It’s fitting that the Life section is debating which of the two caffeinated life-forces is preferred: coffee or tea. There are others, including energy drinks and soda, that can also get the job done, but people are far more particular about coffee and tea. Good arguments can be made validating both, whether it be added health benefits or just overall taste, so let’s find out which drink Life prefers!
Maleena Muzio, Campus Correspondent (she/her/hers)
Misaligning with the option I typically choose, I am team tea. Although both have health benefits, tea offers more. Coffee is often filled with unhealthy syrups (which are delicious but so bad for you), while tea relies on natural sweeteners, like cane sugar or honey. Tea can soothe your sore throat or ease digestion issues, rather than making digestive issues worse (coffee drinkers, you know what I mean).
Students, you may be asking: “How will I stay awake without my highly caffeinated coffee?” Well, instead of taking in mass amounts of caffeine at once, and then experiencing a crash by afternoon, why not just drink a couple of teas throughout the day? Tea contains lower caffeine contents and green tea specifically has proven to provide a more sustainable, slow-burning energy source.
Regarding options, coffee has one: cream and sugar (unless you are crazy and drink it black). Tea is much more diverse, ranging in temperature, mocking lattes or being mixed with lemonade. Next time you walk into Bookworms or The Beanery, notice how their signs offer coffees that rely on artificial flavoring, while the variety of teas comes from the core of their components.
By no means am I dissing coffee drinkers; I am one myself! Although, because I know from experience how awful coffee can be for someone, I have recently switched to team tea. If you are a stubborn coffee advocate, I recommend you give tea a try. You just might end up feeling like a healthier, more productive person.
Michelle Pawlos, Campus Correspondent (she/her/hers)
When it comes to coffee versus tea, I’m team coffee for UConn students on account of multiple reasons. If you need to stay up and study, coffee is a friend to many! Especially with midterms coming up, it is inevitable that many of us will be losing sleep and need that extra boost. As I’m drinking my coffee while writing this, I am gaining life to make my 8 a.m. class after having a statistics test last night and waking up early today. I will admit that it isn’t the best for you. However, if you drink it in moderation, there is no harm.
You can find coffee anywhere on campus with a good variety of flavors. I always see people walk in with coffee from The Beanery, which I have visited, and I will say it has a great selection. The Bookworms Cafe in Homer Babbidge Library also provides a lot of options. Dining halls such as Whitney even have their own cafe section. One may argue that these places also have tea, but is there as much selection?
If you are strictly a tea person, I recommend a nice lemon ginger tea with honey, as it has its benefits and is tasty. When it comes to coffee, I believe that any coffee is good coffee, but you may want to try a pumpkin or apple flavor for the fall season!
Mikayla Murphy, Campus Correspondent (she/her/hers)
I personally think there are more flavor options with tea, and it doesn’t make my heart race like coffee does, which is a nice change of pace. I’ve heard about the health benefits of drinking tea, and while I haven’t done my research, it’s nice to believe that tea is good for me. My favorite tea combination is lemon tea with mint leaves (courtesy of the head chef at my old job). It reminds me of home, and I highly recommend you try it. It is comforting to drink tea, so I will forever and always favor tea over coffee. However, you will still most likely see me with a medium iced black coffee from Dunkin’ tomorrow morning.
With how much coffee I drink, it may seem like I’m on team coffee, but contrary to popular belief, I’ve actually been on team tea my whole life. Most of the time, I’m just drinking coffee because the caffeine gets me through my early mornings and late nights. My friends like to make fun of me because all I drink is straight black coffee, but I like coffee overall and I choose to drink it outside of those circumstances. However, there is just something about tea that coffee can’t replicate. It has been a staple in my life since middle school, although you’ll probably never see me drinking it outside of my dorm room.
Bonnibel Lilith Rampertab, Campus Correspondent (she/her/hers)
I will eternally be team tea. It’s elegant and prissy just like me, and I grew up drinking it every morning and night as my mother intended. Plus, my therapist said that drinking mint tea regularly decreases the androgens in your body, which is ideal for me. I drink tea nightly and I am proud of it. I’m super grateful the dining halls have assorted teas; everyone with a meal plan should take advantage of the tea selections if they like tea.
On a few occasions, however, I drink coffee. It’s bitter without creamer and even more unhealthy if you sweeten it considerably to negate the bitterness. The majority of times I’ve drank coffee was by accident when my parents forgot to take out the Keurig pod from the machine. It galvanized my dislike for coffee.
Coffee makes me hyper and increases my heart rate dramatically for a bit before I crash out and feel even worse. Furthermore, my father works for the Baronet Coffee Roasters factory, and every day when he comes home, he smells like it.
Tea and coffee have oddly become gendered to me, but there are so many other beverage options to choose from. I just like tea the most. If you like coffee, more power to you. I just cannot, for the life of me, like it.
Ben Lassy, Life Editor (he/him/his)
This year has really been a year of shifts for me. As an unabashed tea fanatic, I caved this year and purchased the cheapest Keurig machine known to man. As for the K-Cups? The cheapest Tim Horton’s available, a brew I shamelessly call “Timmy Ho’s.”
Does that purchase make me a turncoat?
Far from it. Tim Horton’s is one of the worst cups of coffee I’ve ever had, and the cheap Keurig machine is one of the least pleasant plastic hunks of junk I’ve ever had the displeasure of using. Nevertheless, I have another 10 K-Cups to go through, so it still sits in the kitchen.
Beside it is my seldom-used tea kettle. I’m not sure why, but with the craziness of senior year, I find that tea is less and less soothing for me. It’s great, but I rarely have the peaceful moments required to thoroughly enjoy a cup.
Maybe coffee just gives off a facade of hard work. Not that I’m productive or anything, but I feel powerful after a cup of coffee, whereas after a cup of tea, I feel at peace.
For now, my answer is coffee because it’s time to make the best of this year, but by graduation, I’m confident the answer will be tea.
Patrick Boots, Campus Correspondent (he/him/his)
The best beverage to enjoy on an Autumnal day isn’t coffee or tea at all – it’s hot cocoa.
Just imagine yourself holding a warm mug, with frothy chocolate-y milky goodness, and maybe some marshmallows on top. Perhaps enjoyed with a ladyfinger cookie or a peppermint stick. The story goes that European explorers took cocoa beans and a drink-making technique from Central America and brought them back to the old world, dubbing it “the drink of the gods.” The industrious Dutch then developed refined methods for producing chocolate as we know it today, and enjoyed their hot cocoa nice and thick. I like mine that way too, maybe it’s because I’m Dutch. Shout out to Munson’s, too.
Now, if I was forced to choose one: coffee, or tea, I’d be on “team tea” — but I prefer herbal fruit tea. My girlfriend is also a tea fanatic and has a collection of specialty flavors, some that sparkle like magic; it’s fun to enjoy those styles. The UConn dining halls do offer a selection of teas from Bigelow, a Connecticut-based (but nationally distributed) tea company, and I sometimes make myself a cup if I am in the mood but I’m not a fan of just black tea.
I don’t drink coffee, but I love a Dunkaccino from Dunkin’ Donuts — it’s the perfect blend of hot cocoa and coffee, without being too bitter or in your face. Some franchises have discontinued making this crown jewel, though. However, the “Dirty Cocoa” option at the UConn Uniquely Caffeinated Café locations comes close.
This fall, I’ll be studying in the library or sitting under a tree drinking some of my choice beverages. And, when it comes to all of these drinks: they’re to be enjoyed hot! How else, of course?