Tea wins the afternoon, and the afternoon is where work is won

Coffee gives you a spike and a crash. Tea gives you a plateau.

L-theanine, which coffee lacks, smooths caffeine's edge into a long, level focus with none of the jitter and none of the 3pm collapse. That matters because the hardest, least glamorous stretch of real work is the afternoon, and the afternoon belongs to tea. There is also range: a bright first-flush in the morning, a roasted oolong after lunch, a herbal tisane that lets you keep the ritual without keeping yourself awake.

Coffee is a sprint you pay for. Tea is a pace you can hold all day.