Monday February 14, 2011 | 3 comments
When I first began writing about various kinds of teas, I mentioned my roots as a coffee drinker and wondered about their compatibility on the palate. I must admit, when my stomach allows it, I love early morning coffee’s depth and tip to the day. Some days, the prospect of its taste – its waking scent – is the sole factor that pulls me from bed.
Recently, I had the privilege of attending a live broadcast of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion from the Fitzgerald in St. Paul. One of the skits involved Jearlyn Steele playing a Baptist (and, incidentally, also a veterinary aromatherapist) who walks into a camp of cowboys dealing with a sick cow. She offers them “Comfrey tea” for their cow – an organic infusion with a shot of wheatgrass. A hilarious and telling conversation ensues, coupling the faith / hope of Baptists with organic fennel tea and the rugged edgy down-to-earth realism of cowboys with coffee. (They did join together for a rather heart-melting tune before parting ways.)
And so I am slow to admit that this past month I’ve been drinking coffee over tea. Perhaps in the dead of winter, I’m less willing to explore lighter subtleties and prefer the depth of a rich espresso. I still wonder if coffee ruins one’s ability to discern the tastes of teas. I wonder if anyone out there has found a harmonious way to split time between coffee and tea while being present to both of their depths. Most of the people I know prefer one over the other (in particular, most people I know who seriously drink tea do not drink coffee). Is this relationship curious to anyone else? Do you ever have difficulty choosing between tea and coffee? What elements influence your decision? If coffee and tea (particularly organic herbal teas) were personified, would they look like cowboys and Baptist evangelists? (I pose that last question jokingly.)
I must admit that I don’t drink coffee. Despite the fact that I LOVE the aroma, I just can’t tolerate the bitterness. Over the years, I’ve tried coffee atleast once a year, hoping that I’ll come to develope a taste for this beverage but ultimately I’ve just accepted the fact that coffee isn’t for me. I do find that curious but I’m delighted with tea. I’ve always wondered why more American’s didn’t enjoy tea. Given their acceptance of bitterness with coffee and beer, why do they shriek when their green tea is overbrewed and too bitter?
I’m primarily a tea drinker for the last couple of years, but this winter I’ve been drinking more coffee, too. I drink black tea (Ceylon or Yunnan) in the morning, but I’ve found that I don’t pay much attention to my first cup of the day. Coffee has a brash boldness and a strong jolt of caffeine, and sometimes I need it to clear a foggy head and get the day off to a productive start. But unless I’m in Italy, I wouldn’t trade my afternoon oolong fix for coffee!
Rebecca, I much prefer tea over coffee and we have great coffee here, Lavazza. For me, it seems to depend on what I might be eating. If it’s something ‘heavy’, it seems like
coffee often wins out. If it’s something lighter, tea. In general, coffee makes my mouth feel unclean and it’s awful on the breath, while tea cleanses the mouth and breath. As for taste profiles, I’ve found that Golden Yunnan is an excellent tea in place of coffee; it’s smooth, rich, deep, full-bodied. Michelle, our Lavazza coffee truly is not bitter. I think that ‘bitter’ is equated with ‘strong’ as well as ‘dark’ by the ‘drinking public’ because it has been portrayed that way by a big chain, but the lighter roasts actually have more caffeine. If you had to drink only one the rest of your life, for me–hands down–it would be tea, but I enjoy coffee now and then as well. My husband has quit drinking it (coffee) entirely and isn’t bothered nearly as much anymore by gastric reflux, as an aside.