This post was inspired by the Wellness Teas presentation I attended at the 2015 Toronto Tea Festival the first weekend of February. The speaker, Shabnam Weber, is the owner of The Tea Emporium and the author of the Tea Sommelier program being taught at colleges across Canada.
One of the statements that Shabnam expressed has been sticking with me ever since. She compared tea drinkers to coffee drinkers. The one difference she outlined was that tea drinkers drink tea as an emotional reaction. When we pick out our beverage of choice for a moment of in the day we should be more aware of why it is being made. Why did you choose coffee over tea this time around?
To put it simply, a tea is a want when a coffee is a need. I don’t relate to this because I do not drink coffee but it is safe to say that many others can. When you wake up in the morning or even just feel a loss of energy throughout the day you tend to reach for a cup of coffee. Usually your reaction is “I need a cup of coffee!” Coffee is marketed to consumers as an energy booster. A best friend to be there for you when you need a pick me up. The caffeine in coffee is much stronger than the caffeine in some teas and that is an obvious reason for your need. Tea is different in that sense. When I, and I’m sure others, reach for a cup of tea (or a pot) the reaction is “I want a cup of tea!” I want tea because I enjoy it. Tea is about comfort and soothing the soul. Coffee is about the high. Tea is about the journey. It’s about every step of the process and not just the final product. It’s something that, for the most part, I do not need to change anything about it to like it. One of the main reasons I don’t drink coffee is because I know I would need to add copious amounts of sugar and milk to make it bearable and that certainly isn’t the healthiest.
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| Wellness Tea Presentation at the 2015 Toronto Tea Festival |
That leads me to health benefits. While coffee is marketed as a wake up beverage, tea is almost always trying to be sold as a cure anything beverage. Shabnam mentioned an article from 2006 that immediately grabbed her attention because of the headline that read “Tea ‘healthier’ drink than water”. Of course, water has always been known as a healthy beverage for hydration but the article chats more about why tea can be better. The extra health benefits it has is the reason for this belief and perhaps this other: tea drinkers are known to recover faster than non-tea drinkers when sick. Even with all of this information, I still find the health benefits of tea are just an added bonus. They were never the reason I started to drink tea and they are not the reason that I continue to. In the end, Shabnam states that the only way you’ll truly enjoy the health benefits is to have tea become a lifestyle.
At the end of the day, what matters most is if you’re happy. Whether it is tea, coffee or even water, your beverage of choice is just that: your choice. If you have to make a certain type of tea your own way for you to enjoy it then do so. If you need coffee but have to add milk or sugar in order to like it then do so. Creating something so it’s your own is part of the fun and experience. Just remember to stop and enjoy what you’re drinking.
What do you love about tea or coffee? Tell me in the comments below!
It is so true that people "need" a coffee while you "want" a tea. Thanks for sharing your impressions on the Toronto Tea Festival. We loved this post
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I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed which must do
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I’ve just recently transitioned from coffee to tea, and it’s been real fun. I’m exploring this new world of aromas and flavours and there’s such a huge variety to choose from, it’s almost overwhelming at times.
I completely agree with you about ‘needing coffee’ vs. ‘wanting tea’. I still drink a strong cup of black coffee every now and then when I feel that I ‘need’ it, not so much because of the taste, but because of the boost it gives me. But I’m gradually falling in love with the new and different tea vibe. There’s just something anxious and restless about coffee as opposed to tea, that gives me a much more relaxing, pleasant, and comforting feeling. Someone recently wrote on a Reddit tea sub that “sometimes making tea is less about drinking it and more ab it keeping you company”, I tend to agree 🙂