Sweet tea sounds so unhealthy… but other types of tea have many health benefits.

I’m laughing at this a little. I’m the odd American who doesn’t subscribe to the idea of “tea is relaxing”. This is mostly because I come from a hard-core Irish family with two parents born and bred in Ireland. For us, tea is used for all situations, at all times.
Just woke up? Tea!
Going to bed? Tea!
Need a caffeine boost? Tea!
Boyfriend broke up with you? Tea! (And biscuits!)
Got into university? Tea!
There’s even a great Irish expression about how strong our “cuppa” needs to be – “strong enough for a mouse to do a trot on!”
#Americanteafiend

I think that makes a lot of sense. We Americans just have a hard time slowing down and relaxing sometimes. I have noticed tea (hot tea, I mean) growing in popularity here in the US. I think it’s viewed as 1) healthier 2) classier/artsy.

I’m from the south and grew up hooked on the southern sweet tea. Since moving out west years ago I’ve weaned myself off some of the sugar. Now if I go home to visit, I have to mix half sweet, half unsweetened as it’s sooo sweet!

I never realised it had class connotations, I always thought it was just the different regions of English. I’ve always loved how when people here speak about ‘dinner’ here you have to sometimes clarify whether then mean lunch-dinner or tea-dinner, and when they say ‘tea’ if they mean beverage-tea or meal-tea.

And was your house ever similar in that it was always ‘dinner’s ready’, but ‘tea’s on the table’? hahaha–even within the same household the naming was variable ^_^

I enjoy not having a caffeine addiction 😉

Tea is relaxing. I think there is a different mentality to it. Like people use coffee as “omg I need to get through the day, give me some coffee!” whereas tea is like, “Do you know what would be nice right now? A cup of tea.” and then you have a tea break and it’s relaxing and it makes you feel better and more able to tackle everything you have to do.