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

I say "let's meet for a cuppa". Covers all bases and sounds as OK as coffee.

I really hate the word "cuppa".

*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.*

It's an incorrect assumption about your spending habits, not your hot drink preferences, of course. Basically, 'the sort of person rich or financially illiterate enough to spend £2.50 a day, every day, on a luxury, is the sort of person likely to buy our luxury / overpriced product.'

Because most places you’d chose to meet are coffee shops.

@QueenofmyPrinces

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

So, it's not something that is ever said to you, and by the sound of it meeting someone for a hot drink and a cake/sandwich/scone is not something that happens in your world, so why are you even giving it headspace? Is it really a concept that you only know about from Mumsnet? It's as if you are talking about something that doesn't happen in real life, like the rest of us talk about things that people do in TV programmes, but nobody really does - like everybody using the launderette in Eastenders, rather than having a washing machine at home.

Thank you @chomalungma for the glimpse of a youthful Anthony Head. A most welcome diversion (although I feel he improved with age).

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I really hate the word "cuppa".

Me too, makes my skin crawl like the word moist .

I agree with you Op, but saying “shall we meet up for a tea” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Perhaps we should start saying it though, maybe it’ll catch on.

YANBU!

There's no obsession with coffee. As others have said it's just an expression that's become commonplace. It could've just as easily have been tea or hot chocolate. It's not meant to be taken literally.

Maybe it is something to do with a large proportion of mumsnet readers being sleep deprived due to small children and reliant on multiple coffees to get them through the day.

I ❤️ coffee. I NEED coffee. I am addicted and proud.

@VampireBill

…..going for a coffee will probably involve having cake too. Always with cake, always - or you're doing it wrong.

This is very true. It does also involve cake.

Where I live one is asked to 'go out for a brew'. This means meeting up in a public place other than a pub in order to consume hot beverages and possibly confectionery.

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

Nonsense. I drink black coffee and have done since I was at high school (many, many years ago). I'm in NZ and we drink a lot of coffee here.

tea makes me feel sick. so coffe it is for me.

plus tea in a cafe is sometimes vile as they use water that's not hot enough.

I adore my tea and coffee gives me headaches.
How people can drink those sugar laden ' shot' coffees or ' mocha chocca skinny what its' is beyond me. I've had a sip of one and they are just hype!
However , the expression just means meet up. Coffee shops do sell tea and other drinks as well!
Our costa coffee in town isn't open for sit in yet so nobody is meeting up in there anyway and most of the other cafes have shut down :(

@senua

"going for a coffee" four words go out to a cafe and have a drink nine words

This is what I don’t understand....
Brevity, innit.

Well summarised!

I quite often say to my 2 and 4 year olds let's go for a coffee. Somewhat snappier than "let's go to a cafe and I'll have coffee and you can have babychinnos". And just "let's go to a cafe" would probably imply to them that a second lunch was being offered.

It's just an expression I guess. Another way of saying "meeting up". But it is "adultier" to suggest meeting for a coffee. Very Sex and the City...

I love coffee. To be honest since I've properly discovered good coffee I have gone off tea. I will have it occasionally but I would always choose coffee. Fortunately during my pregnancies I totally went off both.

YABU that this winds you up.

What does it matter what beverage people say to meet up?

Plus, some regions set “tea” as a meal so it could cause confusion. Coffee usually means a cafe of some sorts. What a strange thing to give headspace for.

'Going for a pint ? ' was the usual questiin after work on a Friday in the 1980s!

I would invite someone out for coffee, but invite them round for a cup of tea. I don’t drink coffee. It’s definitely not brevity for me because I usually say something like, “We should for coffee sometime. Well, not really because I don’t drink coffee, but you know what I mean”.

It is just a saying to me, there are lots of sayings that I don't get if I really think about them but they are just there, I can't feel as passionate about sayings as the op seems to be about it

Ah, someone just hit on something there. Probably not quite relevant. It's hit and miss whether you'll get a decent cup of tea outside of the home. Very often, the water hasn't quite been brought to the boil or is off the boil and the tea is just sludge coloured water. Sadness in a mug. It's often a pleasant surprise to get decent tea. But coffee is mostly brewed in those big machines that do everything but fly. Not as much room for human error. The coffee you ask for is usually the coffee you get, thanks to the 'big machine'. And yes, I have had the odd crap cup of coffee, but it's not quite as much of a lottery as tea.