Why do you drink tea? Hmmm…made you think, didn’t I? There are any number of reasons why someone might drink tea. Some of us may have only one reason and others perhaps a combination of several but they will generally tend to fall into certain broad categories. Let’s take a look.

Because It’s There
In many cultures tea drinking is the status quo. It’s just something that you do. In most of the United Kingdom, a cup of strong black tea with milk and sugar is as natural as breathing, just as drinking green tea straight up is the way things are done in many Asian cultures. If you’ve always drunk tea and nearly everyone you know does the same is it any surprise that it’s your beverage of choice?

Taste
There are those tea drinkers – present company included – whose primary motivation for drinking tea and seeking out new varieties of tea is all about the taste. A truly great cup of tea can make you want to get up and cheer. On the other hand, at least for myself and probably for many others, a crappy cup of tea is not that much better than no tea at all.

Health
To paraphrase Mark Twain quite loosely, the rumors of tea’s health benefits have been greatly exaggerated. But even taking into consideration that there are many people willing to stretch the truth in the interests of selling more tea we have to acknowledge that tea is quite likely to impart to us a wide range of potential health benefits. For many people that is it’s greatest selling point.

Experience
The Japanese tea ceremony, or for that matter similar Chinese and Korean ceremonies, afternoon tea, tea parties or just the ritual of putting on the tea kettle, waiting for it to come to a boil, waiting a little longer for the tea to steep and then decanting it into a glass and finally drinking it. While there are those who might find these tasks of preparing tea a necessary evil that leads to consuming it, there are also those who take pleasure in the rituals and actions of tea making and drinking as a process.

Make sure to stop by William’s blog, Tea Guy Speaks!