Are you a coffee person, or a tea person?
I’m both, honestly. I love coffee for its delicious darkness (especially when it’s really strong, the way my husband makes it). It is the fuel that gets me going in the morning, the brew that gets me out of the murkiness of sleep and into some semblance of focused coherence. And there are times when I’ll drink it in the evening, too. On those rare occasions when Scott and I escape for a dinner date, there is nothing like a nice decaf cappuccino to round out the meal.
But for the most part, if it’s not the morning, then I’m drinking tea. This is especially true when I’m writing. There is just something about a cup of tea, its steam rising up like incense, that gets my creativity going. Perhaps this is because drinking tea is, by its very nature, a slow and meditative process; you have to sip it, not gulp it, and that leisurely pace is very conductive to writing. Perhaps it’s because I associate tea with the English authors I’ve loved ever since I was a child, when I devoured The Secret Garden and the books of Noel Streatfeild. Tea has an emotional resonance for me, reminding me of those stories where characters routinely stopped for the afternoon ritual around the pot. And there is something innately soothing about dunking a teabag in a cup of hot water, seeing the dark flavor spread like ink. It’s very familiar, but still beautiful.
So what about you? Are you a coffee person, a tea person, or a hybrid like me? Is there some other beverage that fuels your creativity or your quiet hours?
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I am also a hybrid. I love Cuban coffee – my great grandmother used to dunk my pacifier in it – thus the coffee and I have had a long and wonderful relationship. Nothing smells like home like the scent of Cuban coffee coming from the kitchen in the morning.
My great-grandmother also taught me to drink tea – chamomile tea before bedtime was a tradition in her house. The Cuban coffee to wake you up in the morning, and the chamomile to lull you to sleep at night.
ooh … I’ve never tried Cuban coffee, but it sounds great. I recently saw a magazine article about coffee in different cultures of the world — Turkish, Austrian, etc. How great a world tour would THAT be?
I LOVE the name you gave this article. I am running out of space for my teapots. I use them all, except for the ornate geisha one I picked up recently.(I drop things.) Teaching is what calls for coffee, Relaxing is what calls for tea for sure!
I hear you, Sarah — the only thing that stops me from having a serious teapot collection is my lack of shelf space! There are so many lovely ones out there. I have a fair number of pretty teacups, but most of them are packed away … I end up rotating them from time to time.