Why Does Pour-Over Coffee Beat Tea in the Office?

An 8-ounce cup of coffee generally holds more than 100mg of caffeine, while the same volume of tea contains about 10 to 50mg depending on type. Per 100 grams, coffee beans hold roughly 1.3 percent caffeine against 2 to 5 percent in green tea, but brewing method decides how much actually reaches the cup. Coffee is brewed by extraction, tea by full infusion.

A pour-over with 225ml of water and 15g of beans yields about 60 to 90mg of caffeine, and a single 30ml espresso from 15g of beans about 85mg. These numbers, plus workplace atmosphere and social habits, help explain why more office workers set up pour-over gear instead of a tea set. Coffee enthusiasts often keep the equipment simple.

In the office pantry of urban office buildings, more and more office workers are choosing to set up pour-over equipment rather than a tea set. Behind this lies not only the objective difference in caffeine content, but also multiple factors such as workplace atmosphere, social interaction styles, and identity. Starting with a comparison of caffeine data between coffee and tea, combined with brewing methods, work pace, and office social dynamics, this article analyzes why specialty pour-over coffee is more popular among office workers, while traditional tea brewing is gradually declining in office environments. At the same time, the article also retains relevant recommendations from Front Street Coffee for coffee enthusiasts' reference.

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A while ago, while browsing Xiaohongshu, I noticed quite a few people making pour-over coffee in their office pantry. This made me wonder: why do so few people set up a full tea set to brew tea in the pantry?

By rights, tea culture has been passed down here for over a thousand years, so why is it that in our generation, everyone has instead turned to coffee?

To answer this question, we first need to understand why coffee has such an obvious energizing effect on office workers.

Let's look at a set of comparative data first:

Per 100 grams of coffee beans, the caffeine content is about 1.3%.

Per 100 grams of green tea, the caffeine content is about 2%-5%.

In an 8-ounce cup of coffee, the caffeine content generally exceeds 100mg (among which, a cup of pour-over coffee (225ml/15g beans) contains about 60-90mg of caffeine; a single espresso (30ml/15g beans) contains about 85mg of caffeine). While in a cup of tea (same volume), the caffeine content is generally between 10-50mg (depending on the type).

Converted, a cup of coffee contains about 5 times the caffeine of tea. Why is the gap so large? The key lies in the different brewing methods.

After all, no one would throw coffee beans directly into a cup to steep, while tea leaves need to be fully infused to release their flavor. Although there are ground tea powders on the market, they are usually quite expensive.

For office workers, consuming enough caffeine allows them to maintain a better working state. If they switched to tea, to achieve the same energizing effect, they would need to drink at least 1.1 liters of tea.

This is also why people tend to choose coffee rather than tea at work. Add to that the rapid economic development today, with work pace wound up like clockwork, and coffee clearly fits this fast-paced mode better.

Against the backdrop of fast-paced urban civilization, tea seems somewhat out of place in the office environment. For example, when working overtime and drinking coffee, your boss will think you are full of drive; but if you drink tea while working overtime, your boss might suspect you are there to retire.

Today, a cup of coffee has become part of young people's office social life. For daily chats among colleagues in the same department, or negotiations between colleagues from different departments, offering a cup of coffee often makes communication smoother with a relaxed atmosphere.

As a symbol of a petit-bourgeois lifestyle, coffee in the eyes of office workers better fits their identity as urban white-collar workers.

Setting up a pour-over setup in the pantry can give the space more of a coffee atmosphere. The sound of grinding coffee beans during brewing, plus the diffused aroma, creates a sense of ritual. Tea brewing nowadays mostly uses tea bags, and preparing a tea set in the pantry also seems out of sync with the office work atmosphere, so its appeal is not as strong as coffee.

Moreover, when tired from work, taking the opportunity of drinking coffee also allows one to step outside for some fresh air and relieve work fatigue. Even the shoemaker in "B for Busy" has his own coffee time; young people today naturally yearn more for the freedom that coffee brings.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.