Tea Drinkers

[Mr. Illini]

Obviously with a drink as popular as (hot) tea, you will get some of everything in its fanatics. (Iced tea doesn't count here)

Yet, drinks like the latte are decidedly associated with liberal Democrats.

Do you associate tea-drinking more so with Republicans or with Democrats?

Some may more closely associate it with an older, richer crowd while others may more closely see it as a younger, hipster-y crowd. Will be interesting to see the results.

Personally, I associate it more with liberal culture groups. I know that urban liberals like tea (they walk with the sort of tea thermoses with the filters built in), yet I do agree that older white rich conservatives are a group that enjoy tea disproportionately as well.

Anecdotally, I am a tea drinker myself, but also know Republican tea drinkers.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Being normal

[politicus]

Being normal

A very British answer. It is pretty abnormal in my coffee drinking country. Americans seems to be coffee drinkers too. I would say youngish urban Democrats - or people I assume would be Democrats.

[politicus]

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I suppose a lot of Asian minorities drink tea as well, although that's just my guess.

[politicus]

I suppose a lot of Asian minorities drink tea as well, although that's just my guess.

They would mostly be Democrats.

[DemPGH]

Some may more closely associate it with an older, richer crowd while others may more closely see it as a younger, hipster-y crowd. Will be interesting to see the results.

Yep, both here. Old ladies (probably very conservative) plus youngish hipster-y lefty or otherwise nerd T-shirt wearing males. I'll occasionally see both in my favorite coffeeshop with a small teapot and strainer and the whole thing - they go all out. In restaurants I'll often see older, reasonably well dressed ladies order tea.

I don't mind tea, but I only very occasionally drink it. I keep just plain black tea in the cupboard, but my morning drink is a 12 oz. cup of black, unsweetened coffee, usually a South American. In western PA coffee is decidedly without doubt the drink. And I think that's pretty much representative of the USA. We're coffee drinkers.

If pressed, I think I would give the edge to the older, more moneyed crowd liking tea because there are more of them around here.

[DavidB.]

In the Netherlands, everyone will immediately associate drinking tea with the Labour Party, in particular with former party leader and Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen.

When filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed by a radical Muslim for making a critical film about Islam, Cohen, at that time mayor of Amsterdam, didn't spend time with Van Gogh's family, but instead went to drink tea with people from the Moroccan community. Later, he campaigned on this himself, saying that "drinking tea with Moroccan communities is the best way to prevent radicalization." It backfired in public perception and left an image of both Job Cohen and Labour being soft on security issues and ignoring the threat that radical Islam poses to Dutch society and people's freedom. Cohen doesn't have a political function anymore, but the image still haunts Labour.

[dead0man]

My mom drinks more tea than anybody I know, very conservative.
The church I grew up in served tea at every function (by the boat load), very conservative.
The south LOVES tea (sweet), generally conservative.

[ElectionsGuy]

My mom is insanely conservative and she drinks tea daily. But Democrats if I had to choose.

[politicus]

The south LOVES tea (sweet), generally conservative.

Sweat Tea is more of a soft drink then actual tea. I didn't include that as tea drinking.

[dead0man]

I find that odd.  Soft drinks have bubbles don't they?

[politicus]

I find that odd.  Soft drinks have bubbles don't they?

Fair enough, its your language.   I just thought of a soft drink as a non-alcoholic beverage with a ton of sugar in it. Iced tea is sold as a soft drink here - always placed next to pop. Wiki says soft drinks "usually" includes carbonated water, so apparently not a requirement.

Of course sweet tea is a form of tea, and if you include it that changes the composition of the US tea drinker segment quite a bit.

[/]

I generally think of the South (and hence social conservatism) when I think of tea, but the argument in favor of Dems drinking it more due to having a younger, more "hip" demographic is certainly interesting.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Aren't young liberals coffee drinkers? Starbucks and the like; the "latte liberal" stereotype etc.

[TNF]

I associate drinking tea with being from the South.

[Mr. Illini]

Everyone might keep in mind that I specified hot tea to avoid sweet iced tea from entering the conversation, as it has a very different connotation and also is sugar water, not tea.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

I associate drinking tea (which I think of as a hot drink, not an iced drink), with the Brits, and to a lesser extent, Australians and New Zealanders.

Here in Australia, people tend to be tea drinkers or coffee drinkers, from what I can see. A lot of people like both, although will generally prefer one over the other.

[Mr. Illini]

Republicans because of sweet tea.

Damnit people

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Republicans because of sweet tea.

Read the OP

[SWE]

HPs

[Ban my account ffs!]

The upper midwest is much more a coffee drinking area.  And people drink that regardless of political affiliation. 

[bagelman]

I see them as normally Republican but trending towards democrats as the hip kids and health food lovers replace the old souther church-goers.

[Mr. Illini]

No one reads OP

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I for one hold tea and sweet tea as very distinct things so I understand you, Illini. Anyway, I almost always associate it with Asian-Americans, which I reckon would lean Dem so that is how I voted.