Why is tea your beverage of choice...or is it?

43 Replies
teajoteas said

There is definitely a common thread here in all of your posts. Specifically, I am burned out on the media pushing green tea as if it is THE magic health potion above everything else. Of course, they have very little evidence to back it up. Rookie tea drinkers always ask me which tea is the healthiest. My response? The one that tastes the best to you!

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I think that the people who drink tea merely for health benefits aren’t likely to be on Steepster so I think you’re going to be getting lots of “It tastes good, that’s why!” answers. :)

That said, I drink tea because it tastes good. :D I grew up with tea in my family and I didn’t much like it as a kid because, as I learned later, they didn’t really brew it properly. My grandpa’s tea is so bitter it makes me cry. My mom is better at it, but 5 year olds prefer the sweet stuff. So I learned to like HK milky tea quite a lot (Thanks dad!). Things developed from there. :)

These days, I just love the variety of flavors you can get from tea. I love the skill of preparing tea properly, and the culture behind the different methods and teaware. I don’t think much about the health effects of tea except to worry about the way it’s supposed to decrease the amount of iron your body absorbs from food. Being vegetarian 90% of the time means that most of the iron I get is of the non-heme variety. That’s the kind that’s trickier for the body to absorb. And as a woman of child bearing age, iron is an important mineral for my health. So you see, I worry about how it can harm me than help me. But I still drink tea religiously. No health problems yet! And they never turn me away from giving blood so I’m pretty sure I’m good with the iron for now.

Go tea!

Nik select said

Wow, I never knew that. I am a bit anemic, and since returning to Steepster (and tea drinking) after a long-ish absence, I’ve been experiencing symptoms for the first time in a long time. I was attributing that to other things, but I wonder if drinking tea might also be a contributing factor… Thanks for the info!

I’ve seen articles saying not to have tea an hour before and after eating to reduce the amount of iron blocked. I’m not an expert so please get some expert insight! Stay healthy!

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I started drinking tea when I was about 18 or 19 and I got a whiff of Republic of Tea Blackberry Sage at a bookstore. I think I’ve tried every caffeinated RoT flavor there is. It took me a while to branch out. LOL Then I started looking it up on the Internet and I found Simpson & Vail and Adagio, and I found Harney & Sons at Barnes & Noble (lots of &s) and I got all excited and got into tea.

I think my first reason tea is my beverage of choice is because it has caffeine in it. Sad but true. Secondly, I only keep teas where I just love the flavor. Anything that is just mediocre to me, I swap or give away to someone who might like it more than I did. I also love the sensual aspect of tea; the warmth of it, the feeling of it going down my esophagus and into my belly. I also love to write, and making tasting notes makes me feel important. :-) I’m a big lover of variety as well, and being able to have five different flavor teas in one day is very attractive to me. Plus, uh, it tastes good.

Nik select said

“I also love to write, and making tasting notes makes me feel important.”

lol! Well, keep it up, you’ve got a knack for it. =)

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jhawkes said

I drink tea for a bunch of reasons.
It’s comforting to have on a cold day, it’s relaxing to have in the evening after a long day, and it’s like taking a little bit of home comfort with you when you’re at work.
Holding a travel mug of tea helped keep my hands busy while in the first crazy stages of quitting smoking, and I think it helped me stay smoke free as long as i have (time will tell, its only been a month)
It also helped me cut down on my coffee intake.
The health benefits are a bonus. It’s not why I drink tea. Although I find it interesting what different plants can do for different ailments. and hey, even if it’s bogus, it makes me feel good thinking that some ginger tea will help my sore belly, etc.
I’m fairly new to looseleaf, but I find my interest growing, and it’s fun!

Nik select said

Congrats on quitting smoking! One month is no small feat. It’s already been a whole month, not it’s only been a month. You’re kicking butt. =)

jhawkes said

thanks!

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Kally Tea said

We drink tea for many reasons.
We love the health benefits.
We love the taste, as well as all the variations and blends.
We love that we can drink it hot as well as cold.
We love the price.
We love the tea community and the people associated with it.
We like that you can guzzle it on a hot day or sip it on a cold one.
We love the… OK enough…

We love TEA!

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It’s my beverage of choice for when I’m not actively thirsty. Since I prefer black tea which has caffeine, I don’t use it to replace water because the caffeine can actually work to be dehydrating.
I like it because it’s low in calories and I can control how much, if any, sweetener goes in. I could care less about other health benefits, but I do like that it isn’t in any way bad for me.
Most of all I like that it can taste like so many different things, yet its all the same general beverage.

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rantHappy said

My mother used to prepare tea quite a bit when we were little. I still hate green tea because of it; she used to make us drink green tea with lemon when we were sick. She would collect tea cups and teapots and put them on display. I just associate them with a homely feeling. I started to buy my own tea stuff when I moved out to keep a homely feeling wherever I went.

I didn’t really get into tea again until I got really sick. My mom called and told me to get some green tea with lemon, so I did. While I was at the store, I wound up buying some chai teas and other random teas. I didn’t really like the green tea still, but the other teas were really good. After I got better, I still had a a lot of tea left over that I enjoyed drinking. A friend accidentally got me some loose leaf tea as a gift, and then it grew into an obsession… So now I own too many teas.

So I mostly drink for the flavor and feelings attached to tea. The only health benefit I enjoy is I believe tea doesn’t rot your teeth or turn them yellow as bad as other drinks like coffee or soda.

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Tea is delicious, comes in so many different flavour combinations that I can’t get bored of it, and it just makes me feel good when I drink it.

Actually, my whole tea “ritual” is a huge comfort to me and is extremely helpful in coping with my anxiety. Every step, from the selection of the tea to the brewing and finally the drinking just makes me feel a little more grounded, and the lovely aroma encourages me to take more deep breaths, which in turn calms the overwhelming anxiety to a more manageable level.

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Uniquity said

My beverage of choice is actually water – I drink many liters a day and notice physical symptoms quite quickly if I do not. However, tea is totally my flavoured beverage of choice – I love the taste and I love the variety. I think plain water is the only flavour that tea CAN’T replicate for me (although I’ve had some weakling whites that came close :D).

Nik select said

You too? I marvel at the fact that a friend of mine can go days drinking iced tea, soda and such, but not water. If I don’t drink about two litres of water a day, my body is very unhappy with me.

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If alcohol didn’t have such negative health effects I’d drink sake all day!:)
I also drink tea mainly for taste, but I try to keep all my foods as healthy as possible. That’s also one of the reasons why I don’t add sugar to tea.

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