In the world of old-time, caffeinated, brewed beverages, coffee has been highly influential for a long while. It’s often the default, and the first drink offered at a restaurant, bar, or cafe. We associate it with Colombia; we carry around iced coffees while doing our daily errands; we know that cappuccinos are for the morning and espressos are for after dinner, as a digestif. But let’s not be too hasty to write off its delicious, sophisticated, and nutritious cousin: gourmet loose-leaf tea, which is just as versatile, and if you ask us, even more appealing.
Prepared at home or served in an establishment, hot or cold-brewed, tea is equally comforting. It offers variety of flavor, color, and nutritional value that coffee simply cannot. It’s also more straightforward to make, and not quite as pricey (especially these days). All this begs the obvious next question—why are we so stuck on coffee?
It might be simple force of habit that keeps us on the coffee train in this neck of the woods. It’s also cultural; while Asia has been heavily tea-oriented since the days of the Silk Road, the Americas historically produced coffee locally, making it our go-to, even until today. As such, there’s a knowledge gap; in the West, aside from the English who adopted tea from India, a lot of people simply don’t know much about tea and how to enjoy it best. With its high caffeine content, coffee has a famously addictive property, keeping drinkers coming back (caffeinated teas go smooth and steady). But, without a doubt, tea is growing in popularity and expected to continue. Here’s how the two stack up—tea lovers, you may be pleasantly surprised:
It’s All in the Process (and Technique)
Just like coffee, tea’s quality is affected by all the elements, from the very beginning of the plant’s life to the time it hits the hot water. It relies on origin and terroir, harvest timing, processing methods, and leaf grading. Further, it’s enhanced by freshness (it must be kept dry and moisture-less), and of course, brewing it is somewhat precise (although, once again, tea may be more forgiving than coffee). Unlike coffee beans, it takes a very long time for tea leaves to spoil or lose their potency, as long as it’s stored properly.
Big Business
For restaurants and cafes, tea just might be the new frontier. On a dessert or beverage menu, it offers a chance to expand without complicating anything, and to reinforce positioning (for example, by offering a bevy of fancy loose-leaf teas). On the part of eatery owners, tea is quite low-lift to offer, store and prepare. On the other hand, people who tend to dine out are often searching for an alternative to coffee, and for caffeine-free options that still deliver the same comfort. Restaurants enjoy the benefits of the relatively high margins on tea, too. Sounds like a no-brainer to us.
Accompaniments
While some forms of coffee, like espresso, are traditionally consumed black and sugarless, most modern prepared coffee drinks rely on milk and frothing, fancy machines, and the addition of things like cinnamon or whipped cream as enhancements. On the flip side, tea is most often drunk solo, especially when not black or consumed in the morning. English breakfast and masala chai are famously consumed with milk, but for the most part, tea is prepared simply with water and leaves, and served as such, with an optional sweetener, or perhaps additions like fresh mint. This gives tea a slight edge when it comes to ease of preparation—one fewer element to worry about.
Piquing Curiosity
Customers in general are becoming more tea-curious around the world, even in places where it’s more of an alternative choice. Dedicated tea cafes have popped up in the coolest and most tourist-heavy locales. Supermarkets carry plenty of bottled options, and restaurants are expanding their menus to offer more than just earl grey and chamomile (and in many cases, luxury teas are offered and presented in beautiful tea kettles, alongside dessert). Heavenly Tea Leaves is an example of a company that delivers on various special, high-quality, and flavorful teas that are as beautiful as they are tasty (Hot tip: we even sell the teaware to accompany your brew.).
It seems there are more than a few cases to be made for tea over coffee as the new It-drink, as a favored menu item at restaurants and cafes, as a delicious alternative, and as a straightforward and fuss-free offering, sans the addictive properties. We knew we were onto something!
