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Why is coffee so popular? What makes it so special?

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Caffeine has no effect on me. I'm no more awake after drinking coffee, and can sleep fine afterwards. Actually, I usually drink it just before bed. I drink it because it's lovely to have with a bar of chocolate. And the smell...

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 81

PPaulius

Original post by tallen90

That's pretty interesting. Are you from the Czech Republic then? You seem to be something of a tea expert :wink:

Unfortunately, I've never seen any tea rooms like you describe in England. Tea rooms around here are more like cafes and probably don't have a large range of loose tea. However, if you go into a city there's probably specialist tea shops which sell that kind of thing :smile:

I'm from Lithuania, but I travel quite often so that was the third time I was in Czech Republic :smile:

. I just drink tea as often as I want (something about 0-3 litres per day) and I like to know what I drink. Some teas such as Pu-erh are even beneficial to our body, but it tasted too bad for me. I should give a try again with the same tea, maybe it wasn't the best quality.

Tea rooms aren't popular in Lithuania too, but I saw at least several ads on the streets saying "Tea rooms". I should check them by myself.
As I was in a tea room only once, I can't even say if that tea room I saw is typical in Czech Republic or generally in the world. Tea rooms seems to be quite popular even in smaller towns of Czech Republic.

At least Twinnings produce quite nice Gunpowder and Earl Grey loose teas in tins. In our country it was slightly more than 2 pounds per box of 100g tin, so I hope to find some of them here too.

Reply 82

perrytheplatypus

I always assumed tea was more popular in Britian... :tea:

Reply 83

Mark85

Original post by navarre

Caffeine has no effect on me. I'm no more awake after drinking coffee, and can sleep fine afterwards.

I don't react to caffeine that much either. What I normally do in the morning is wake up, have a coffee and then go back to sleep for an hour (girlfriend insists on getting up early). Although the caffeine doesn't wake me up so much instantly - when I wake up again an hour later, I feel great!

Reply 84

Botticello

Because it tastes earthy and nice, and the caffeine boost is an attractive component when you're drowsy. I can't imagine not liking it :coffee:

Reply 85

username917703

Original post by ROYP

Yes there is a social aspect. It's all cool and chic and sophisticated and you're really grown up if you drink coffee.

Yep, coffee itself is fine, it's those types walking around with it all day like it's an accesory. This whole 'coffee to go' mentality took off when all the bints and pretentious knobs over here decided they wanted to be like Ross and Rachel at Central Perk, and like the celebs in Heat mag.

The notion they are too busy to sit in and drink it. As if. The whole Starbucks coffee carrier, big designer handbag, iPhone and shades is the look for most birds.

Reply 86

Megaross

Caffiene and social status around drinking coffee in the early days.
It was a rare and expensive beverage in it's infancy.

I love coffee myself, my gaggia espresso maker is my baby.
A nice portugese bica in there, ****ing awesome.

Reply 87

commuter

Original post by PPaulius

I just came up with idea that coffee is so popular because people can't find suitable tea. I didn't make any research yet how popular is the loose tea in UK (because I brought some from my home country which doesn't produce herbal tea, lol) and Tesco Metro doesn't have much choices of loose tea. However, different loose tea tastes really different. I mean, different coffee also is not the same, but it can't beat the variety of tea. My favourite ones are Earl Grey and Chinese Gunpowder, but occasionally I buy random Indian black tea, white tea when it's hot outside (YES, tea and especially white tea helps you to reduce the temperature of your body) or Sencha.

Advantage of tea is that it's not addictive, but it also simulates your body (mainly black and green teas) and it doesn't affect your teeth colour so much. That's why people who enjoys both coffee and smoking have (less or more) yellow teeth. Moreover, tea also can be drunk at any time (maybe not so strong tea/green tea before sleep, though) and it can be as a part of meditation.

By the way, are tea rooms popular here? I have seen some of them, but I didn't try them yet. I've been invited to a tea room in Czech Republic and I enjoyed that atmosphere of pub without selling alcohol drinks. You simply buy some tea, you get a thermo bottle and two special mugs – one for preparing tea, other one for drinking tea (so you can control both the hotness and strength of tea by yourself). It should be the same in UK, I hope.

Having smoked for 11 years I am now considering having my teeth whitened professionally by a dentist in Glasgow. Park Practice seems to have a decent reputation for doing this treatment, has anyone had this done before and loved the results? I've heard some horror stories of people who have burned their gums using kit packs, that's why I am going down the dental route - also know that they want to help.

I would agree that tea is much better for not staining, but really glad I have given up the fags for good. Sitting in a cafe with a hot drink is a totally different experience to having a drink in a pub, but the popularity of coffee must be due to the sophisticated connotations associated with starting to drink it. A slightly unreal pretense - unless you are REALLY into it!

Reply 88

py0alb

Coffee tastes great, hot drinks are enjoyable in general, but mainly its the caffeine.

7am-5pm: coffee time
5pm onwards: beer o'clock

Reply 89

Lord of the Flies

It turns into theorems when you are a mathematician.

Reply 90

Rakas21

Original post by perrytheplatypus

I always assumed tea was more popular in Britian... :tea:

The UK is still the second largest importer of tea globally (Russia being first) and with the explosion of flavours i'd suggest that a significant number of people still drink it.

For the record, i prefer tea and Caffeine has no effect on me.

Reply 91

Enigma Machine

Godot (If you get the reference, have my babies)
As people said, it's mainly for the caffeine.

Reply 92

HK786

I didn't really like coffee at first but the more I drank it the more I liked it. Still for me it doesn't even come close to tea which tastes much better IMO. I mostly have coffee when I am tired doing school work to wake me up. I have coffee about 6-7 times a month but like 2-3 cups of tea a day.