First Draft
Brandon Winecoff
Professor Maxine Patroni
English 111
18 March 2013
Coffee vs. Tea
Coffee and tea are two extremely favored, popular warm drinks which have been around for centuries. Both have thrived among many different cultures since their creation. They are both very similar, yet very different in many ways. Both share similar ways of creation, but they are also very separate in taste. These, among other things are just a few examples of ways that coffee and tea are very different and similar, respectively. Now, it is time to delve into the more intimate details of these popular drinks, and the many factors that these two bring to the table.
Tea, which is very complex in its creation, is created through a process of grounding leaves from a tea tree, which is a tree whose roots originate in China, where ruler Shen Nung discovered he could boil these tea leaves to create the time tested concoction. He discovered this when a particularly fateful leaf fell into a pot of boiling water that he was preparing. From there, the act of grinding and filtering the leaves was experimented with, until the process was eventually perfected. When English colonists arrived in china to trade, this was one of the first products which began a steady period of trade from the Far East toward Western Europe. It soon became the lasting favorite in England, due to its ease to make.
Coffee’s origins begin similarly in Africa, when an Ethiopian Goat Herder named Kaldi noticed his goats acting particularly frantic over an unfamiliar plant. He then ate a berry from this plant, and became excited about the wonderful flavor of the fruit, which contained similar tasting seed (known in the future as coffee beans). From that point, the process of making coffee was fleshed out and coffee beans began to be traded with Europe, and the drink grew in poularity from there. The first coffee house was opened in Europe in 1652. Both coffee and tea were introduced in England within seven years of each other.
Black Tea is very bitter when drunk without additions, most commonly sugar. This taste gradually changes to particularly sweet drink with a thick consistency. It has a particularly watery feeling, and is somewhere between water and syrup or honey. It is a brown color that is very clear to look at. Green tea is bitter basically any time, resulting in the act of adding things to it is not a very popular practice. Green tea is the less favored version of the drink, with a more clear-white color a thinner consistency.
Coffee is a brown color, much creamier and thicker, but not in a syrupy fashion. It is quite bitter, again in a very different fashion that unaltered black tea or green tea. As sugar and cream is added, the bitterness does not exactly go down, but rather stays while becoming more accompanied by a sweet taste, resulting in a melancholy kind of taste. That is to say, it tastes very bitter, yet sweet at the same time.
In popularity, Black Tea has been the number one drink in England ever since its introduction, as stated earlier. It is simple to make, and not half bad when it comes to taste. There are European traditions even devoted to the drink. It is by far the most popular there, but how does it compare in the rest of the world? In Japan and China, it is also one of the most preferred drinks nationwide, receiving nationwide acclaim in China around the same time it was discovered, and in Japan a short time after that. In the U.S., it is not nearly as popular, but still very favored.
Coffee in the U.K. is not nearly as popular as tea, but, much like tea in the U.S., is very popular. In the U.K., coffee houses are very profitable, and are not uncommon in major cities. In the U.S., Coffee is probably one of the most popular drinks around. Independent coffee shops equal $12 billion in annual sales, and daily average coffee consumption for the average American equals out to be 3.4 cups. Coffee houses such as starbucks have become some of the most favored Hangouts for the U.S., and while the main attraction is coffee, other things such as free Wi-Fi attract customers to these places as well. But as was previously stated, the main attraction is coffee.
Many types of coffee have become popular, including iced coffee, and other, smoothie-like concoctions as well as mixtures of chocolate, and other things that create a distinct taste between the many variations. Even though all this is true about the united states, and the fact that coffee has achieved such a high acclaim there, it is still not the highest coffee-drinking nation in the world. In fact, the country that drinks the most coffee per year is Finland.
Both drinks are very similar, and yet very different. Both are popular and provide a nice “Pick Me Up” for the drinker, while still functioning for different purposes and are usually drunk at different times for different cultures. It is easy to see how similar and different both are, and as drinks they provide a good choice between them with their different pros and cons.
Works Cited
1. "Tea vs Coffee: The Battle for the Cup." Web. 20 Mar. 2013
2. "The History of Tea." Tea History. Web. 20 Mar. 2013
3. "Coffee Statistics." Coffee Statistics. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.
Professor Maxine Patroni
English 111
18 March 2013
Coffee vs. Tea
Coffee and tea are two extremely favored, popular warm drinks which have been around for centuries. Both have thrived among many different cultures since their creation. They are both very similar, yet very different in many ways. Both share similar ways of creation, but they are also very separate in taste. These, among other things are just a few examples of ways that coffee and tea are very different and similar, respectively. Now, it is time to delve into the more intimate details of these popular drinks, and the many factors that these two bring to the table.
Tea, which is very complex in its creation, is created through a process of grounding leaves from a tea tree, which is a tree whose roots originate in China, where ruler Shen Nung discovered he could boil these tea leaves to create the time tested concoction. He discovered this when a particularly fateful leaf fell into a pot of boiling water that he was preparing. From there, the act of grinding and filtering the leaves was experimented with, until the process was eventually perfected. When English colonists arrived in china to trade, this was one of the first products which began a steady period of trade from the Far East toward Western Europe. It soon became the lasting favorite in England, due to its ease to make.
Coffee’s origins begin similarly in Africa, when an Ethiopian Goat Herder named Kaldi noticed his goats acting particularly frantic over an unfamiliar plant. He then ate a berry from this plant, and became excited about the wonderful flavor of the fruit, which contained similar tasting seed (known in the future as coffee beans). From that point, the process of making coffee was fleshed out and coffee beans began to be traded with Europe, and the drink grew in poularity from there. The first coffee house was opened in Europe in 1652. Both coffee and tea were introduced in England within seven years of each other.
Black Tea is very bitter when drunk without additions, most commonly sugar. This taste gradually changes to particularly sweet drink with a thick consistency. It has a particularly watery feeling, and is somewhere between water and syrup or honey. It is a brown color that is very clear to look at. Green tea is bitter basically any time, resulting in the act of adding things to it is not a very popular practice. Green tea is the less favored version of the drink, with a more clear-white color a thinner consistency.
Coffee is a brown color, much creamier and thicker, but not in a syrupy fashion. It is quite bitter, again in a very different fashion that unaltered black tea or green tea. As sugar and cream is added, the bitterness does not exactly go down, but rather stays while becoming more accompanied by a sweet taste, resulting in a melancholy kind of taste. That is to say, it tastes very bitter, yet sweet at the same time.
In popularity, Black Tea has been the number one drink in England ever since its introduction, as stated earlier. It is simple to make, and not half bad when it comes to taste. There are European traditions even devoted to the drink. It is by far the most popular there, but how does it compare in the rest of the world? In Japan and China, it is also one of the most preferred drinks nationwide, receiving nationwide acclaim in China around the same time it was discovered, and in Japan a short time after that. In the U.S., it is not nearly as popular, but still very favored.
Coffee in the U.K. is not nearly as popular as tea, but, much like tea in the U.S., is very popular. In the U.K., coffee houses are very profitable, and are not uncommon in major cities. In the U.S., Coffee is probably one of the most popular drinks around. Independent coffee shops equal $12 billion in annual sales, and daily average coffee consumption for the average American equals out to be 3.4 cups. Coffee houses such as starbucks have become some of the most favored Hangouts for the U.S., and while the main attraction is coffee, other things such as free Wi-Fi attract customers to these places as well. But as was previously stated, the main attraction is coffee.
Many types of coffee have become popular, including iced coffee, and other, smoothie-like concoctions as well as mixtures of chocolate, and other things that create a distinct taste between the many variations. Even though all this is true about the united states, and the fact that coffee has achieved such a high acclaim there, it is still not the highest coffee-drinking nation in the world. In fact, the country that drinks the most coffee per year is Finland.
Both drinks are very similar, and yet very different. Both are popular and provide a nice “Pick Me Up” for the drinker, while still functioning for different purposes and are usually drunk at different times for different cultures. It is easy to see how similar and different both are, and as drinks they provide a good choice between them with their different pros and cons.
Works Cited
1. "Tea vs Coffee: The Battle for the Cup." Web. 20 Mar. 2013
2. "The History of Tea." Tea History. Web. 20 Mar. 2013
3. "Coffee Statistics." Coffee Statistics. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.