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Food · The morning question · Take No. 036

Tea or coffee?

The world's most popular drink after water, against the one that actually gets people out of bed. Half the planet picks one, half picks the other, and both think they're the civilised side.

The case for

Coffee

Roasted, ground, brewed, strong

  • ~95 mgOf caffeine in a cup, roughly twice a cup of tea. It does the job in one.
  • 2BCups a day worldwide, give or take. The fuel the modern working day actually runs on.
  • RitualEspresso, pour-over, the café on the corner. Coffee built a whole culture of places to be.
vs
The case for

Tea

Leaves, hot water, patience

  • No. 2Most-consumed drink on earth after water. More people drink tea than coffee, by a wide margin.
  • 5,000Years of history. Coffee is a teenager by comparison.
  • GentleLess caffeine, no crash, and a ceremony in half the cultures that drink it.

Cast your take

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The verdict

It's Coffee. Tea is the nicer drink; coffee is the better one.

Tea has numbers, history and grace, and a good cup of tea is a better afternoon than a bad cup of coffee. On a sick day, tea wins outright.

But asked which drink is better at being a drink, coffee has more flavour, more variety, more kick and a bigger culture around it. It's the one people miss when it's gone. Coffee, with tea at four o'clock.

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