why tea is an addiction to many?

Why is anything an addiction? Tea can turn into a true addiction…consult the ‘You know your addicted to tea when’ while many replies on that thread seem to be tongue in cheek, I think there might be some truth there. I know it could definitely turn into an addiction for me, not just in consuming it, but also collecting many different types as well as tea related accessories. While there isn’t as much health concerns in consuming of tea as there is with alcohol, I’m sure there is some…but being short on sleep I cannot think of any, and plus as with anything health related, please do research and/or discuss it with you primary care physician.

I’d call it more of an obsession than addiction :)

I’m still relatively new to tea and started drinking it as a substitute for soda. But then I started to explore all the different types and flavors and found I liked some more than others, and I wanted to keep trying new ones to see what I felt about them. There are so many different types of tea and different brands – that it’s easy to end up with a cupboard full of tea before you know what happened.

Well, I have to drink water anyway…

While anything in the world can become an addiction to people with addictive personalities, tea is relatively harmless. I’ve rarely heard of people having withdrawals from tea, spending more than I can afford on tea, or committing an illegal act to get tea. Most times, people who say they’re addicted to tea, they’re using the word “addicted” loosely, in the way that people will use “hate” – “I hate peas” “I’m addicted to lentil soup”. Things like that.

Though I won’t say that someone with a particular mental set wouldn’t be the rare person who actually IS addicted to tea.

As others said, tea is a process, not just a beverage. If I could just snap my fingers and have the tea appear, that would be a really awesome trick, but in the end it wouldn’t be as enjoyable to me as going through the whole process: sniffing the pouch, boiling the water, heating the teapot, steeping the tea, pouring a cup, stirring in the honey, etc. Also, I’d say that tea probably has the widest variety of ingredients and flavors than any other beverage out there. So that makes tea like Pokemon cards to me. I gotta catch em all! lol I’ll always be on the lookout for a great new flavor and every now and then I find a gem I’ll hold onto for the rest of my life! Tea is a culture, not just a beverage. That’s what makes it so addictive.