Tyrphanax said:
The British have been drinking it for literally a billion years and they're alright chaps, mostly. It's just such an inconsequential thing to me; I mean, is God really going to be THAT mad at you for having a nice, hot cup of tea on a cold day?
Look what a billion years of tea drinking has done to their teeth! Clearly God just wants his truly faithful in the Americas to keep their pretty smiles.
The confusing part is cold caffeinated beverages are okay, so it isn't about how unhealthy caffeine is, as Coca-Cola is perfectly acceptable, which has more caffeine than many teas. Well... I guess I have a personal antidote that indicates not all Mormons are okay with drinking Coca-Cola...
I grew up in city that had a large enough Mormon population that we had a massive temple in the middle of it. If you were white and middle-class in that town, there was a very high chance you were Mormon. I once had an elderly woman approach me in the toy section at some department store when I was six or seven and tell me what an adorable young man I was, then asked if I was LDS. When I told her "no" her response was to look away, say "That's ashame." and not say another word to me. Creepy to start with, that just made it creepier. All that to say, the Mormon population was very high. I was one of literally a very small number of kids in my entire school who were not LDS. So much so that I can recall my public school teachers often mentioning Mormon doctrines and teachings in the class room. So, as a result, just about ever friend I ever had as a kid was Mormon. Oh right, this is suppose to be about Coca-Cola...
... so, one time while I was in the fourth grade I had a friend over to my house, I offered him a Coke from the fridge, he crinkled his nose, looked at me funny, and in a slightly insulted tone asked, "Why are you offering me that? If you're going to drink that you might as well be doing drugs." I stared at him over the rim of my Coke can as I gently chugged away, blinked a few times, then pulling the can away from my mouth exclaimed, "Dude, your dad works for Pepsi!
"Yeah, so?"
"Doesn't that make him kind of like a drug dealer?"
Don't really remember his response. Something about it being okay since his dad doesn't drink the crap. So, at least back in the early nineties some Mormons took serious issue with any caffeinated beverage.