Serious question for Americans.
Why don't you guys drink as much teas as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the likes?
Is it a cultural thing? Is it because tea is a very 'British' thing and that was something America tried to move away from in early independence? Is it a cost factor?
We drink tea a lot but most of the time we're too busy slaving away to drink any more
Sweet iced tea is a thing, if you brits even consider it tea.
>>7129837
It's a cultural thing. Tea just isn't as popular in the US as it is in other countries.
People here still drink plenty of tea, but the usual alternative here is coffee.
I think it has to do something with the Revolutionary War and Britain controlling the tea trade at the time.
Most of the US is a lot hotter than the UK, so hot drink consumption for the sake of warming up isn't as popular.
>>7129837
becuase coffee kicks tea in the ass and takes it's lunch money and we are American goddamnit we're all about the get up and go and a cup of tea might perk you up but a cup of coffee GETS YOU REEEEEAAAAAAADDDDDYYYYYY TO RUUUUUUUUUUMBBBBBLLEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
>>7129849
Yeah, I'm an Australian living in Georgia. Everyone here drinks a lot of ice tea but I've always seen that as very different. It just occurred to me how different the tea culture is here whilst in a shop called 'Teavana' I believe.
It's just so different. Back home, I'd go to someone's house and I'd be offered a cup of tea and vice versa.
>>7129864
Not a Yuropoor ;^ )
I would say it's cultural along with that the continental US isn't well suited to growing tea plants. Herbal teas are more popular than true teas.
>>7129837
They used to, to the point they destroyed tea by dressing up like indians and throwing crates of it into the bay as a form of protest. That is how much they used to like it. But then the war of colonial aggression started, which involved blockades so they started moving to the domestically produced coffee.
Sit around drinking tea all day if you want, I like to work.
>>7129877
I dont think many of the teas you get in Australia are from Australia. I know a couple are indian
>>7129880
There's more to life than work. Now have a nice cuppa.
>>7129877
Tea mainly comes from China, India, Japan, and Vietnam. Tea is extremely popular in Russia, and of course they don't grow it there.
>>7129884
Most better known teas are from India, China, Japan, and other areas in Southeast Asia. The US is about as far away as you can get from tea cultivators.
Tea is great, but I like coffee better
>>7129837
I drink a lot of tea, but I think it was also culturally passed down by my european grandparents. We also live in a widely asian community, so our asian family friends give us herbal tea remedies when we're sick and stuff.
My grandparents are from the netherlands, they prefer coffee to tea. But I grew up (since about age 12) having coffee, bread and cheese for breakfast and afternoon snacks, and coffee after dinner.
>>7129934
>herbal tea remedies when we're sick
I have a cold. What do?
>>7129905
>Aus is only second to the UK and NZ in tea consumption
That appears to be false.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consumption_per_capita
They drink less than 1/5 as much tea. As a former colony they inherited British tea culture, but the temperature has push it away.
Living in the US, I can tell you that most people here drink coffee because they need that caffeine jolt. We're overworked to the bone, so we need something that'll keep us going, even though we feel like dying.
I still highly dislike coffee because of the taste, though.
>>7129943
They gave us some horrible tasting kind of crystallized ginger tea sold in the asian markets around us.
It clears up a sore throat and general cold symptoms pretty well. It just tastes like butthole.
>>7129943
Ginger, lemon and honey. Niggah
>>7129949
>Mauritania
Had never even heard of that country before.
>>7129995
>Slavery in Mauritania has been called a major human rights issue, with roughly 4% (155,600 people
Damn
>>7129878
>colonial aggression
Angry britkek detected
>>7130005
Negros + Islam = barbarity
>>7129995
>never heard of mauritania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
I'm not exactly Foreign Service material, but at least I'm not this bad.
>>7130005
>http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/the-president-of-mauritania-forced-a-soccer-game-to-end-with-a-shootout-because-he-was-bored
They have a wise President, at least.
>>7130025
I literally went into this article thinking they meant guns.
>>7130025
Fuck. I was really hoping this was an actual shootout, with guns. The clickbait promised DPRK-tier insanity, but it was just Turkmenistan-tier instead.
We just don't drink warm drinks in general. We like early morning coffee because caffeine, but that's about it. Take it with a grain of salt though, I live in Florida
I want to try Bovril
>>7129837
>Why don't you guys drink as much teas as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the likes?
First, because you guys are a bunch of faggots.
Second, we buy a lot of cocaine from Columbia, and they throw coffee in for free, so...
I'm the rare 'murrican who drinks tea, usually 2 6-cup pots of strong black tea at home everyday, sometimes more. But I have to drink coffee or espresso if I'm at work or elsewhere, because decent tea is practically unknown here - if you order tea in a coffee shop or restaurant, you'll pay $3 for a stale teabag and a mug of lukewarm water.
The US is just a coffee nation, and the tea available here is generally so terrible that nobody would switch unless they've previously taken the trouble to seek out and try high quality tea (high grade single-estate Assam teas are better than ANY kind of coffee, and this coming from someone who's enjoy legit Blue Mountain and Kona coffee) to see what all the fuss is about.
>>7130038
>We just don't drink warm drinks in general
Must be a Florida thing, go to nearly any city in the US and there's a coffee shop on every block.
Tea belongs in the sea
t.- American
>>7130104
I don't disagree, but tea reminds me of women I have loved and lost, so throwing it in the sea is like throwing out that thong that she left behind, that I sometimes sniff, and then guiltily put away.
What is it with women and tea, anyway? Isn't coffee good enough for you, you cunts?
>>7130106
Only degenerates drink tea
>>7130100
>decent tea is practically unknown here
Bitch, please.
Lipton is as good as anybody needs. Fuck off with your pretentious bullshit.
>>7130115
I go through a 100 count box of this in about a month.
I still buy fancy loose leaf shit occasionally but when I'm mass consuming something that' perfectly fine.
I tried to like hot tea, but at the end of the day it's just weakly flavored bog water.
You can't even add sugar or cream to it without completely overpowering the weak flavor.
I just like coffee better.
The flavor is much more interesting and it's much more versatile.
By the way, I'm not counting things like iced tea, thai tea, taro bubble tea, and those other sugary drinks because they're more sugar than tea.
Influence of continentals and a harsher culture that is less relaxed. As much as Americans try to pass it off as "a British thing" truth is that it just isn't as popular as coffee.
Tea is seen by some people as a fancy drink while coffee is a working class drink.
>>7130181
it really depends on who you ask
most young people's concept of coffee is the coffee flavored sugary caloriebomb known as a fellapuchino
Tea as seen as feminine, OP.
>>7130181
I think it's more that coffee is something you drink while you work, and tea is something that women drink while they are curled up on the couch with a kitty cat and a book. Coffee is fuel, tea is an indulgence.
>>7130221
So is coffee if you make a big fuss about how it's brewed and you drink anything more elaborate than preground coffee made in a mr. coffee machine.
>>7130184
i worked at a starbucks near a high school
we got maybe one group of teenagers a day who ordered frappucinos
Simply put the average American's palate isn't sophisticated enough for tea. Coffee is much more brash tasting, but tea requires a more subtle appreciation. Most Americans think that tea basically tastes like water.
So I'm visiting America right now and this seems a good thread to ask:
Why is coffee always served blazing, lava hot? If I take a sip as soon as its given to me, it makes my mouth recoil back. I have to wait several minutes for it to cool down enough.
What is the purpose?
>>7129837
But I do
Usually a cup a day
>>7130263
most people believe coffee has to be brewed near boiling temp, and it's served that way
you're supposed to add refrigerated cream to cool it down
>>7130263
To please the greatest amount of people. If someone likes their drink really hot, they get it hot. If you want your drink cooler, you just wait. Eventually everybody gets exactly what they want.
This is also why summer is objectively the worst month.
I'm pretty sure I've read that the actual historical reasoning is that England controlled most of the tea trade shortly after America gained independence, and coffee could be sourced from the Americas with a minimum of British interference.
>>7130263
if you get it at a gas station/mcdonalds its meant to be consumed on the go, as youre going to work or whatever. theres usually ice/milk/cream nearby
>>7129837
I'm intimidated by it because there's apparently no "right" way to do it, unlike coffee, which any old method can be used.
i pour boiling water over my teabag and let it sit for 4~ minutes and it has to cool for another 10 before it won't scald me.
tea culture involves frequent breaks
coffee culture involves a cup or two before (and maybe after) a solid day of work
Johnny Foreigner here. Most American teas and coffees are pretty terrible. Probably a side affect of everyone wanting cheap shit and Starbucks controlling the market.
You'll find much better coffee and tea in Europe and most of the world away from the Americas.
>>7129837
WWII. seriously. we used to drink a bunch of tea and a lot of varieties but we got ours from china and when japan blockaded them we stopped drinking it. when the war was over people didn't go back to it.
however that's starting to turn around and true to the previous generations, americans are liking a wide variety. we don't just want indian black like the rest of the anglosphere, we want oolong and lapsang souchong and white and such.
sweet tea has always been popular in the south but prior to WWII green was as popular as black for the cool beverage. that is making a return too
>>7129874
Epic
>>7130263
>What is the purpose?
To keep whiny pussies, like you, from bitching about the coffee not being hot enough.
What do you yanks have with tea? In aus we usually have a bikkie or a scone.
British only drink tea that is so milky it doesn't even taste of tea anymore. Indians, Australia etc are the same.
Americans only drink tea because they read it was cool somewhere.
>>7130115
You do know that there many types of tea other than the one black and one green you can get from Lipton, right? And I'm not talking about flavored bullshit from Teavana. It's even cheaper to buy loose leaf for shitty tea like that, it's only expensive if you get good stuff.
>>7129837
My parents are from Ireland moved to NY in 1976, I've never liked tea.
The Irish drink far more tea than the English, ever since childhood I've always hated it. They have a picture of me somewhere in their house with me cringing at the taste of tea as a baby and again as an adult when they tricked me into drinking "Tiffin" a German tea liqueur.
I love the taste of coffee. It's an integral part of my morning routine.
>>7131327
>Tiffin
Krautfag here never heard of this until now.
>>7131232
or it was 'healthy'
the only people I know who drink tea is because of 'health benefits'
>>7131232
Have you drank masala chai? You know that things don't need to just have one flavour and other complimentary flavours can bring out the main flavour too right? A masala chai has ginger, black pepper, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, milk, sugar and tea. To compare it to chinese or japanese tea leaves in water is like comparing neat whiskey to an old fashioned. One is not better than the other, they are two completely disparate experiences and renouncing either shows that you either have an unrefined palate or are beholden to image.
>>7129837
Tea was actually more popular several generations ago in the U.S. it doesn't have to do with the revolution or any of that. It's a more recent change.
I think people have trouble getting to like tea today because the most common tea you come across (outside of sweet iced tea in the south or decent southern restaurants or chai in Indian restaurants) is absolutely fucking awful. I've been to weddings where the tea option was those terrible Lipton tea bags. It's something people put out because they want something in case someone hates coffee, not because they want to get anything good.
I buy good tea, and so do a couple of my friends, but decent tea is pricey and only available at specialty shops or small independent coffee shops. Even in my life time the quality of the stuff you get in the grocery store has decreased drastically. (I know the best tea isn't in the grocery store, but PG Tips is miles better than Lipton.) I think most people are only exposed to the worst possible tea here and never try anything good.
Also, everyone oversteeps their tea and then has it without milk, which can't be doing it any favors as a beverage. People want to treat black teas the same as they treat herbal teas.
>>7130252
But they do insist on putting obscene amounts of flavored sugar syrups in everything.
I actually confused a (newish) employee once because I ordered a latte. Not a Vanilla Latte or a Carmel Latte, just a regular one. She had to ask the other girl what kind of syrup you used for a regular latte.
>>7131359
Anon just order tea online, it's what I do. Chain tea stores and coffee shops that sell good tea tend to be wildly expensive for the same level of quality.
>>7130263
Despite the people coming up with reasons and insulting you about this, I've found myself having this same conversation with lots of other Americans after getting too-hot coffee late at night. It's something only gas stations and fast food places do, really, and it's fucking obnoxious UNLESS you're going to be driving for a long time before drinking it. Which it doesn't seem like many people do.
My pet theory is that it's to cover up how long it's been sitting there. Anyway, I don't know any actual people who like it that hot. It's a business decision, not a cuisine decision.
>>7130306
>i pour boiling water over my teabag and let it sit for 4~ minutes and it has to cool for another 10 before it won't scald me.
What the fuck kind of mug/cup are you using that takes 10 minutes to cool down? My tea is closer to room temp by that point. (Which is a downside of teabags.)
>>7131225
Nothing. Tea doesn't go with donuts, the scones served in most American coffee shops are rock-hard monstrosities more suited to use as a building material than a food, and I don't know what a bikkie is, but I'm pretty sure we don't have them.
I wonder if the lack of cookies and whatnot that go well with tea contributes to our lack of tea-drinking?
>>7131232
if you brew the tea strong enough, it can stand up to milk. Better tea/more leaves/slightly longer steep times are needed.
>>7131373
I actually found a crazy old hippie near me who runs a store importing and selling tea. It's not much more expensive than getting it online, but
a) the quality is noticeably better
b) In the store I can smell all the teas and figure out what they probably taste like. Which is nice for trying new teas. Plus the guy is pretty knowledgeable and good at describing what they taste like and the internet seems clueless about teas.
>>7131399
>) In the store I can smell all the teas and figure out what they probably taste like. Which is nice for trying new teas
This is why I don't understand ordering tea online. It's so much nicer when you get to inspect the product before you buy.
>>7131421
>mfw perfumers and tea shops use coffee beans to clear the palate of fragrances
Parasitic relationship, friend-o.
>>7131425
>tea shops use coffee beans to clear the palate of fragrances
I have never seen this. Where do they do this? Most tea shops I've been to smell like... tea.
>>7129837
Americans drink a lot of tea, but I think it depends on your upbringing. I was raised in a half southern/half german heritage family, and we drank coffee in the mornings, and iced tea or hot tea the rest of the day, except after dinner. Now, as an adult, I drink tea exclusively; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hot tea mainly, iced tea only with meals sometimes. In very rare cases, I'll have a cup of coffee after dinner if we're out somewhere.
>>7129837
I feel that most Americans drink tea/coffee for the caffeine, rather than flavour. If this is the case, it only makes sense that coffee would be far more popular.
We got uppity and switched to coffee when the British tried to tax us without representation (among other indignities) and then we had a war and even after we won we didn't want to fund the British East India company by buying tea. Time healed that wound, but the habit of drinking far less tea stuck.
Sweet tea is an abomination
Fuck anyone who drinks it
Inbred hicks
>>7131431
Coffee has a stronger aroma than tea.
>>7131431
It's not that the entire shop smells of coffee beans, they're in a dish, or bowl that you smell between different teas or perfumes.
>>7131995
I know it has a stronger smell, but I mean I've never seen a tea shop that does this. Usually just not sticking my nose in tea for a minute does the trick, because, as you say, tea doesn't have as strong a scent.
>>7131997
Oh, neat!
>>7131998
Coffee instantly cleanses your sinus of other aromas. Maybe you have more patience than I do. I've never spent more than 5 minutes in a shop like that, usually I just go in knowing what I want.
I have pumpkin-spice tea with a bit of cream and honey every morning at work. And I'm 'murgan as can be.
>>7132001
I definitely have more patience then. It's usually a good half hour for me.
I usually know some bit of what I want, like I'm looking for a more malty tea or something smoky or flowery or whatever, based on what I'm out of, but I shop around within that category quite a bit.
Who /Yarkshur/ here?
>heat the mug first with hot water
>brew for at least 5 mins, preferably 7
>dash of whole milk
DAT BUZZ
![Yorkshire-Tea-releases-tea-bag-designed-for-busy-caterers[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/P0b5nRg.jpg "Yorkshire-Tea-releases-tea-bag-designed-for-busy-caterers[1].jpg")
forgot pic
>>7131390
>I wonder if the lack of cookies and whatnot that go well with tea
You are just so very wrong!
>>7129892
>cuppa
Die fagget
>>7132215
I've never seen that cooking in USAmerica!
I stand by what I said. If we had better or more available tea accompaniments, we might drink more tea.
>>7132437
Cookie*
>>7130038
>>7130231
Yeah but you drink it from a mug holding a fist like your dad
>>7132327
Nah. :)
>>7132437
Do you not have like a biscuit/cracker aisle in most of your grocery stores? I always find tons of cookies there. From simple Dad's cookies, to Peek Freans fancy stuffed shit, and also imported things like McVities (hobnobs, etc.)
Murrican here, I don't "get" tea. Whenever I drink it, it hardly seems to have any flavor at all. It just tastes like dirty water to me.
>>7129874
had to stand up and salute the flag after reading this post
I have a bunch of Earl Grey sitting around to make Tea with.
How do you tea pros go about making a bitchin' cuppa Earl Grey tea? What do you add when do you add it? HOW DO YOU DO IT?
I am not much of a tea drinker but I wish to start.
pic unrelated
>>7133307
If it tastes like dirty water, that's probably a problem with the tea, not with you. Black tea actually is capable of having some body to it, and any tea has a noticeable flavor if done right.
>>7133317
Bags or loose leaf?
Anyway, I drink Earl Grey with a spoonful of white sugar and a small splash of whole milk. You want it to still be astringent, not totally sweet, but a bit of sweetness helps, and you want the color to be a sort of medium brown and opaque. If the tea turns off-white with just a bit of milk, you know you are not making the tea strong enough.
>>7131306
Nigger, I've worked on 4 continents of this rock, and have had tea from all over the damn place, and a cup of lipton is as good as any other cup of tea, unless you're a pretentious faggot.
Fuck off with your bullshit.
>>7131359
Your post reminds me of those idiotic twats that claimed tap water from a garden hose tasted like "fresh" premium bottled glacier water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFKT4jvN4OE
People in the US definitely drink more tea than here in Austria, also you can get unsweetened iced tea absolutely everywhere, which is a huge plus, having a drink option which isn't alcoholic or sodas
>>7133410
I'm sorry your taste buds are incapable of telling extremely different flavors apart. It must make cooking difficult for you. But there are people who have functioning taste buds, it isn't pretentiousness.
