10 Reasons the Idea of Afternoon Tea Is Appealing

Here is a listicle (could be) for BuzzFeed: “10 Reasons the Idea of Afternoon Tea Is Appealing” So, share this liberally.

1. Most of us work in the afternoon. So, the idea of being able to take time off in the afternoon is a fantasy for many of us.

2. We need to eat to survive but we don’t need to drink tea to survive, so we cannot even pretend that “afternoon tea” is necessary. To be able to do something wholely unnecessary is luxurious.

3. The key component of afternoon tea isn’t tea; it’s a conversation. When other people are socially engaged, we feel excluded. The FOMO makes us want to join it.

4. Tea drinking tends to be an intimate affair. You tend to have more meaningful conversations because the caffeine stimulates our minds and because we don’t have to worry about managing any food while talking.

5. Unlike coffee, you can keep drinking by reinfusing the same tea leaves. Even after an hour of drinking, we wouldn’t feel wired. The amount of caffeine naturally decreases for every infusion.

6. Also unlike coffee, a tea shop can offer a wide variety of tea for you to try. Coffee shops can’t because coffee requires an elaborate mechanism to serve it. You can keep discovering new teas from the same familiar place.

7. If you are drinking quality tea, you would not add milk or sugar, which means it’s calorie-free. You can keep drinking without feeling guilty.

8. Tea contains a unique amino acid called L-theanine which relaxes you without making you feel sleepy. This means the conversation would be humbler, introspective, and grounded in reality. In contrast, coffee-induced conversations tend to be cocky, narcissistic, and even delusional.

9. Tea drinker’s mood is more stable than coffee drinker’s. Coffee drinkers are either manic or depressed. You can’t have a real conversation with them before coffee or even after. By afternoon, they have to drink more coffee to stay functional, so, they are not even enjoying it.

10. Each tea shop is tied to the culture of the owner (British, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc..) with unique customs, rituals, language, decor, and teawares. Afternoon tea can be a short adventure to a mysterious place.