COFFEE, TEA, OR HARMONY
“I’ll have some hot tea, please,” he tells the smiling, white sneakered waitress, who wears her hair pulled into a ponytail.
“Tea!” he hears snorted from a table behind.
He turns and looks. The man who made the comment, an obvious coffee drinker, appears to be about his own age. Both are dressed casually with similar builds and nondescript features. He asks, “Excuse me, is there something about tea that troubles you?”
The coffee drinker sneers, “Well, what kind of drink is tea? It’s made from dried out leaves.”
“Yes, tea is made from leaves, whereas coffee comes from beans, but both coffee and tea are dried. The oldest method dried them both naturally in the sun, but it’s been largely replaced by controlled heating sources. Most commercial processes dry tea by baking. Roasting is the process used for drying coffee. There is very little difference between baking and roasting. Both use an oven and dry heat,” informs the tea drinker.
The coffee drinker concedes, “So, the processes used to make them have some similarities . . .”
“A lot of similarities. Tea leaves bake at a temperature that releases its maximum flavor. Roasting dries coffee beans, but also heats them to a temperature that, like tea, releases their maximum flavor,” interjects the tea drinker.
“Is that so?” says the coffee drinker. He then offers, “They both have caffeine, too, don’t they?”
“Yes,” confirms the tea drinker. “Per glass, coffee generally has more caffeine than tea. . .”
“Ah, see! There is a difference,” interrupts the coffee drinker smugly.
The tea drinker counters, “But the caffeine content depends on exactly how it’s made.”
“Oh,” the coffee drinker chirps.
“Tea is a great pick-me-up when you don’t want a caffeine buzz. But, you can steep tea to be very strong and brew coffee to be very weak,” explains the tea drinker.
“See, that’s another thing. Tea is steeped,” points out the coffee drinker with a snide emphasis on the word, “Not brewed like coffee.”
“Well,” the tea drinker begins, “Like baking and roasting, it’s really more a matter of semantics than a true difference. Tea steeps by infusing its flavor when suspended in hot water. Coffee brews by releasing its flavor when hot water passes over it, but there is a period of time when the coffee sits suspended in hot water. So, essentially it steeps, too. You can also say you brew tea. They’re really about the same thing.”
Frowning, the coffee drinker obviously racks his brain searching for another objection, but can’t think of one.
The tea drinker continues, “There are other similarities, too. You drink both from mugs. Both are commonly served with sweetener and cream. They both can be poured over ice for a refreshing cold drink, too. There are certainly some differences between them, but they’re pretty minor. And, you don’t have to drink only one or the other. Both are delicious, complementing one another and offering alternatives.”
In tea and coffee, just like in occupations, hobbies, passions, people, and religions, similarities far outnumber the differences. The only things needed to bridge gaps are tolerance, understanding, and respect.
Lively white sneakered steps approach. The smiling waitress, with her ponytail bobbing from side to side, cheerfully sets down a steaming cup of tea. The two men clink their mugs together.
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