Open Thread: The First Cup – Tea or Coffee?
Growing up in India, my first taste of caffeine came via a cup of steaming tea – sweet, milky and well tasting like tea. This was not the sophisticated Darjeeling or Earl Gray, but more like tea for the masses. After immigrating to the US, I discovered coffee and joys that go with it. The Starbucks became a habit, and then an addiction.
On my recent trip to India, I was reminded of the joys of tea, especially when sprinkled with a little love from mom. Upon my return, I have been running a little experiment – I start the day with a cup of tea one day, and a freshly pressed coffee the next. (Comparison of the two beverages is here.)
Given the variance in their caffeine content, the start is different on the alternating days, and productivity is different as well. With tea, I find the day starts gradually picks up pace and then you smoothly glide through it, though it does require more frequent trips to the kitchen or the cashier’s counter.
Coffee, on the other hand takes effect right from the first sip, and as long as you have two or three more “Tall” cups, you can go through the day supercharged, working at a furious pace. But then comes the inevitable crash and there goes the productivity.
This has me wondering… what is a better drink for web workers? Tea or coffee? What do you drink and why? Does one work better than the others? I would love to hear your feedback.
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I am sitting with my fourth cup of coffee of the day–so I come down on the side of coffee. However, last year I cut down on my caffeine for a while and used tea as a tool for doing so since it has less caffeine. When I had tea, I would drink Irish Breakfast Tea for my first cup, Twinings Lady Grey mid-morning, and then switch to green tea for the rest of the day.
The worst thing for me about coffee is that if I go past four cups a day, I can’t sleep at night–no matter when I had that last cup. So I try to keep it at four cups a day but some days I’m dragging so that I just have to have more.
I agree with you on that – the coffee high stays with you all day and then late into the night, which is fine for me because I do need to have a long day. However, it is the lack of deep sleep is what slows me down the next day and gets me into this whole cycle of up and down. Anyway lets see if this tea-followed-by-coffee experiment really pans out.
My favorite tea is the one i grew up drinking: Lipton Red Label.
I like tea. Though for creative working I sometimes like something with a higher sugar content mixed with some of those lovely chemical ingredients I can’t pronounce.
While I am drinking coffee today, I usually drink green tea. I find that coffee is a bit too much and sometimes actually breaks my concentration, (I also get really hungry when drinking it).
I just bought, though, a container of white tea that I am going to try for a while, (anti-oxidants here I come).
While I don’t stick to any clear regimen, I often start with coffee – fresh roasted at home from green beans – and then segue to a green Earl Grey that we bought loose, in bulk. (Something like three pounds for $30; probably more than we should have gotten, frankly.)
I get that first spike from the coffee, then right as I’m starting to crash, the slightly different buzz from the tea comes in to harmonize.
Joel,
Now that is a great idea – get an initial rush and then go slowly coasting along – nice idea. Glider instead of an airplane concept. I must try!
The comparison of tea versus coffee omits one significant difference – tannins.
I love a tall glass of iced tea, especially Red Rose, but it doesn’t like me. My mouth starts to pucker, and then my gut starts to cramp. Leather makes a nice belt; it doesn’t make for a good gastro-intestinal tract.
Tea also seems to be less stimulating in a peristalsic way…. I interpret that as a vote in favor of coffee, although not all would agree….
My urologist, however, encourages me to drink all the iced tea I can get. I have good insurance, he says, and he can use the money he gets for performing extra-corporeal shock wave lithotripsy on me.
So it’s coffee for me. Hot, first thing in the morning, and then iced coffee with real cream the rest of the day.
If forced to choose between coffee and tea, put me down for tea.
Usually, though, I opt for Door #3: Caffeinated diet soda.
There’s something about that cold burst of carbonation that helps perk me up. My current favorites are Diet Pepsi Lime and Dr. Pepper Cherry Vanilla, but that varies quite a bit month to month.
—Pete
http://nerdguru.net
Om,
I am in a similar transition state like you. Having lived in India and habituated with the “masala tea” (spicy with Ginger/cardamoms) to keep me refreshed, these days in UK, the tea is not stimulating my freshness. So I have transitioned to Starbucks coffee a day and keeping me active with tea in between.
But I switch to “masala tea” in home during the weekend. Anybody need a tip on how to prepare “masla tea”, give me a shout for the recipe. :)
I find this discussion more than a little bit absurd. What’s next, a debate on the relative merits of Dijon vs regular mustard? People’s preference for dogs vs cats? Red vs Blue?
This kind of pointless/circular discussion around infinitely re-hashed topics hurts the blogosphere and detracts from the legitimacy of this blog as a thoughtful platform for web worker-related topics. While WWs certainly ingest caffeine, we also eat, sleep and breathe. Can we soon expect a post about your take on the optimal humidity of the air for web work bliss? Or maybe the best time to lay our head down? Or maybe where to find the greasiest hamburger in San Francisco? Is this even about working on the web anymore?
Please avoid posting for posting’s sake, and this blog will be richer for it.