Asklemmy

Both. If I can get up before lunch I will have a morning tea, then an afternoon coffee, & often an even tea—or if I have access to mate or guayusa (difficult here).

I used to be a heavy diet soda drinker, but my body hasn’t been responding well to it with stomach cramps in recent years. I used to hate tea since sweet tea & Nestea was all that was on offer where I grew up. I developed a highfalutin tea taste accidently when one of my old apartments was near a coffee/tea shop I would go to after work where due to free water to resteep, tea was a better bargain for the caffeine & they only had really good loose leaf (I would just have the staff recommend me something new each time). My face when I first went to the UK, known for the tea-loving stereotypes, on business after developing a taste. I rolled into a random café with my newly acquired tea knowledge & asked what sorts of teas they had to the response of “black & green”, Naïvely, “Umm, okay. Where is your green tea from?” She lifts an object, looks me in the eye with a vocal eyeroll “this box”. Working-class tea is very different to what I accidently became accustomed to.

Coffee was the same where it was gross instant Folger’s on the grandparents’ breath growing up. I would occasionally order a latte or mocha (no sugar) just to break up the monotony of tea now in Thailand where outside of the northern region, there is little understanding of good tea (just a flavor to add to your condensed milk lol). But the indie coffeeshops with friendly baristas slowly over the course of many years taught me how to taste the variety single-origin coffees offer. I would say I now slightly prefer coffee since the flavor gamut is broader & I found stuff I truly enjoy finally.

For that reason tho, I keep the kettle at home for tea only since I can buy the good stuff in bulk inexpensively to handle myself whereas I keep the coffee for the cafés so I have a good excuse actually leave the home when I work remote.