Tea searches hit new record in the US

Internet searches for the beverage tea in the US have hit record levels in 2023, according to Google Trends. Interest has more than doubled compared to searches 20 years ago.

Breaking it down, green tea is searched three times more than black tea, and interestingly ‘tea meaning’ has been searched for twice as much as ‘tea flavors’ in the past year, suggesting a populace pondering over the essence rather than just the taste of their brew.

Best tea for…

The top searched ‘best tea for…’, a classic search formula, saw sore throat, weight loss and cough being the most searched for questions. ‘Best tea for cold’ and ‘best tea for skin’ also registered highly on the tea-based questions internet users wanted answers to.

Tea searches in the US also reflected regional variations in terminology, particularly with the trendy ‘boba tea’. Most Americans prefer this term over ‘bubble tea’, except in the Northeast, Illinois, Michigan, and Washington, where ‘bubble tea’ floats to the top.

Boba tea or bubble tea

Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, is a Taiwanese tea-based drink that has captured the hearts of consumers across the US. It usually consists of tea accompanied by chewy tapioca balls or fruit jellies. It’s not just a drink; it’s a snack as well and is often served with a fat straw to be able to slurp up the tasty balls. The ‘bubbles’ refer to the froth created by shaking the tea, whereas ‘boba’ is derived from a Chinese term for the tapioca pearls. The drink can be served hot or cold and has taken the world by storm with its unique texture and versatility.

Tea and gossip: the slang of ‘Spilling the Tea’

In a cultural twist, tea is not only a drink to be savored but also a word steeped in contemporary slang. “Spilling the tea” has become synonymous with sharing juicy gossip or inside information. Tracing its origins to AAVE and the LGBTQ+ community, the phrase has percolated into mainstream discourse, signifying the act of revealing the tantalizing truths or hidden facts in one’s possession.

The exact roots of the phrase are as blended as the drink itself, with one theory suggesting “tea” as an acronym for “truth”. Another posits it as a natural evolution of language within intimate social gatherings where sharing a pot of tea meant exchanging stories and personal anecdotes.

Google notes that ‘spill the tea’ overtook ‘spill the beans’ as the more searched phrase in August 2018.

Tea on the rise in the US

The US has historically been a nation of coffee drinkers, and while the appetite for the bean-based brew doesn’t seem to fading any time soon, tea consumption is on the rise. According to the, admittedly not entirely impartial, Tea Association of the USA, in a 2021 report, on any given day 159 million Americans drink tea, which is just over 60% of the adult population. According to the National Institutes of Health, 75% of the population over 20-years-old reported drinking coffee.