Tea vs coffee drinkers

[phaelon56]

Perhaps it depends on the tea? I'm a regular coffee drinker but certain coffees are far more acidic than others. Robust beans and therefore cheap mass market coffees in general tend to have higher caffeine content and be more acidic than arabicas in generals. Sumatran and Indonesian coffees tend to be very low acid and I favor them for that reason.

Interestingly.... when I was forced to make a hospital stay of four a five days a couple years back due to a gastro-intestinal condition, they put me on the BRAT diet for three days. It's intended to have the absolute lowest impact on your system (short of a liquid diet). Consists of banana, rice, applesauce and tea. Small portion of each at every meal and although sweetener and lemon are allowed for the tea, milk/cream is not. They made me wait another full day after that before I was allowed to have coffee. It would indicate that they consider coffee to be more egregious than tea re/the stomach but then again..... the swil that passes for coffee in most hosptials bears little resemblence to real coffee.

[trillium]

I'm with you on the acid part. I can drink tea from green to thick and creamy without any effects on the stomach, while the partner, who grew up drinking plenty of tea (oolongs mostly) can't stomach green teas or Darjeeling’s when he's running on empty. I always chalked it up to acidity and different guts.

While we're doing setups...I guess we fall in the like it both ways (tea and coffee) camp.

Olympia Cremina circa early '80s

Salton hourglass shaped cast iron hand held burr grinder circa 70's (maybe older, it's a hand-me-down)

2 10 c Chatsfords, 1 bright yellow and one bright red

1 6 c Chatsford, green

1 travel Chatsford kit that fits in my Nissan travel mug

1 Russell Hobbs electric kettle

We don't need to confess anything about cups and other accoutrements, right?

regards,

trillium

[phaelon56]

We don't need to confess anything about cups and other accoutrements, right?

If you were an Illy espresso cup collector your confession would already long since have been made (I am not one although I do have favored cups).

[mongo_jones]

I'm sure people can love both tea and coffee. It's a bit like cat-people and dog-people, right?

yes, and tea and dog people are better than coffee and cat people

[mongo_jones]

tea with cream, or plain tea?

when i've got tummy issues tea and toast are old standbys. (usually with cream).

if i've got congestion issues it's tea with lemon.

i've never noticed any nausea one way or the other, but i have also been raised with tea from when i was a kid.

black coffee on the other hand, will give me agita in a heartbeat.

interestingly it is coffee i have digestive issues with. indeed it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that most coffees use me as a vehicle to get from the cup to the septic tank. must be genetic--coffee has this direct laxative effect on my mother as well.

[phaelon56]

Coffee is well known for its laxative effects - you and your mother are far from being the only ones....

[sequim]

I'm with both..wanting to experience all the wonderful taste sensations out there that I can. Coffee to get up with and read by in the morning - french roast with brown sugar, half and half with a touch of nutmeg. A fine way to get started and not need to eat breakfast for awhile. Later on comes tea. Actually I used to dislike tea until my cubicle mate started bringing in tea with the fancy steeping tea pot and offering me a cup. Now we have our routine at 9-ish. He opens the door to the tea stash and we have about 20 difference boxes of stuff to choose from. We are always out looking for good teas and different types. He'll say "What do you feel like today?" The dark teas (English, Indian) are drunk with half and half and honey, while the lighter teas (green, white, jasmine) are with honey only as cream overpowers their light flavor.

Recommendation: a cup of Taj Mahal with a dark chocolate dipped almond biscotti to dunk in it.

Warning: don't overbrew the teas or you'll get the icky tannin flavor.

Opinion: Loose leaf is not always better. We've had containers of loose that are completely lacking in flavor or stale because once they're open, the air gets to them. However, you can get good bagged tea such as the Genmai brown rice vacuum packed tea that will always be fresh when you open them. Very expensive though.