Apparently the popularity of tea is rapidly falling in the UK, particularly among young people, who don't really drink it.
I'm not overly surprised reading this because I am the only tea drinker in my circle of friends. Most people either drink coffee or avoid caffeine altogether. In my workplace as well, we barely have tea drinkers.
by Frosty8778
44 comments
Yeah, I’ve not really drank tea for the last 4/5 years. Although, because coffee is so expensive these days I’ve had a few cups over the last few weeks as I want something warm to sip.
Whenever I’ve seen data on this it suggests that yes, tea consumption is falling, largely driven by lower consumption by younger people. This certainly aligns with my anecdotal experience.
Not in this household
Tea has no affect on me, I love my coffee though. So if I’m boiling the kettle it’s gonna be coffee
8 to 9 cups a day, cheaper than putting the heating on
I think coffee has been more popular than tea in the UK for a few years?
Only really started drinking tea since I retired,still like my coffee but now I have options.
Coffee is awful, smells bad, horrible breath afterwards… tea otherwise is fucking elite 👊🏻gimmie that hot bag of leaves everyday!
Yeah, truth be told I get through a bag of 40 in about a year. Coffee is just nicer to drink
I drink a *lot* of tea. Unfortunately, I’m no longer young being in my mid-forties.
If I’m out and about then I’ll a grab a cup of coffee on the go but at home I like to brew black teas. I usually drink lapsang souchong.
As a younger person – tea isn’t that nice. When you drink it day in/day out, you can sort-of convince yourself that it’s nice (as I used to do), but if you step away from it for a while you really realise that it just tastes of slightly stagnant warmed-up water.
Coffee tastes like mud, but at least that mud gives you a caffeine kick and that can be useful sometimes. Less of the caffeine gets into tea.
If we’re talking about hot drinks and *flavour* then hot chocolate is a superior option to both tea and coffee.
I like a tea at home but damned if I’m going to pay £3.25 for a 1p teabag in boiling water when out and about
Not for me. However, I’d say in some establishments near me, the quality of the tea they serve is declining as the water isn’t at boiling temperature.
Youngsters gravitate toward tea as they get older I suspect.
I’m not really into hot drinks apart from nice fruit teas
I’ll generally have 1-2 cups a day, maybe 3-4 at absolute most but that’s rare.
I can’t stand coffee.
It tastes like dirty brown water
Tea isn’t just a drink for me, it’s an emotional support network.
if you’d asked me a year ago or so, I’d have said no fucking way, I drank tea like water. 5 minute yorkshire tea brews, 2 sugars. Beautiful.
Then I discovered good coffee – not freeze dried instant shit, I’m talking artisan beans, I invested in a decent espresso maker, got all the ridiculous accessories and now I’m fully in that rabbit hole.
The amount of range of taste of coffee far surpasses standard black tea, in my opinion.
I’ll still love you, tea, but I’m grinding my own beans at the moment.
Purely anecdotal, but i have noticed a change in my workplace as we’ve got more Gen Z staff over the years.
Pretty much everyone used to make a cup of tea or coffee at break time, now it’s almost exclusively people in their thirties and above. The younger workers will generally only have a hot drink if one of them goes out and buys coffees from Greggs. But never tea.
Black tea would be falling out of fashion, as I know plenty who don’t like it but drink all other versions of tea.
but not me I go through 120 a month and half a pound of coffee as a top up.
Not in my house…
Our daughter is bi-cuppa.
I’ve never understood the obsession with tea. I think it tastes horrible
I drink tea but I also drink a lot of other hot drinks – coffee, matcha, chai lattes etc, could just be down to the sheer amount of choice available
The thing with good tea is, it needs to be brewed at the correct temperature, for a certain number of minutes, preferably in a teapot that lets it breathe. It’s supposed to be lighter and more delicate than coffee, and savoured more.
Which doesn’t lend itself to a disposable takeaway drink situation like Starbucks, Costa etc, or “I just want a quick drink to chuck in a mug” situations.
I love tea at home where I can control the process, but “fast tea” is horrendous (and overpriced when out)
I like coffee and barley tea. Barley tea for me is amazing cold. But not many British people I know like it.
It’s definitely a generational change. My nieces and nephews (16-21) don’t drink tea and never have. I talked about with them the other day and none of their friends do either. But to be fair they’re quite a bit more posh than I am. I wonder if it’s a class thing? Do young people from middle class backgrounds only drink coffee now?
I’m not young so maybe I don’t count but I drink about two cups a year now. Tea is fine, I just prefer coffee.
I have never tried a cup of tea in my life. For some reason as a kid I convinced myself I wouldn’t like it and now as a 47 year old man I think it’s too late to change.
My family were all big tea drinkers too.
Begs the question what the heck do young people drink?
Shun alcohol, shun tea/caffeine.
“I’ll just have a water please”
Once a black tea puritan, I’d say I’m more hot drink agnostic these days, decent coffee for pick me ups, spiced ginger tea is my herbal go to, enjoy a masala chai now and again, why not.
I think with younger generations, because a lot of the media they consume is american, and american’s seem to prefer what the consider coffee to proper tea, the younger generations see that as the normal go to drink
I’ve worked with people of a variety of ages over the last 6 years the majority of the younger ones drank coffee or water. Mint/fruit teas were fairly common too, but mostly coffee.
Only a small number drank tea.
Personally, I don’t like hot drinks much. A hot chocolate at a stretch.
I believe that tea, like beer and coffee, is one of those things that you will hate the first time you drink it. It is only through peer-pressure and forcing yourself to continue drinking it that you come to like it. Young people don’t have time for that shit.
Tea is so overrated have like less than 10 cups a year, coffee reigns supreme…
I have three boys under 18 and they all love tea. I’m doing my bit.
Never took to it. Just tastes weak.
Much prefer well made black coffee.
Love tea, it’s not just the taste it’s the comforting ritual of making it. Tea makes everything better. Making a cup of tea for someone when they’re upset is a nice thing to do.
I have 2 or 3 cups a day. Maybe 20 if something upsetting has happened 🙂
How could I not drink tea? I have too many fond memories drinking (sugary and milky) tea with my nana (black or Earl Grey).
Tea is a pleasure.
Never liked it. Gross dead leaf water.
Love a vox pop – note that one 20 year old calls tea an ‘old person drink’ and it’s quoted THREE TIMES in the article yet the article actually concludes by saying that all age groups drink tea equal number of days, young people just drink fewer cups in the afternoon/evening. Could it be that young people are more likely to go out in the evenings?!
Come on, journos, be better.
I am happy to pay £2.50 for a decent cup of tea outside. The problem is cafes use the worst kind of tea bags, full of tea dust not leaves and the tea bag ration to water is so wrong that you end up with a hot cup of tea flavoured water.
Tea is shit and is basically milky piss water designed to keep the working class warm and happy…
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