29 answers to one little Facebook question? We love our fans.
We never thought we'd get many responses by asking one little question on our Facebook page, but we recently learned how passionate our fans are about tea.
And as Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing.
"What's your number one reason for drinking tea?" we asked recently on Facebook, and 29 of our fans piped up to give us their answers. That's without even a prize being offered for feedback — sorry to sound jaded, but some of us former journalists don't do anything without the potential for free stuff.
Well, when we informally tallied up the responses, you know what's weird? The top answers completely contradict each other. Our fans either love that tea is calming/soothing/relaxing, or that tea has caffeine so it perks them up just enough during a drowsy afternoon, or when they're supposed to be studying (good luck on your exams, to our fan Elizabeth Ross). The thing is, tea has both of those powers. It can soothe us with the ritual of preparation and (if you're choosing a caffeinated black, green or white tea) give us an energy boost.
"Calms even the most busy day!" said Nellie Cross. "It soothes me," said Tracy Taylor. Both are very true. "Caffeine," said Kim Moore, simply. "Tea has a soothing and restorative quality, sufficient caffeine to keep me alert, and a range of flavors that meet my moods, from Earl Grey bergamot to the Assam that are my favorites," said Mari Marilyn Alkus Bonomi.
The third most popular answer didn't surprise us — people love tea in part because it's a healthy beverage choice. "I love the blast of antioxidants in rooibus and sencha," said Facebook fan Jon Altbergs. "Tea is rich in antioxidants and as a breast cancer survivor I look for those [types of] foods," said Carole Resnick. Hear hear, Carole!
So many types of tea ... so little time
Not long ago, we surveyed a number of our dedicated customers about their reasons for drinking tea. We asked people to choose the top three reasons why you drink tea, and the most popular responses, in order from the most popular reasons to the least were:
- For relaxation
- Love the taste of tea
- Diverse variety of different flavors, colors, smells, etc.
- Varying levels of caffeine content
- Don't like coffee
- To get me going in the morning
- To soothe myself to sleep at night
- To experience a cultural beverage from other regions of the world
And then, when we asked people to narrow that down to just one reason, the runaway winner was "love the taste of tea."
Or as Stacy Flock-Long said on our Facebook page, "Because I love it!" Couldn't have said it any better ourselves.
Want to chime in? Why do you drink tea?
3 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “Why do you drink tea?”
Catherine Mikkola
January 11, 2011 at 5:44 pmI am new to your tea, and thus didn’t see the previous pole about why we drink tea. So, I had to add my 2-cents’-worth now. Tea is a family tradition in our household. We homeschool and my husband and I both work out of our home, so the family is often home together at different times during the day. We have tea after lunch, tea mid-afternoon, and herbal tea sometime after dinner (and maybe again later in the evening when it’s as cold as it’s been lately!) I remarked on facebook recently that I can tell how cold it is by how many used tea mugs I pick up from through-out the house at the end of the day. 🙂 For us tea-time brings our family together and we have an unspoken rule that anyone who is upset w/someone else/something in the universe, cannot bring that subject up during tea-time. Tea-time is for enjoying our family togetherness. Can’t imagine life w/out tea. It’s one of God’s blessings to us!
Well, time to sign-off — it’s tea-time!
-Catherine
beth choi
January 11, 2011 at 8:27 pmOh, come off it, folks! Some of us drink tea, or turn to it, because we are physically unable to go on drinking the coffee we love… And some of us, for the same reason, may have to abandon black teas… Happily, we can fall back on green teas, & when we can locate a quality green tea (the majority of green teas NOT being quality), we count ourselves lucky… & hope that we won’t end up unable to drink good green tea… And by the way, herbal teas are not necessarily an answer for reactive folks… They can be trouble, too; &/or taste not so lovely. I should say, on a positive note, that quite a few relatives to whom I gave your Tea Travelers, for Xmas, have good things to say about your various teas. Some, like me, even love the “cute” Traveler containers… 🙂
Kim A
February 1, 2011 at 2:39 amI drink tea – and your tea, specifically – because of the many varieties on offer; each one is a different adventure. If I feel the need for a bright and sunny taste, I’ll drink orange sencha. If I want a fruity flavor, I go for Tropical Goji Berry. And if I’m in the mood for the exotic, I’ll drink Mountain High Chai. Additionally, knowing that I’m getting the full flavor of the tea leaf also adds to the reason why I like tea!