Why Is Tea at Coffee Bars So Bad?

Published on Friday, January 20, 2012, by Joyce Slaton / Edit Post

If you're a tea drinker in America, you've had this experience: You go to a café with a friend who orders an espresso drink. With a deadly serious expression, the barista carefully grinds and tamps, pumps the handle of his espresso machine with carefully calibrated tensile strength, and delivers the finished macchiato with the gravitas of an Oscar presenter. Then you step up and order tea, and the barista hands you a paper cup of hottish water and a dusty tea bag. For this you paid $2?

As it turns out, water from espresso machines is just not hot enough for tea. Coffee brews at around 200 degrees Fahrenheit; black tea should be brewed at around 210. According to customer service reps for makers of three espresso machines (Jura-Capresso, Illy, and Philips, current owner of Gaggia), hot water for tea ranges in temperature from about 170 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit—that's just hot enough to make a brown-colored cup of tepid water, not a decent cup of tea. And even if the water hits the cup at 190 degrees, by the time you've got your tea bag unwrapped and dropped, the water's barely capable of extracting flavor.

It's time for coffee bars to invest in something that can make proper tea. Every café in England has a $20 electric kettle that serves the purpose beautifully, keeping water piping hot all day long. The Jura-Capresso customer service rep recommends the company's $80 H20 Pro Kettle for heavy users: It holds 56 ounces of water at temperatures up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for as long as you keep the thing plugged in. As a tea lover, I would happily pay espresso-drink prices for a cup of well-made tea. And if any baristas are reading this? Make it for me behind the counter, as I sit and wait like a princess, and I'll tip you like crazy.

Image source: Flickr member Hatters! under Creative Commons

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |27 Comments

COMMENT

  • never take a nife to a gunfight, start a land war in Russia, or drink tea in the good old U.S. of A. We fought those limey son of a guns for the rihgt to not have to drink that stuff . . .

  • it drives me crazy that when I want to meet up with some friends at a coffee shop, there are just no good tea options available! How hard is it to get a good quality cup of tea?

    I once ordered an unsweetened iced tea. The barista placed the tea bag in a cup, filled the cup with 3/4 full with ice cubes, then filled up the remainder of the cup with hot water.
    You read that correctly.
    I was...+READ

    it drives me crazy that when I want to meet up with some friends at a coffee shop, there are just no good tea options available! How hard is it to get a good quality cup of tea?

    I once ordered an unsweetened iced tea. The barista placed the tea bag in a cup, filled the cup with 3/4 full with ice cubes, then filled up the remainder of the cup with hot water.
    You read that correctly.
    I was served lukewarm light-brownish water for $3.
    I felt too rude to demand a refund, as the barista was friendly and talkative. But now that I look back, I should have.-COLLAPSE

  • Really?!?

    You're seriously claiming that coffee shops don't have the adequate equipment to provide water at the appropriate temperature for tea? Are you really implying that coffee shops can only give you water out of the tap in the espresso machine?

    You've never had pour-over, french press, Chemex, Bunn drip brewer, etc. at a coffee shop these days? These need their own quantities of water...+READ

    Really?!?

    You're seriously claiming that coffee shops don't have the adequate equipment to provide water at the appropriate temperature for tea? Are you really implying that coffee shops can only give you water out of the tap in the espresso machine?

    You've never had pour-over, french press, Chemex, Bunn drip brewer, etc. at a coffee shop these days? These need their own quantities of water and not only DO they have electric kettles, but they have dedicated - often multiple - hot water machines that could easily be set to give you water at 210F.

    One of the most ridiculous statements made in a long time.

    Perhaps, the lack of quality in tea is that there isn't a sufficient demand for it out there as opposed to coffee, which has outpaced tea for hundreds of years.-COLLAPSE

  • heart2bake: So why would an yogurt shop OFFER ice cream? Should a restaurant offer things it doesn't believe in or want to serve? I'd far prefer a shop just not offering anything it doesn't do well.

  • There's always Teavana...especially if you want Starbucks-level prices. $4+ chai latte, anyone?

  • I have never had a cup of tea in the US but don't despair even us brits get it wrong. You need to ask for 2 pots both warmed before use. Place your x amount of tea/ tea bags in one pot with hot water, not boilng water, and fill the other pot with boiling water. Whenever making tea regardless of the size of the pot always add 1 extra tea bag/ scoop of leave .....Confused (one for the pot and one...+READ

    I have never had a cup of tea in the US but don't despair even us brits get it wrong. You need to ask for 2 pots both warmed before use. Place your x amount of tea/ tea bags in one pot with hot water, not boilng water, and fill the other pot with boiling water. Whenever making tea regardless of the size of the pot always add 1 extra tea bag/ scoop of leave .....Confused (one for the pot and one per person). Leave the tea to infuse for at least 2 mins, add your own extras after the tea is infused(The pot of hot water is to replenish the tea pot so that you can have another cup).
    For those of you who wish to purchase tea at a coffee shop ask for a double bag. Can I just say, that when I go to a coffee shop in the UK, I can order a Caffe Latte with an extra shot.
    Try ordering a tea, with an extra bag......
    Just one thing more...if you put the milk in before the tea it will never infuse ( bags or loose).
    Hope this helps.-COLLAPSE

  • It's like trying to buy ice cream in a yogurt shop--that doesn't work well, either.

  • This is why I primarily buy coffee at coffee bars and get my tea from a tea room (though sadly this is a rare event restricted to when I'm in that shopping center). If I'm just not in the mood for coffee at the coffee bar, I go for a chai...since they all use the same liquid concentrates, it usually isn't dreadful.

  • Thank you for writing this article. As well, at the rare cafe when tea is served in a pot, it's often an unappealing dingy sent-through-the-dishwasher-too-many-times teapot with blunt dripping spout . . . having grown up in Japan where black as well as green tea is beloved and presented beautifully, it's unsettling to find tea a second-class citizen at otherwise very chic and delicous cafes

  • Well, loose leaf is always better than the "dust" one finds in bags, but, to paraphrase a line from the linked Tea interview, "If one starts with good tea, then it stands to reason, that you could get good dust!"

    My favourite teas are Oolongs, specifically Tie Guanyin and, for special occasions only, I do have a Da Hong Pao that I bring out for guests, and I usually get my kettle to 185 or so...+READ

    Well, loose leaf is always better than the "dust" one finds in bags, but, to paraphrase a line from the linked Tea interview, "If one starts with good tea, then it stands to reason, that you could get good dust!"

    My favourite teas are Oolongs, specifically Tie Guanyin and, for special occasions only, I do have a Da Hong Pao that I bring out for guests, and I usually get my kettle to 185 or so for them, so, I usually order Oolongs when I'm at restaurants that serve tea, especially nicer Chinese places. Not only because I enjoy it the most, but, their not-so-hot water is perfect for it.-COLLAPSE

  • It's more than insufficiently hot water. The tea sold by most American purveyors leaves much to be desired.

  • Aramek, thanks for the nice words about our Obsessives: Tea video. Here's a link to it:

    http://www.chow.com/food-news/54114/obsessives-tea/

    Deborah from CHOW

  • Peter Cuce: You can definitely find good tea in San Francisco, where I live. But usually you have to go to a spot dedicated to tea or one that makes it a specialty. Most decent coffee shops in SF also stock a decent brand of tea (I'm not that picky, really, I'll take Tazo, Stash, Mighty Leaf, even Bigelow is fine), but you just can't get a good cup out of it with that lukewarm water.

  • sircharlessir: I was with you until you got to the boiling water poured over. I like to let the kettle whistle, turn it off, let it sit for a sec, and then pour it over. I think it's nicer that way. Just off the boil, as they say. Of course I have preheated the teapot with a little hot water before the tea goes in. I mean, of course!

  • I'm not even the biggest fan of Green tea, but, man, you can almost hear the leaves screaming as they die if you use boiling water. You just...feel it through the Force.

  • Never mind the fact that even if a place offers decent tea, almost always the barista is going to dump boiling water over your delicate green tea leaves....

  • I think that old Chow video, the Obsessives: Tea, is one of the better mini-documentaries I've ever watched. I link it to all my friends who are curious about tea. In it, they discussed how, by the very nature of a coffee shop, it is hard to get good tea, because, well, coffee aroma overpowers and kills the subtle tea aromas.

    And, it depends on the type of tea, if drinking Oolongs, Greens, or...+READ

    I think that old Chow video, the Obsessives: Tea, is one of the better mini-documentaries I've ever watched. I link it to all my friends who are curious about tea. In it, they discussed how, by the very nature of a coffee shop, it is hard to get good tea, because, well, coffee aroma overpowers and kills the subtle tea aromas.

    And, it depends on the type of tea, if drinking Oolongs, Greens, or Whites, you do NOT want to pour boiling water over it, else it will burn. But, for black teas, which we are all more used to, as has been said, you absolutely need the super boiling water. If you have an electric kettle, keep it boiling as it pours!-COLLAPSE

  • I think one of the reasons they don't get hotter water is being afraid of lawsuits. No one wants to deal with the idiot who sues because their hot water was too hot and they burned themselves. As much as I think that cafes should have hotter water, I don't blame them for wanting to not take any chances.

  • Because it's not in American culture to drink tea as I (an Irishman) does. Steamed water? Yuck.

  • Agreed on all points and I have one to add. The places that offer 3 sizes of coffee, actually charge more for a larger cup of hot water with the same teabag...really, people?!

  • First of all it is the way it is made,
    Second of all it is what it is served in.


    People are going overboard for coffee these days, with fancy equipment and science.
    But a simple pot of tea they can't make and that's because they have pushed away the knowledge from older generations.

    Tea no matter if it is loose or in a teabag must be.

    High or good quality.
    The teapot must be hot.
    ...+READ

    First of all it is the way it is made,
    Second of all it is what it is served in.


    People are going overboard for coffee these days, with fancy equipment and science.
    But a simple pot of tea they can't make and that's because they have pushed away the knowledge from older generations.

    Tea no matter if it is loose or in a teabag must be.

    High or good quality.
    The teapot must be hot.
    The tea put in first with boiling, and I mean boiling water poured over it.

    Then comes the tea cup ..... not a mug!
    The thinner the cup the better tasting the tea. This is tried and tested.

    Yes Virginia it matters the vessel you are drinking out of!-COLLAPSE

  • With the number of different teas available and various traditions for the proper preparation and serving of tea you would think that they could have at least one person on staff who could do it properly. I for one would pay just to watch a Japanese Tea Ceremony.

  • And also not to mention trying to enjoy a cup of tea while surrounded by an overwhelming stench of coffee.

  • Occassionaly in America I am presented with well made tea, in a teapot. When that happens I, too, tip like crazy and always tell the server how wonderful their place is.... So odd, because tea is really popular today and I would think selling a variety of the new style teas would be a real money-maker. In Canada Tim Horton's sells a "steeped tea" they call it, pre-made in some sort of tea...+READ

    Occassionaly in America I am presented with well made tea, in a teapot. When that happens I, too, tip like crazy and always tell the server how wonderful their place is.... So odd, because tea is really popular today and I would think selling a variety of the new style teas would be a real money-maker. In Canada Tim Horton's sells a "steeped tea" they call it, pre-made in some sort of tea contraption they have inveted, and it is lovely. So it can be done....-COLLAPSE

  • Obviously you haven't been drinking tea at serious NYC coffee bars. Many of the very good coffee bars also are just as serious about tea and offer quality loose leaf tea, prepared appropriately for the type of tea, be it black, green or herbal.

  • Applause, applause! Your remarks about the sad state of tea in this country are long overdue. Even if you go "for tea" at some of these bed & breakfast style tearooms, they bring you bagged tea in over-boiled water. Yuck. It really isn't that hard to make a decent pot of tea. In the meantime, the only place to get a decent cuppa is at home.

  • AMEN! Not to mention the horrid cup of lukewarm lipton one is still likely to get if you ask for tea at many restaurants.