Tea People / Coffee People
So, I’m sure we’ve all brought it up at some point, either as a joke or as a serious conversation at some point. It’s like that moment where you’re deep in conversation with this person you just met and you might even like, but you haven’t asked the most important question: Do you prefer cats or dogs? Coke or Pepsi? Are you a morning person or — You get the idea. It’s in our nature to label people. It’s easier to understand somebody when you can separate them into groups, arbitrary as they are. For instance, everyone knows the Stacy is outgoing because she’s a Leo, and that tea drinkers have insanely high IQs.
Joking aside, however, there are observable connections between certain behavior patterns and personality types – if you believe there is any validity behind them. Take introverts and extraverts on the internet. A higher percentage of extraverts are drawn to social media and are more active in posting and sharing, whereas introverts are more likely to need more incentive to use social sites – for instance, a debate may be something more likely to draw an introvert in than a friend’s selfie.
There have been studies for music taste as well based around the five factor model that shows a correlation between genres and and personality traits. A high level of openness correlates with enjoyment of complex music like jazz, where high levels of agreeableness resulted in a high correlation with enjoyment of upbeat, conventional music.
So, if we take a moment to rule out external factors like tradition, habit, and necessity, do you think there could be a fundamental personality difference between those who prefer tea and those who prefer coffee? Could there be something more behind someone’s preference besides taste?
For fun, leave your Myers-Briggs personality type and your opinion here. Do you have experience with other coffee or tea addicts? Can one person love both tea and coffee and still survive? Yea or Nay? Even as we discuss it, someone in academia may be putting a study together.
Every morning I drink espresso + dark chocolate. Then several cups of tea a day.
I’m ESFP. No cats or dogs due to allergies in a family.
I drink both. At one time I lived off espresso. I have scored as both INFP and ENFP. I’m usually very close to the line.
For a very long time I was a definite coffee addict. Strong, black, and piping hot at least three times a day. Since getting into tea my enthusiasm for coffee has waned a bit, though not because I’ve lost a taste for it. I just find that there are so many teas to try and there is always a perfect tea for every occasion. I often fill up my caffeine quota with teas. There are certain times (and foods) that just call for a nice coffee, but I do really love tea.
I suppose there could be a difference between strict coffee drinkers and strict tea drinkers. But in my completely unscientific opinion I think it mostly comes down to culture and personal taste.
I normally score INTJ – so I of course love coffee but don’t drink it – occasionally iced, but never hot. Got into tea because I like the taste and became an addict as I learned more about the subject. All my RL friends are coffee people – I do not keep coffee in the house – I have them trained, either bring your own, or you are going to get tea….
(cats, coke, night owl….)
ENTJ, I love both but Coffee doesn’t play nice with my stomach so I drink tea a bit more.
Iced Tea in the summer is heaven though, there is nothing that Coffee can do to change my opinion on that
I know the Myers-Briggs too well and can score differently every time I take it. It is a preference indicator, not a psych test as such. IQ tests like the WAIS are psychometric.
Coffee in the morning and tea in the evening.
ISTJ, used to be an E. I am a tea person now but it’s a relative recent thing and seems to have coincided with a major surgery I had, where some of my tastes changed. I never liked coffee though, this is replacing a soda thing.
I’m an INFJ and I really can’t stand coffee. I love the smell of it, but if I have it, I need to have the bitterness tempered by milk and sugar, and I find that as a result, I often get a sour aftertaste in my mouth.
It takes all kinds, though. My mom’s a coffee drinker, I’m the tea nerd, and my husband just wants soda.
INFJ, I guess, though it’s pretty hard to evaluate myself accurately at all.
I have never liked coffee – I don’t like the smell or the taste and I don’t have a discernible reaction to caffeine so I can’t even use it for a boost. My mother drank strong black coffee all day long my entire life, but I never went for it. I will drink a sweetened to heck cappuccino once in a while, but that’s it.
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