would you like tea or coffee with that?

The world is divided, everytime a host asks the question,
Tea of coffee?

Coffee is the ultimate logo of the businessman's trademark. It brings to the image connotations of business glamour, high-flying hardworking labour and sophisticated professionalism.
It imbues a sharp, bitter taste - the rude shock of grunge reality. It's fast working, fast paced, fast actioned - the preferred drug of the modern citizen. It flows in the veins and streets of city mornings; it is what fuels the ceaseless humming of the hive.

If coffee is the money-hungry, number crunching-30-year-olds who abuse it, we have the King of Grandpas in the other corner. The posterboy of refinement and tranquility, tea is the humble constant, steadfast and persisting through the ages. With a long history and widely beloved, especially through Asia, it is the old favourite.
As opposed to the hustle bustle of hyperactivity induced by coffee, tea is resolute, calming the nerves whilst relentlessly pushing forward. Reconciling through silent ceremony, it brings a dynamic nature of benevolence.

Which side to stand on?

I rely on coffee for the worse-for-wear sloshed mornings, but ultimately, I'm a slave to tradition.
Coffee seems to imbibe all the qualities of the Western world - the remorseless, determined consumers. Even the flavour, sharp bitter and 2 dimensional, betrays its character.
And for that reason, I stand with ancient, fading community, for the subtle flavours, for the tranquility and tentative peace that is hoped for with each sip. And for its ability to slow the busy world flashing by to a standstill, with its complex taste playing on my tongue and exquisite aromas lingering profoundly in the air, whilst I gaze outside my kitchen window admiring suspended glory.

That, my dear friends, is the justification for signing myself up as a daggy, tea-drinking grandpa. (:

2010-04-03
3:04 p.m.

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