What is this obsession with coffee???

[QueenofmyPrinces]

MN seems to be obsessed with coffee....

Someone wants to meet up with friends....they are advised on MN to go for a coffee.

If someone is meeting a guy for a daytime date....MN suggests they go for a coffee.

If someone wants to ask a guy out but is shy....MN suggest she gently ask him out for a coffee.

I just don’t get it. Does nobody drink tea anymore?

In fact, the only time I see a cup of tea being suggested is if someone is in shock or very upset about something that has just happened....they are told to try and calm down and have a very sugary tea.

Every time I read a thread and see coffee as being the ‘drink of choice’ I feel inner rage

In case you hadn’t realised, I am an avid tea drinker and I can’t even bear the smell of coffee, never mind entertain the idea of ever actually drinking it

YABU : yes coffee is always mentioned on here but that’s because it should be the drink of choice.

YANBU - I have no idea why coffee is always suggested and it seems very unfair to simply brush aside the good old English cup of tea

Because it's a rip off buying a tea bag (about 3p) with some boiling water for a few £s, at least coffee sounds like a reasonable offer.

I don’t like coffee.” 

You don't like coffee? Well that's news to me. You really should have mentioned it.

The Hoover point is EXACTLY the same as the “Going for a coffee” analogy.

Why say Hoover if you are using a Dyson or a Shark?

Hoover is a brand name that became a verb meaning vacuum.

Just like going for a coffee and drinking tea.

@TheHappyHerbivore. It’s overheads, like rent, business tax, salaries etc. But you knew that surely?

It's just an expression, obviously you can drink whatever you like.
I don't like coffee and only drink it when I can't stay awake (thank you insomnia) so always have tea.

@ChikiTIKI

I don't like coffee either, I hate it actually.

I look at all these iced coffee things sometimes and they look so nice. I wish they made a chocolate alternative 😅👍🏻

allrecipes.com.au/recipe/9071/iced-chocolate.aspx

I'd add choc sauce to sides of glass too

I use 'going for a coffee' as a catch-all phrase for things like a catch-up with a friend, or a short work meeting.

Unless it's early in the morning, when I do specifically want coffee, I might actually have tea, or a soft drink. It's just a turn of phrase.

Well....I genuinely do feel like I’ve learnt something this morning because I realise now that people don’t actually suggest going for coffee because they like it, or because they particularly want to drink it, or think others should drink it, and it’s just used as a term of phrase.

I’m off out now for the day and I’m going to keep my ear out to see if anyone actually says this. I genuinely never hear the term used except on MN but maybe that’s because I’ve been in my own little Tea Bubble.

I bet after this thread I will start hearing it everywhere and realise that actually it’s commonly used in real life too

No one actually likes coffee. They either train themselves to like it, or disguise it with sugar and frothy milk.

I beg to differ. I drink plunger coffee, black and strong. I didn't have to 'train' myself. Some people just like it, some don't.

I cannot abide tea drinkers - especially in the office. There’s always one. I leave the bag in so they don’t ask me to make it again

I “go for a coffee” all the time but I’d never ever order or drink coffee. I hate coffee.

With some friends I change it to “meet for a cuppa” but it’s actually an effort to say that as “meet for coffee” is such a ubiquitous phrase.

Agree with @WhyIsItSoHardToPickAUsername

"Let's go for a coffee" or "Going for a coffee" basically means "Let's talk this over." It's a phrase that carries a social offer of a conversation - whether that be a work-related discussion, a deep and meaningful between friends, or just a catch-up. It actually doesn't mean "Let's both go and get a coffee each!"

We don’t understand it either OP! We grew up in the 60s, when the only fast food chains we remember were Wimpy, Lyons tea houses, and the Golden Egg. We only had instant or Camp coffee at home, and possibly milky coffee in a cafe.

Yet now, Starbucks, Cafe Nero and Costa are ubiquitous! We ourselves stop at Pret for a coffee to get over the train journey, before getting the bus to work. If people aren’t in coffee shops, we often see people getting takeaway coffees to take into their office first thing!

How in 50 years, did drinking filter coffees, etc become such a big thing? It’s not like it’s cheap?

OP it's just a phrase. Once at the cafe everyone can order whatever.

I never used to drink or like coffee. But since having children and being really sleep deprived it has become my drink of choice out of necessity.

I still love tea (herbal or earl grey only, can't stand builder's tea), but coffee is/gives life.

I love coffee! I like it with milk and sugar (not too much of either) but I also love it black. I tend to make it in a 3-cup cafetiere but I drink the whole lot in one mug :o

The only confusing thing on this thread is where people have mentioned that going for a coffee will probably involve having cake too.

Always with cake, always - or you're doing it wrong.

I got into coffee purely because that's what was drunk in my house growing up! My mum would religiously have a cup of coffee about 10:30 every day. Dad never had anything.

Tea was only kept in the house for visitors.

When I got to about 18, I decided that it was the "done" thing, socially, to like at least one of the hot drink options, so I chose coffee, because that's what was around. Started off very milky and sugary, and gradually toned it back.

Now I'm fairly addicted to the stuff!

If I'm offered a cup of tea, I'll drink some of it, but I'm not really a fan. I don't like the smell!!

I always get the inadvertent rage when people try to sell things to me on the grounds of it costing 'less than your daily coffee'.

Fuck off, I like good coffee, but stop trying to sell things to me based on an incorrect assumption of my habits.

You must seek to popularise afternoon tea (little sandwiches, cakes and all) as the casual meet-up and first date drink and snack of choice. It's your civic duty OP.

I'm more of a tea drinker and tend to say 'Let's go and have a cup of tea somewhere.' That sounds a bit convoluted though

I suppose most 'beverage establishments' tend to be coffee shops these days, rather than tea shops. There are so many variations on the coffee theme that it is much more lucrative to set up a coffee shop, with tea as the sideline. So now it's much more trendy to 'go out for a coffee' or 'grab a coffee' instead of 'visiting a tea shop', which evokes images of drinking tea from delicate china cups whilst nibbling on a piece of shortbread.

I think ‘going for coffee’ just sounds more casual.
I think when you say tea it sounds like ‘high tea’ or ‘afternoon tea’ (obviously you can still drink coffee at those).

I say this as someone who thinks coffee is Satan’s piss and has 90% tea running through her veins.

Always with cake, always - or you're doing it wrong.

Or we have Coeliac disease and some of the places (looking at you Starbucks) don’t do gluten free or we are sick of the token shitty gluten free brownie. There’s only so many gluten free brownies you can eat in life before you do no longer see the point.

Like others when I say go out for a coffee I mean let's go out to a cafe and drink a beverage of your choice. On some of those occasions I drink coffee (which I love by the way), on other occasions other drinks. I even say it to dh whom absolutely hates coffee and has not drunk it once in the 16 years we've been together. I am not expecting anybody else to drink coffee or even noticing if they don't. Its just a phrase....

@QueenofmyPrinces

Does anyone here remember Camp Coffee?

The liquid alternative to making coffee as opposed to using coffee granules??

My mom used to have Camp and I loved making her cups of coffee with it. It was so think and goopy....

My mum still uses camp coffee for coffee cake. She once couldn't find it in supermarket so asked the youngish lad where it was. Apparently the look on his face was priceless

Like PP have said, I think "going for a coffee" is an Americanism which has caught on over hear because Tea has several meanings here. Also because costa, Starbucks are so common here and they mainly sell coffee. I know more coffee drinkers than tea drinkers , but it does depend on the mood and time of day.