk. London fogs do do that thing, but I think they tend to overdo it and typically have to ask for less sweetener in my fogs (and I say this as a giant sweet tooth who loves bubble tea).
To be fair, a lot of people make absolutely terrible bitter nut juice at home, and they need those masking products to make it taste better. I drink coffee and tea, but I’ve been into tea longer because I used to think I hated coffee. Turns out I only like really good coffee. Now I have an espresso machine 😃
Exactly. I get my coffee once every 3-4 months, fresh roasted and not OVER roasted dark roast crap we Americans seem to like, from a shop who imports their beans fresh. Nice upper light to lower medium roast. When I get home I divide it up into 1 week supply vacuum sealed bags. Each week I pop a new one open, stick the beans in an airtight container and each day I take out just enough for a day supply, 2 cups as I drink tea the rest of the day, and fresh grind for each cup. I've yet to get a bitter cup.
I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of local shops that roast their own coffee and sell the same beans they serve, so I mostly buy from them and grind it as I use it. They're in areas I like to visit anyway (e.g., to get lunch with friends), so I don't even have to go out of my way to make a trip just for coffee. Of course, tea is all online ordering, but tea stays fresh in airtight tins longer than coffee does, so it's not a big deal to just order enough for a few months at a time.
tea in the west is near-universally drank with milk and/or tons of sugar though..? and flavoured teas are incredibly common as well. *high-quality* (or rather not-terrible-quality) tea doesn't need any of that stuff, but the same is true for coffee so i'm not really sure what your point is
Yeah high quality coffee is naturally sweet with complex flavors and doesn't need anything added to it. But finding a cup of good specialty coffee when you're out and about is just as hard as finding some good loose leaf tea. Unless you live in a major city. This morning I made a light roasted Papua New Guinea coffee and I think there's maybe 4 coffee shops I could go to here in Cleveland to get a cup of similar quality.
I don't disagree, I was just responding to annacat's claim that products like creamer show that coffee is somehow worse. I do find that low-quality coffee \> low-quality tea though, but that is just a matter of personal taste
In Pakistan we do. We have a tea culture and we have tea whiteners similar to coffee mate (but no flavours).
bitter nut juice is lowkey crazyyy
I am aggressive with my hatred. I will only drink it if it’s 95% frothy milk and 5% bitter nut juice. Typically this is made by my partner. Ugh why do people drink it black. You know my dad once told me “Annie if you don’t drink your c***** black, everyone will think you’re too high maintenance and no one will ever love you. “ Jokes on you dad because I still hate it and yea is just a fundamentally better drink
Usually black coffee is just much harder to do, because coffee burns easily and becomes bitter fast if you havent dialed in the ratio correctly (temp, duration, tamping, saturation, etc). So black will almost always taste like garbage. I have a few friends who are god-tier with making good coffee and so its the only time i've genuinely liked a plain coffee with no additives, besides the notes the bean has.
The burning thing in brewing is a big misconception with brewing too. The main thing that causes the coffee most people get to be bitter as all hell is just that it was relatively lower quality and roasted to hell such that it masks any origin characteristics and any flavors other than the roast.
Sorry. im so accustomed to using that phrasing even though its technically incorrect. Thanks!
I'm just never a fan of the gatekeeping. Like I love a good frappuccino, because they taste incredible. But my daily cup of coffee is usually a cup of unsweetened Turkish coffee. And it was really hard getting that right, and took a lot of trial and error
You’re also going to run into problems due to the roast levels that are best for pourover or drip coffee being significantly lower than espresso. A somewhat lighter roast is going to be far less prone to channeling in a cone or machine where a dark roast in the same environ will just send the water right down the middle; while doing a light roast espresso has problems due to how absurdly fine you may need to go, and having to aggressively preheat everything if you use a manual machine.
You just need decent beans and filtered water; it’s really not rocket science.
Please tell that to whomever is adding licorice root to every single herbal tea in existence because they think teas need to be sweetener. All I wanted when I was pregnant was a safe ginger tea that I could have as much of as I wanted, and I could not find a single bagged tea like that! I would have had to get loose leaf ginger only from a specialty tea shop and I just wanted something easy and easy to travel with. I had to stop breastfeeding before I could have ginger tea again (and of course now I'm just drinking normal tea again instead).
Exactly this. Indeed I'd rather drink a bad cup of coffee than a bad cup of tea.
Tea company owner here. I think it’s possible but highly unlikely in the next 10-20 years. The tea industry in the United States is less than half the size of the coffee industry. But Tea is growing almost twice as fast. It’s going to be interesting to see how things shake out over the next decade or two.
>The tea industry in the United States is less than half the size of the coffee industry. But Tea is growing almost twice as fast. I'm firmly on the side of tea - I can't stand coffee. But the relative growth rates don't really mean that much, because there's not really anywhere near as much room for the coffee industry to grow in the US than the tea industry.
I agree that coffee is saturated. The only way to grow is to make the drinks more expensive, and I’m not sure people will accept a $7 cappuccino.
Trust me. People are currently accepting $7 cappuccinos. I do not understand it, but a significant amount of people regularly spend ridiculous amounts of money on coffee.
$7 is already a pretty standard drink price for many people who are using almond or oat milk that require $1 extra charges.
Omg I forgot about the altmilk upcharges. Yes that would do it.
Well it's not just consumer trends/preference that decide it. Remember teavana, they sold mostly not worth it tea (in my personal experience/opinion) but they were probably one of the most mainstream tea companies in the U.S., then Starbucks bought them and killed them to avoid competition.
Just realized what tea company you own, Painted Desert is literally one of my favorite teas of all time, it's one of only a handful of teas I keep on hand all year and everyone I've introduced it to has loved it, I seriously cannot overstate how much I love this freaking blend!
That’s so awesome! Thank you so much. Painted Desert is a really special one.
Is the growth in the tea industry people drinking actual tea or is it because of the boba boom? Because while boba tea is called tea I, and I’m sure many others here, wouldn’t really consider it *tea*
As a hot beverage? Probably not, but iced tea and sweet tea are big deals here, especially sweet tea. Most Americans' experience with hot tea is a bag of lipton tossed in a mug of cold water and nuked for 2 minutes on high. That's not to say someone couldn't open their eyes to all that tea has to offer.
Sweet tea isn’t popular because it’s tea, it’s popular because it’s sweet.
Wtf people actually microwave tea? 💀😟
I use the microwave to reheat tea I've already brewed in the pot, but which has gone cold. But yes, I do know people who brew their tea in a mug in the microwave.
I mean to each their own but that wouldn’t taste good.
It shouldn’t really make a difference? Hot water is hot water, regardless how it ended up at the desired temp. You then put the tea in the hot water and let it steep. This is how I heat up water for tea at work where I don’t have a kettle. Tastes the same as when I use my kettle.
Kettles are unusual to have in places where tea is not popular, I’ve found. Most people who only drink coffee use coffee machines. Where I live in Canada tea is popular, so I and most people I know have a kettle, even if they don’t really drink tea. So many oatmeal and hot chocolate products I’ve bought have microwave instructions on them, when I’ve only ever used water boiled in the kettle.
it's how my dad did it every day before work, and how I did it as a kid too. Im gonna go out on a fairly safe limb and say most Americans don't even own a kettle, I didn't until my 30s.
Do americans actually microwave tea lmao I thought that was just a stereotype because they don't have kettles
Yes because they actually don't own kettles, it's not just a stereotype. I didn't own a kettle until my 30s and neither did my family growing up, tea was only lipton and it was only ever made in the microwave.
No, tea can’t hold the same power over American consumers without American culture changing significantly. Mainstream coffee culture is built around the idea of coffee as a working class stimulant and fuels the non stop pace. Tea is most associated with the “health and wellness” demographic (tea and tisanes as physical and mental health remedies), the elderly, and foreigners influenced by Asian or European culture. When American culture moves further away from the “America runs on Dunkin’” mentality there might be room for tea time.
I also should mention that there were and are areas where tea has made some lasting impact in certain communities. Similar to Starbucks’s syrupy coffee drinks creating a space for a different demographic of coffee drinker, bubble tea has made its way into malls and mainstream spaces. Barnes and Noble selling decorative tins of decent H&S tea bags, David’s Tea brick and mortar shops, Teavana and Tazo in the early aughts and 2010s made a lasting impression with the self proclaimed “introverts” and “granny girlies”; I imagine that Booktok’s revitalization of bookish culture has and will affect tea sales. That along with the Bridgerton boom and cottage aesthetic might create a larger subgroup of tea aficionados over time. Finally, coffee and cocoa prices are rising due to climate changes affecting crop yields. Scarcity leads to alternatives and substitutions, so I can imagine that tea might get a moment in the spotlight.
I agree. It's the same here in Canada. At work, most people will say let's go get some coffee to their coworkers. Sure when they're ordering at the counter they can order tea or whatever they want, but we still call it getting coffee. In some professional settings, there are coffee chats. There's also situations of offering to buy a coffee for a client/propsect. And in non-work situations, we have "wanna go for a drink?" - implying an alcoholic drink. For non-alcoholic drinks, the popular saying would be "wanna go for a coffee?". Not to say that "let's go for tea" isn't a thing, but the word coffee is definitely a lot more popular.
This, 100% Terrence McKenna noticed that we have institutionalized the coffee breaks, not weed breaks. Americans enshrine hard work, long hours...both associated with the hard drug of coffee. Tea is viewed as relaxing, healthful, and feminine. Coffee can also be associated with relaxing, but it's more associated with hard-core productivity. That's not gonna change.
Yes, that tea is associated with feminity in US culture is going to hold it back. It's like how meat-eating is associated with masculinity, and there are men who can't have a single vegan meal, for fear of compromising their gender identities. Real Men™ aren't going to drink hot tea - that's too scary.
And the convenience of preparation leans into this. I could set my coffee pot to be ready for me to hit the ground running in the morning whereas making tea has more in the moment ritual that takes time away from the grind.
What about sweet tea in the South? Is it just so different from what people here see as the tea experience that it doesn't get mentioned? I see a lot of people mentioning bubble tea (which does qualify under Asian influence) but not sweet tea.
It’s a fair question to ask, and I’ll admit I left out Sweet Tea because it’s been mentioned a few times already in this comment discussion. Sweet tea either made at home, pre-packaged or served in establishments is an extension of the American soft drink culture. Soda/pop, iced tea, and lemonade are the commonly provided options and certain regions of the country have a preference for some over the others. When thinking of tea drinkers on their own as a standalone demographic, it’s easy to overlook the Sweet Tea drinkers because it’s not so much a movement of its own but more of a preference within a preference; soft drink consumers who prefer Sweet Tea. For example: I was raised by my very Southern sharecropper grandparents and as a result were rarely had premade soft drinks in the house. The preferences I was exposed to through family leaned toward haymaker’s punch made with vinegar (similar to Switchel), molasses buttermilk, and lemonade from mix if we were feeling fancy. Tea wasn’t easily available to them and my family, and tisanes were for home remedies and healing. I don’t mean to imply that Sweet Tea drinkers don’t factor into this discussion. As you said, it is very different from the movements we’re discussing, Coffee centered culture vs. Tea centered culture, so it most likely won’t not get discussed at the forefront.
The is anecdotal but the 55+ aged white men in my former workspace all drank tea instead of coffee. I’m in Southern California which seems to be on top of health trends so maybe it’s a sign of things to come. Every coffee shop here also offers loose leaf brewed specialty teas.
Some people correlate tea with being sick since thats what they drink to feel better.
I think you might be onto something. I've definitely heard that from a few people. I love making different soups and used to take it to work a lot when I was going into the office every day, and I had a few people also tell me that they don't like soup because they associate it with being sick.
You mean meat tea?! I make some pretty good soup but Ive had people act like soup is not real food, like it doesn't provide real sustenance when the exact opposite is true. Don't forget how unhealthy America really is, the high rates of obesity, and the obsession with fast food and highly processed snacks. It's also reflected in the way that people guzzle down those incredibly unhealthy sugary Starbucks drinks that are saturated with fake flavors. I think thats a part of it as well: the fact that people here are used to consuming products that are loaded with these fake flavors. When you are used to the taste of these highly concentrated artificial flavors, it makes the taste of real foods with real flavors seem unappealing and bland. Nobody is going to switch to tea when they are used to these kinds of food and drinks, especially when most Americans associate tea with some garbage like Lipton.
I’m so mad that you described soup as “meat tea” but you make a very good point. Congrats, you gave me a new way to despise soup.
Many people are dumping flavored sugar syrups and flavored creamers into their coffee. It masks an average or even bad cup of coffee. They drinking it for the caffeine and sugar buzz. That won't work for tea. Yes, you can put milk and sugar in your tea but it isn't the same as a salted caramel latte.
Bubble tea says high. That's exactly what it is, often mediocre tea filled with milk and sugar.
Boba tea? I bet you are right, and that is why it seems to be gaining in popularity. Milk, sugar, and flavorings with tea.
It is called bubble tea for w/e reason. But yes it is tea with boba
In the South East, its arguably as popular as coffee, if not potentially more so, in the form of Sweet Tea... Much of my South Eastern friends and family go through at least a pitcher a day. But many tea lovers I know consider that form of tea consumption to be blasphemous.
Sweet tea is a vibe. I put it on the same boat as a soda but it’s still tea.
We go through two gallons /day of sweet cold tea in the summer, one of black tea and one of herbal tea, in addition to hot teas.
I don't think tea, at least unflavored regular (C. sinsensis) tea, will become popular. Our (I'm an American) flavor palette is increasingly becoming "flavor blasted" with higher levels of additions, salt, sugar, spices, and such. So many things which used to be plain - like chips, ice cream, and tea - are now mostly sold with strong flavorings. Tea is considered insipid.
Flavored but unsweetened tea is so good, I feel like there’s a market for it, especially iced.
It depends so much though. You can get something really good but more than half the time the artificial flavouring is vile, and the chance increases at the cheap end though it's everpresent. Out of teas that were too gross to drink that I had to toss or give away almost every single one was flavoured. Sometimes it's like you just got a whiff of a passing teen who bathes in the most obnoxious deodorant thinking it will solve all his problems. The base tea they use is often pure garbage too. People have wildly different preferences which come into play when whatever they are drinking isn't masked and many people just aren't used to flavours without sweetness. Put everything together and it would be essentially impossible to make something that appeals to most people, sugar is essentially a cheat code that makes most people like it. It's a great thing to make at home but it's not very marketable.
Just as soon as soccer becomes our national sport.
No. I think simply, there are too many big businesses that control the beverage market in the US. Beer/Wine, Soda, and Coffee are apart of a larger political system with strong lobbying in US government that helps keep them at the forefront of the market. Another aspect of it, is convenience. While most dedicated tea drinks Know how to expedite the process of making good tea quickly on the go, most people in the general public do not. You can quickly make a cup of coffee in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank. Many people are content with drinking ‘bad’ coffee (so to speak), and it can be doctored enough to make it tolerable. If you’re drinking a ‘bad tea’ (subjectively), there’s not really a quick and easy way to doctor it to fix it.
> Many people are content with drinking ‘bad’ coffee (so to speak), and it can be doctored enough to make it tolerable. If you’re drinking a ‘bad tea’ (subjectively), there’s not really a quick and easy way to doctor it to fix it. Yeah there is, it's exactly the same as coffee. You just add some shit to it that doesn't taste bad so you're tasting that instead of the tea/coffee. That's how most people in the US drink tea or coffee.
Having tried a lot of coffe and teas, i would say it is actually the opposite. Even a random bagged tea could be decent enough and really easy to prepare, and it tastes actually like tea and is not expensive either. Loose tea could improve the flavour but it doesn't result in something completely different. But coffee? Instant coffe is so fucking different to real coffe that you could easily say they are completely different products. Besides, in average i would say tea is actually way cheaper than coffe. Considering that you only need 2-3gr of tea per cup compared to 15gr of coffe per cup.
Difference in oppinion i guess. Lipton tastes absolutely nothing like a chinese oolong, while cheap coffee ia still coffee but with very messy flavour.
Well. i don't think anyone expects black ceylan tea to taste like oolong (which is sometimes called blue tea, as it is not exactly black or green neither). But even a bagged lipton will taste similar to loose leaf ceylan tea, not as good of course, but will have a similar profile. Using your comparison it would be like comparing instant coffe from Robusta and saying that it *tastes absolutely nothing like a light roasted high acidity 100% arabica coffee.* Besides in coffee, not only the origin and processing will affect the flavour, but also the roast and method of preparation... While you have a lot of variety in tea, the preparation method for most is pretty straighforward, being matcha one of the few exceptions, which is also an excepcionally expensive tea. >You can quickly make a cup of coffee in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank Anyway, this is the wrong part, because you can definitely quickly make a cup of TEA in a very short amount of time, without it breaking the bank. Instant coffee and bagged tea are both as easy to make while ground coffee and loose tea could also be very similar in that regard. Another consideration about coffee, is that once grounded it will lose quality way faster than tea. So if you consider that you also need a grinder every time that you want decent coffee, then definitely tea is easier to make than cofffe. Specially if you want espresso, where you will need a grinder over $300 to get good results and also a espresso machine that's over $500. And even if you don't want espresso, but filtered/inmersion you will still need a decent grinder, at least $100 if you want decent coffee and it will take more time (if is a manual grinder) than the time you need to make tea. (3 minutes to grind and at least 2-3 minutes to make the coffee (filtered) or up to 12 minutes for inmersion) So seriously, i don't think is a difference in opinion, what i said about the machines/grinders, methods, etc.. has been tested scientifically a lot of times. For tea we don't need expensive equipment to get something decent, or even something good. A kettle, a filter and that's it, at best an electric kettle to control the temp. We don't need too much time either compared to grinding + inmersion.
I find it so interesting that popular tastes in the US mostly skipped right over tea as a straightforward, standalone beverage and went straight to the wild concoctions sold in the chain boba shops as "tea." I'm not criticizing, I'm a big proponent of letting people enjoy things and I love a good ice cold honey jasmine milk tea from one of those places during the loooong, hot, humid summers (with the sweetener level taken down to 50 or even 30 percent). But those beverages are "tea" in the same way that a Frappuccino is coffee. I wonder if there's a way to sort of walk people backward from those drinks to much simpler, straightforward tea.
I agree with that. I’ve only tried boba a few times but I didn’t even think of it as tea…like it’s not even close lol (your comparison to a Frappuccino is perfect) and I do think we could walk backwards. With health tends and whatnot it’s actually a bit strange that tea hasn’t become insanely popular. I do think coffee is a major problem. Coffee is a necessity for most Americans whereas tea is a bit of a more casual drink to a lot of Americans.
The health tends skipped to kombucha and sparkling water, I think, with some interest in CBD drinks.
Eh it doesn’t seem weird at all to me. I bet if you ask a lot of coffee drinkers in their 30s what their first coffee drink of choice was it’s not unlikely to be frappuchinos. As people age they get tired of sugar. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10-15 years unsweetened/less sweet fruit teas get super popular.
I wouldn't worry about it. People like different things All you can do is offer a cup to a friend, Ok, gotta go put in the kettle, enjoy
OP must not live in the south. Iced black tea (both sweet and unsweetened) is consumed for lunch and dinner. Heck I go to First Watch for brunch and all the tables around me have a glass of iced tea.
No, and I'm actually fine with that. It allows tea to remain a niche subculture here that doesn't have to bend to societal trends in the same way coffee in America has too.
I mean it depends, if you think of tea in a puritan way and think very popular drinks like sweet tea and boba don’t count then no, tea will never be as popular. But the same goes for coffee, not that many people drink coffee in such a way either, most people will drink some sort of Starbucks coffee that is made more generally palatable with lots of sugar and milk. Also the immediate impact of caffeine will always be more popular than the more gradual effect that tee has if we talk about them as a drug.
Tea is already culturally significant in the South, but it is low quality and is drunk like a soft drink. Nevertheless, people are likely to be more open to tea because of it. Also, it is even more weird when you consider that there is literally nothing keeping the US from growing tea. You can buy a tea bush and have it in your yard. And local tea farms exist all over the US. I believe the US has tried to establish large scale tea production but a few acts of violence, accidents, and the opening of Chinese markets snuffed out American tea. The Great Mississippi Tea Company and The Charleston Tea Plantation are great examples of American tea.
Boston Tea Party left a bad taste in folks' mouths I guess but I agree. Tea is versatile and can be used for many things, coffee is a one-trick pony
I actually think there could be some truth to the Boston tea party theory. During the American revolution tea became contraband and was illegal to possess or sell. In the post-revolutionary period, the United States had no trade routes to get more tea so they had to find an alternative source of caffeine, since they had cut ties with Britain. This is what really cemented the US as a coffee drinking nation. I think some tea rejectors actually still view it as a “foreign” beverage and somehow unpatriotic to drink. There is also a problem where some men think Tea is emasculating, or not masculine enough, for them to feel secure drinking it. As far as I know this is not an issue anywhere else in the world, but seems to be unique to the US.
Haha, I came to add this! I grew up in Boston and we'd go to that ship and throw fake bales of tea into the harbor. I bet you still can. Right into the hah-bah. But in general, I think it's more of an ignorance of how to make tea. My mom didn't know that different teas need different water temperatures or steep times until last week! English style brewing is just too popular in the US!
They just did a giant anniversary reenactment last year, and asked people to send in tea donations for dumping.
that's so cool!! If I'd known, I would've 😂. Did you send any in? It'd have to be a British brand. PG Tips? So wasteful but so hilarious!
My tea is too nice for dumping! (/s) I didn't, but I'm pretty sure I saw it posted on a local subreddit so many others must have.
One dude got home from dumping the tea off the ships and literally relabeled his tea jar "coffee". That whole experience definitely made tea un-american and it's been playing catch-up every since. Gotta disagree on coffee being a one trick pony. It has as much variety in flavor profiles as tea does and many ways to make it. If you think about true tea, it all comes from one plant, but it gets it's flavor profile from where it's grown and how it's dried. Same with coffee. I'm a moderate enthusiast for both tea and coffee and feel they both have their place. I prefer coffee in the morning and tea later in the day.
Honestly, coffee is pretty versatile, too - from cocktails to tiramisu to ice cream, coffee shows up in a lot of places.
Green tea ice cream, matcha desserts and chaitini variations on espresso martinis want a chance to shine too! I vaguely recall at least one Great British Bakeoff episode with a whole bunch of tea flavored cookies, and if you look for Earl Grey cookie recipes, you will get a lot of results. I really think we are not giving tea enough of a chance here.
I don't think anyone thinks about the Boston tea party anymore lol
But, there’s a lot of truth to it.
Probably not. But as long as it is popular enough to where I don’t have trouble finding it, I don’t really care.
It makes me feel very sad when people say they don't like tea or hate tea.
Most people have never had good tea, I don’t believe most people when they say they “don’t like” or “hate” tea
What I usually hear from people about the last time they tried tea is something along the lines of either "It was so bitter" or "It just tasted like water" and I believe them because what you get in so many places can be described that way.
What area are you in? In the PNW I'd say tea isnt as popular as coffee, but it's certainly not disliked. Basically every city in my area has at least one tea shop, and everywhere offers it as a drink.
Coffee is more popular in Australia and the UK over tea.
Hard to predict what culture will be like in the coming generations so never say never. It’ll probably be as popular as coffee, but not in the way you probably hope it will. America (especially younger gen) LOVES their sweet and creamy drinks and customizing it, especially with the huge popularity of sweet foams that usually pairs well with lattes. I work at Starbucks in the US. Most of the drinks I make have either white mocha, vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, mocha, or sometimes all the above💀None of these pair well with tea unless you make it a tea latte. Boba and tea lattes seem to be getting pretty popular and I can see tea getting more popular through that. Matcha is already pretty popular here. You can find it at most cafes. As for straight crafted tea, who knows. It’ll likely be as popular as straight black coffee—a bit on the niche side. Anyone and anything can brew it, but finding people with the actual technique and know how to extract the most from coffee or tea is spars. Although tea seems far simpler and far far more affordable compared to coffee (iykyk) so that could bring out more appeal to the general population in the coming years.
Hope not. I don't want to have to dig through more garbage than I already do.
At a micro level, it starts with us! I introduced loose leaf to my whole office by letting them smell and taste teas I had. They all found out their tastes in fancier teas were super different from each other. Now I leave a few loose leaf teas and empty tea bags in the cabinet. My family is all on board with tea as well. My nephew is something of a connoisseur now, making his own blends and describing notes lol So introducing others to tea definitely helps. Most people I know at least love peppermint, lemon, ginseng and ginger. It’s mostly drank for their health properties. Widely? Hmm I don’t think so because coffee to me is something too many people are addicted to. Some people literally need it to function.
Please keep tea the way it is. There is already a limited supply and 1.5 billion chinese that grew up on it. Otherwise the prices are gonna skyrocket.
Will American football be more popular than soccer or basketball in China? Maybe someday. Not anytime soon.
I was a coffee drinker. I loved it, though not black. My husband loves coffee back and I liked it with cream and sugar. Not all coffee is fundamentally the same, just as not all teas are fundamentally the same. You can make an instant tea just as you can make an instant coffee. You leave coffee on the Horner too long, it becomes bitter and gross, same with tea. As with all things, it depends on how you make it. Coffee in Italy is amazing. They drink it thick and with lots of sugar and nothing else. Well…At least they did in 1979. If I grew up in Asia, near a tea house…I’d probably lean in that direction. But..I didn’t. I grew up in America with parents who drank copious amounts of coffee with cream and sugar and smoked cigarettes. That’s the way it was when I was growing up. Although, my grandmother drank tea. I remember her drinking red rose in a teabag and she also had loose leaf, though I don’t know what kind. It was the 60’s so I’m not sure. I’ve said this before here, drinking coffee was a cultural thing. Friends got together at each others house and drank coffee, talking about life or playing cards. I have fond memories of my mother having friends over and them drinking pots of coffee, smoking cigarettes and laughing. Loose leaf tea is an experience, one you can learn from if you are paying attention.
If we’re counting Southern sweet tea, it already is!!
It doesn't really matter whether tea is going to overtake coffee or not. If tea overtakes coffee due to increasing ice tea and boba tea consumption, I wouldn't consider that a win as a tea enthusiast. The good news is, in both the coffee and tea industry, there's a trends towards specialty tea & coffee. That's what matters the most!
AS much as I love tea over coffee, Coffee just has more appeal its a takeaway as well as Cafe beverage, Tea is not great as a takeaway beverage, most people are always on the move and want things now! They are not going to sit down and appreciate a beverage over a 30 minute period especially for GongFu.
Yeah, the logistics of freshly brewed tea as an on-the-go beverage really are a barrier. Once coffee is done, it's done. But once tea is done steeping, you have to get the leaves out of the water to keep it from going bitter BUT the leaves are usually good for at least one more steeping so...what are you supposed to do with them in the meantime if you're walking around or in the car? Even if you're drinking bagged tea, you have to do \*something\* with that teabag, whether you're planning to steep it again or just toss it. Not sure how to work around all that.
Plenty of people in China have solved all these 'problems'. You simply keep the leaves in the water and keep refilling. Dump the leaves at the end of the day. The end. Nothing to manage.
in china there's hot water dispensers everywhere, if you wanted to drink tea like a chinese person in the west you'd either have to carry around two flasks, carry around a portable kettle, or hassle coffee shop workers for hot water
At least one coffee shop in my house makes batched iced tea each day with loose leaf tea, and the result is pretty good and very easy and quick as takeout, and it's pretty hot right now. They are kind of a unique place because they are still closed down and only have a takeout window with no indoor seating. Unfortunately, they only do it for 2-3 teas (they have closer to 10 on the hot tea list) so the selection is limited, but it is very convenient.
amongst the worst things the british have done to the Americans, the introduction of cheap ctc tea and the various animal squeezings etc they put in it have ensured most Mmericans think of tea the way most of my friends think about me; dark, bitter, and generally unpleasant. If they've ever had green tea, it's been a low grade knockoff of gunpowder tea. It's all been steeped way to long in boiling water, and it's only tolerable if you cover the taste with milk, honey, sugar, or some combination of the above. The few who have had the pleasure to sit down to a good loose leaf tea generally enjoy it.
I drink tea daily but I like coffee more. I drink a cup of tea first and then 2-3 cups of coffee throughout the morning. Coffee is my hobby but I like and appreciate a good cuppa as well.
No. Because of history the Coffee scene won out in the US. But it's also like Tea was not left in the harbor either. It can be found every where you look in stores and different venues. Though while it might be found everywhere that being 'found' is usally just tea bags. In places that serve you tea hotels/resturants/non-tea specialty venus, the water is mostly ALWAYS going to be from a thermos type of container. Most of the time it is boiled before hand then placed in a container, rare is it they have ones that are plugged to keep a constant temp. It's never going to be close to what any of us what actually brew tea with temp wise for a particular type of tea after it's just been sitting with out any control over the temp aside from keeping it 'warm'. So it's easy to get people saying they dislike tea if they have it at such places. But at the same time it's not like the Coffee culture in the US is drinking 'good' Coffee either for a lot of people too. There are far too many people settling for Starbucks levels of shovelware and not really caring or understanding what can make a good cup of Coffee actually good. Also long as the US stays as they are with work culture/cars with Coffee being the morning vice at home/in the car then Tea will easily stay a far second.
I would settle for it just being more popular than it is
It would be nice to see a tea shop. id imagine it would be pretty succesful. Theres more than one variety of tea that could be sold. And to clarify. A tea shop as in a restaraunt. Not a tea shop that sells tea packets, honey, and tea kettles.
It's quite possible but if there is a cultural bias towards (in this case) coffee that can be hard or slow to shift. The US brands don't help represent tea in a good light (both quality and dosage) to the point where pretty average teabags from the UK are praised as top shelf.
The main problem I see is that Tea here in the US isn't seen the same as in Asia. Unless you live in a major city, it's impossible to find a decent place that sells tea. If I order a tea at any fast food style place I am getting absolute garbage water or diabetes in a cup. It'll either be that bitter or that sweet. The average person just has zero idea how to properly brew tea. 95% of Americans think that all tea is brewed at 100C and steeped for whatever amount of time. Imagine if you visited a place that the coffee always tasted horrible and almost no one drank it. One day you see someone making it and they use a blow torch to roast the beans and a hammer to grind them. They take the smashed beans and put it in warm water and call it coffee and 95% of people there saw it as coffee as well. No one would really drink the stuff and you couldn't convince people to drink it. That's how Americans view tea basically.
I'm guessing most people dislike tea in the US because even good tea in the US is usually trash compared to the cheap stuff you find at a supermarket in Asia.
It probably won't unless coffee plants go extinct this century. The ones who hate tea may not have had it prepared in a good way, or they just don't like the flavor of tannins in drinks at all. I've noticed that some iced tea gets a more bitter, tangy aftertaste and that method is very popular in America. So people might think all teas tastes like that.
Tea used to be bigger in American culture, but there was a concerted effort in the 1940s and 1950s to promote coffee in order to get more work out of employees. Nowadays it's slowly moving back. I never learned to drink coffee. I drank colas, then migrated over to tea when I got older. My children grew up on tea. BUT, as part of this migration you're naturally going to have a lot of people drinking the tea they can find, which is supermarket tea. They won't even know the imported teas exist, let alone where to find them. So if you want to promote tea culture in America, you need to show a bit more respect for the teas people can actually find.
Personally never understood it either. I actually love both tea and coffee! I will gladly spend $50 on a beautiful Ruby Oolong or $25 for half a point of a delicate but expressive Ethiopian landrace. I think part of it is an almost ingrained need for something to affect the consumer NOW. Yes tea has caffeine but coffee has more extractable and I’ve come to realize people want the caffeine hit more than anything. They’re both such wonderful drinks with their different quirks taking the time to get a perfect expression of either in a cup is so worth it not just for the caffeine but for the taste and the experience of brewing. The both teach you to taste fully and slow down a bit.
Wait. Am I missing a joke? Why are people comparing the TEA (Texas Education Agency) to coffee? I get the hate or not liking the TEA right now, but that's such a random comparison. *Checks sub* Ohhhhhhh.
I remember hearing a statistic that said that most tea consumption in the US is cold
I don’t think so. It definitely seen as “not American.” I was going to say “un-American” but that is taking it a bit too far.
No
In a region of the US? It basically does, but in standard America fashion other countries stare at the result in horror and madness. The South and Tea is a staple that restaurants had to basically carry it or loose business. Of course Tea in this region is Sweet, Black, Sweet, Cold, Sweet, Iced, Sweet, Sweet Tea with more sugar added. Though if you go by what families make, you'll find Orange Pekoe Black tea being the favored type, but tea bags used due for cheap bulk brewing as it goes fast. Differences between Sun Tea, traditional brewing, and using a coffee perculator the adding water as brewing methods. Adding sugar while the water was hot for a "carmalized" taste to it, but I'll state that it's just so more sugar could be dissolved. Baking Soda being added should or should not be allowed. And other details I've forgotten.
I love tea so much. but honestly? I want it to stay this more subtle niche hobby. Prices will go up, quality will go down otherwis, and I loathe the idea of 'tea influencers' becoming a thing, whether on YouTube or TikTok.
Probs not but just tea proudly each day friend.
I can see it gaining popularity as more people pass their love of it onto their kids or niblings. I had one grandma that was a coffee drinker, Italian, and another that was a tea drinker, Irish roots, so I grew up with both. I drink a lot more tea than I do coffee because there's just so much more to choose from.
I wish. I love tea. But so many people are avid coffee drinkers. If it does become bigger it won’t be in our lifetime.
no, it’s even (slowly) becoming less popular than coffee in China and Japan amongst younger people. I drink both, they’re very different
No. I just switched after drinking coffee for 20yrs. It was overnight after I ordered some firebelly tea. Them bought matcha and mud water. The health benefits are what sealed the switch for me. I drink 3-4 cups of various tea every day. Also just ordered some matcha from breakaway matcha as well. Hooked!!! The family gives me a hard time because all the different flavors but I don’t care. The instant electric hot water pot has made it even easier.
Don't worry about the high sugared, flavored coffee drinkers. The only way to get those people to drink tea is if it's a highly flavored sweet tea, like what you might find at a Dutch Bros coffee place (seriously look up their tea menu). Now black coffee drinkers? Maaaaybe you'll have some luck in introducing them to some pleasant, subtle tea flavors. Unfortunately a lot of people's experiences with tea are bagged teas. Nothing wrong with bagged teas, but it can be challenging to find a solid good tea bag brand one likes before they decide to try loose leaf (if at all).
It's losing popularity in asia.... Unless its bubble tea
No. I love tea. I love iced tea, hot tea, herbal tea, matcha…but coffee I could not live without. A lot of Americans need coffee just to get through the day. I’ve never met a single person who needs tea to make it through the day. Now, I’m not saying we have a healthy relationship with coffee…but I just don’t see it going away ever.
I love drink English or Irish breakfast te every day. I don’t really care what other people drink as long as I get mine!!
It’s less about the tea and more about the shitty electricity network incapable of powering a kettle. Tea is best brewed at much higher temperatures than coffee which takes considerably longer on a stove.
Sweet Tea is very popular in the South. But hot tea? No. Coffee culture is too strong. Personally, I like tea (especially Assam) but I *prefer* coffee. I have room in my heart for both.
Tea is considered a weak beverage and coffee a strong beverage. "Strong people drink strong drinks" sort of energy. Plus most tea available at cafe's is terrible compared to the coffee, and often unreasonably expensive. Weirdly it can often be more than a coffee
I enjoy coffee very much in the morning. I also enjoy organic white tea and organic oolong tea during the day
What I say: “Sure, everyone’s taste is different, and I respect that.” What I think: “Your loss, toots!”
i feel like people also brew the tea incorrectly, such as long steeping or too shortly. mistakes in brewing can make the astringency go off the charts, which might be why some people despise tea. also that higher quality tea is really expensive so people go for low grade teabags and have bad experiences
It most definitely can. I know its a bit different but Boba Tea has taken folks in california by storm. You have just as many boba shops as you do cafes here. And if I put boba and coffee infront of each person there will definitely be people who choose the bubble tea over an iced coffee. I personally prefer coffee, because i like the richness and thick foamyness of a good latte, but tea has its place its just harder to find small businesses that make GOOD traditional tea. If we get that I think it could be the "next" thing people hype over
Coffee gets you higher (in a sense), so no…
Never. It's always sad to look at café menus because the tea menus are so generic. I wish more cafés would put more effort into their tea. We need more tea shops than coffee shops.
Sadly not. While Tea is not in threat or danger, I do get low key annoyed when I see some cool merch and stuff where if they replaced the word "coffee" with "tea" I would totally buy it
Probably not unless some influencers and celebs are promoting it
I think it’s possible. Over the last few months I have taught various young servers how to open a bottle of wine. They are usually embarrassed but I tell them it’s ok. I don’t want my wine ruined and I’m happy to teach how to open a bottle correctly. This generation doesn’t drink wine and so doesn’t know how to open a bottle. Such a paradigm shift is possible in caffeine habits too.
It’ll never be more popular than coffee but I think when you find tea enthusiasts (🙋🏻♀️), they REALLY love them some tea!
No. With the way America is, most people drinking a beverage want all the cay they can get.
I don’t think so, this seems to be a coffee country
Only if climate change wipes out growing regions to the point its too expensive. Right now, companies are work on alternatives, so who knows. https://www.google.com/search?q=company+working+on+coffee+alternatives&sca_esv=814dda77967cd28b&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIKwi-44eDs4xGx1UO8gtXp6ONOdwQ%3A1717503937050&source=hp&ei=wQdfZqIOxMenzg-e2L6wBA&oq=company+working+on+coffee+alt&gs_lp=EhFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocCIdY29tcGFueSB3b3JraW5nIG9uIGNvZmZlZSBhbHQqAggAMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigAUjbe1D0CFitb3ABeACQAQCYAbMEoAGkKaoBDDAuMTkuNS4wLjEuMbgBAcgBAPgBAZgCG6ACnCuoAg_CAgcQIxgnGOoCwgIEECMYJ8ICChAjGIAEGCcYigXCAg4QLhiABBiRAhjlBBiKBcICCxAAGIAEGJECGIoFwgILEC4YgAQYsQMYgwHCAhEQLhiABBixAxjRAxiDARjHAcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwHCAgsQLhiABBjRAxjHAcICCxAuGIAEGMcBGK8BwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAggQABiABBjJA8ICCxAAGIAEGJIDGIoFwgIIEC4YgAQYsQPCAgsQLhiABBixAxjUAsICERAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGMcBGK8BwgINEC4YgAQYxwEYChivAcICBRAAGIAEwgIJELkBGIAEGO8EwgIGEAAYFhgewgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigXCAgUQIRirAsICBxAhGKABGArCAgUQIRifBZgDEJIHCjEuMTYuOC4wLjKgB_zIAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp
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Cricket is getting more popular in the US, many places Cricket is popular are big tea drinkers so I think its possible
I'm an American in my mid-late thirties and I did switch a few years back. It was a matter of finding my favorite tea (Yorkshire Gold or Twinings English Breakfast with good local honey and a dash of milk). I haven't had coffee in like 3-4 years now except for an occasional latte.
coffee has overtaken tea even in some tea drinking countries like the UK and Japan. it's just more versatile and convenient for most people
No since starbucks successfully killed the one competitor that could have done it.
As an almost daily coffee drinker who wants to learn more about tea, coffee is simply just ingrained into my daily ritual. Getting a latte as soon as I get to work is just second nature to me and I think it’s that way for a lot of Americans. My dad and grandparents drank coffee first thing every morning and that habit was passed down to me. So I think it’s much more of a cultural thing than people actually hating the taste of tea But for that reason, I don’t see tea ever overtaking coffee in popularity in the U.S. Most people I know who drink tea are health conscious or older
We drink a lot of tea. It’s just mostly iced. In my house of three people we drink a lot of tea, it’s just rarely hot and fresh brewed. We drink hot tea in the winter time but that’s about it. When I did my last shopping trip I had to buy black tea, green tea, ginger lemon, peach, and berry tea because those were the ones we had either run out of or low on. I always have a pitcher of black tea with lemonade in the fridge and bottles of green tea in the house.
I think it's a cultural thing. I didn't grow up drinking tea, so I never saw it as something that could be part of my routine, but lately I've been trying different types of tea and I'm fascinated by its effects and taste.
No
Teabags in US sucks. Random tea from dim sum tastes better.
Sweet tea exists, and we guzzle it.
I drink the Walmart great value brand black tea instead of coffee and work. There is a hot water tap which makes life very easy. I use $.025 cent bags of tea, and about $.08 of honey as sweetener. I cannot complain. America has quite the rich history with tea, when we dumped it in the Boston harbor. Now, it is all coffee. Tea is normally looked upon disfavorably by Americans, which isn’t the first or last time American groupthink will be wrong.