Not That I Hate Coffee, But That I Love Tea. Review on Tea Vs. Coffee

I Declare: The first time ever I declared my soft corner for Tea over Coffee was when long ago my English teacher asked me to use ‘Prefer – to’ in a sentence. True to my upbringing I formed the sentence I prefer Tea to Coffee. I have been drinking Tea as long as I can remember. It would not be an exaggeration if I say, I haven’t had as many cups of coffee as my chromosome count (46), in little more than a quarter of century!

I was raised in an era & atmosphere where children didn’t have to have horlicks, bournvita, boost etc, to come first in class ;-). Thank God our drink was tea: now we don’t have to declare ‘I am a complain boy’, or ‘boost is the secret of my energy’ ;-). As long as I can recall our mornings began with tea & tea made a second appearance of the day after class, in the evening, as a anabolic steroid for the ensuing sports time. Now tea has become such a part of our diet n routine that I suspect it has even entered our genes ;-)

Something On Tea: for those who don’t know Tea is made of leaves of tea plant. I once went to a Tea estate cum factory where I saw all behind the scenes of tea making. If you are the one who reads newspaper regularly you might have read this once in 15 days. It seems the universities in the west now have nothing to do, so they keep researching on things like tea, coffee, sx etc, and their correlation, carcinogenic effects etc. if today you read tea causes cancer, after 15 days you will see another university claiming the reverse, don’t believe all this just enjoy your cup of tea ;-)

I read somewhere that in Japan tea is the national drink, and they get offended if u visit them and not have tea with them. Now I want to go to japan, since I cant spend so much to just go there n have tea, I have tea, right here. Also I am of the opinion that tea is a human right ;-), there have been rare occasions when the sun went down in the Arabian sea at Mangalore, without me having my 2 cups of tea.

Why Drink Tea: After prayer Tea is the next best thing to begin the day with. It heats you up from inside so that you can go about the early morning chores quickly. Just as there are people who cant squat or sit in a loo without a cigarette there are people who cant do the same without having a cup of tea ;-). If only they can spare time they will realize it’s a mental thing.

Tea provides warmth in times of cold. Imagine the weather is cloudy, the air is windy wudnt you wish you had some company for tea? In summer though you cant have as many cups of tea, its good to have at least 2-3 in regular intervals to keep yourselves active. Tea breaks are not only time for you to have tea, its also a way to have a mini break from work. You see the in the name of tea you get a welcome break from work.

Tea helps in slimming. ;-) Yes, in a way its true. Its been observed that if you have more tea, you feel less hungry, which means you eat less, which means you lose weight, which means you can say goodbye to all those slimming clinics ;-) Tea helps in fighting sleep, that’s why you see students burning midnight oil have lots.

Do u know many famous thinkers, writers, philosophers owe their success to Tea, since they are so many I cant tell u their names. For a quick example let me just to tell u, you are reading one such person now ;-)

Cons for Tea: many people say that drinking a lot of tea leads to increased levels of piththa in the body. Excessive tea consumption can lead to lack of apetite as the person would always feel full after a cup of tea. There are also people who say tea is gastric over a period of time.

Types Of Tea: I still prefer the Mom-Made desi tea without all the frills. And then you see desi tea with some addons like adrak, pepper etc. At the office you get the machine made tea or the Dip-tea which all look artificial & on any day are an apology of a tea. I heard there are variety of tea for the beauty & health conscious like herbal tea, decaffeinated tea, green tea etc. I am assuming green tea must be environment friendly? ;-). By the way once in a while the kattan or black tea decoction will remind you the importance of being humble & not forgetting ones roots ;-) also I feel its better when made with sugar & milk rather than sugar tablets or milk powder.

Why I don’t Prefer Coffee: this is often my question also, especially since I come from a district whose one of the claims to fames is being ‘The district with highest coffee produce in India’.!! I like the smell of raw coffee powder, but the coffee flower has a unpleasant smell. The processing of coffee fruits to extract its seeds is one stenchy affair. Though I don’t remind myself of these when I am offered a cup of coffee, I still have a dislike for coffee?

if some host asks me ‘kya loge coffee or chai’, I wud gladly say chai without even thinking. if they don’t ask and come with the default coffee, not to offend them I will let the coffee go full cold, and then gulp it once. Had it been a tea, I wud have savored it over 10-15 minutes. I guess my dis-preferance towards coffee is only bcos since childhood I have having tea. I reckon coffee must have its own pros n cons like my dear tea. The few times I had coffee I found it on the bitter side. Recently I was to meet someone & for convenience he asked me to meet him at a café coffee day. I then didn’t know he had a coffee in mind, otherwise I would have asked for a different location. ;-) we met, proceeded to the café, my worst fears came true when he said we will talk over a cup of coffee. Since I didn’t want to have a say, he chose something called cappuccino. The waiter brings a huge ( it looked like a bucket to me) cup of what looks like a light brown concoction. I took a sip, my tongue didn’t like it. So I waited till it went cold & then I took the cup, closed my eyes & drank whole of it in one gulp, just as a drunkard wud lift his bottle. ;-)

Last Word: as far as I can see into future I think my loyalties remain with tea, unless I do a politican by switching over to a coffee party from a tea party ;-). I recall few lines I read long ago,

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? - how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. - Sydney Smith

Have you ever thought what wud u drink in the morning if you were born in the history before Tea was invented? Tea therefore is one more reason to thank God for ;-)

I am off to my tea break, enjoy your cup of tea! ( or coffee, as the case may be )