Why tea? First, I don’t drink coffee. ;-). But second, it is a relatively guilt-free indulgence, and good tea tastes totally awesome.
For me, it is all mixed up in personal history. Sweet tea at Granny’s as a kid, so warm fuzzies around tea from very small. Needed caffeine by college, so that was a natural choice. Grew up poor so never learned to really enjoy shopping and felt guilty about spending money - but once I had a job and some spare cash, I could justify a small indulgence, like a glass of tea while out, and not feel too bad about it. And then I discovered some better teas while traveling, and found that I really noticed and appreciated the difference in flavor. And then of course they don’t sell these things everywhere, and I hate shopping, so whenever I do see it, I tell myself I’d better stock up. Multiply by 30 years and a lot more discretionary income than when I started, and you have a gazingus pin, a/k/a something that does serve a purpose, but that has become a spendy, unthinking habit that is out of proportion to that purpose — somehow, it just trips a switch in my brain that it is “ok” to buy tea, and that in fact I really should stock up when I find it, so the rational decision making part of my brain shuts off, and the moremoremore 3-yr-old takes over.
The nice thing is that just making it conscious again has gone a long way toward breaking the cycle. The first time I walked past a tea shop, man, my knees got weak. But now I’m looking at and appreciating what I already have and am enjoying recovering some more space and organization in my tea cabinet, so that I can see and enjoy what I have. I have no intention of cutting out tea entirely, or even cutting back on my consumption. I just need to be paying as much attention to those purchases as I do to other stuff - I needed to break that “automatic preapproval” cycle.