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I read once that you can categorize fantasy novels by how they write about a cup of tea. If the only time tea is mentioned is when it’s poisoned in an assassination attempt, you’re likely near to the grimdark side of the spectrum. If it’s included in passing as being drank while the main characters strategize in a war room, you’re probably reading a typical high fantasy novel. If the preparation of the tea is described in loving detail, though, and the characters get to slowly enjoy it during a low-stakes conversation, you’re firmly in the cozy fantasy category.
Despite all my best attempts to search, I can’t seem to find the originator of this idea, but it stuck with me. So, I decided to take a handful of cozy fantasy books and count how many times they mentioned tea. This is a random selection based on the ebooks (and in one case, graphic novel) I had on hand. The rules: “tea” and “teas” count, but tea included within a word — like”teacup” or “teapot” — don’t. These are also rough counts, because searching through the ebook also brought up words like “teaching,” so I had to rely on my own questionable ability to keep track of numbers.
All of the cozy fantasy books included the word tea, but they ranged from just one mention to more than 90(!) mentions. Without further ado, let’s get into the books!
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