Proof That Sci-Fi Loves Coffee and Tea

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
The wildly successful first novel in Leckie’s Imperial Radch space opera trilogy, Ancillary Justice is the only book to ever win the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Arthur C. Clarke Awards, achieving a sort of science fiction Triple Crown. Following an AI soldier who used to be the consciousness of a starship as she seeks vengeance for that ship’s destruction, the novel also sensibly makes time for tea, even inspiring the author to clarify that the beverage called “tea” in the books actually comes from Camellia sinensis, the shrub that produces our own tea leaves. The mystery plot at the center of the sequel, Ancillary Sword, is even centered around unrest over poor working conditions on a tea-farming planet.

Dune, by Frank Herbert
It’s already well known that coffee is a life-sustaining drug. Now imagine it improved with melange, aka spice, an extraordinarily addictive drug that extends life, improves awareness, and even induce second-sight, and you have Dune‘s spice coffee, commonly found in bars on Arrakis and replicated by dozens of charmingly nerdy cookery blogs here on planet Earth. Just wait until Starbucks gets the recipe—Pumpkin Spice Melange Latte, anyone?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, by Douglas Adams
Arthur Dent has had a tough time of it lately. His home planet, Earth, was destroyed to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, mice want to dissect his brain, and perhaps worst of all, he can’t get a good cup of tea. Sure, there’s a drinks dispenser that’s supposed to read his taste buds and create the perfect beverage for him, but all it actually does is produce a cup of liquid that’s “almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.” Will Arthur finally get a proper cup of tea? There’s probably another, more central question at the heart of the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, but at the moment, I can’t recall one.

The In Death series, by J.D. Robb
Written under a pen name by mega-bestselling author Nora Roberts, the long-running In Death series follows a police detective named Eve Dallas as she solves crimes in a mid-21st century New York City (a near-future that was rather farther away when the series began, some 20 years ago). Like any self-respecting police detective, Eve has a serious love affair with coffee, but unfortunately for her, there’s a major problem: coffee is now in very short supply, and most of the population has been reduced to drinking pale imitations. It’s a good thing, then, that there’s a sexy billionaire with a coffee planation in her future….

Memory of Water, by Emmi Itäranta
Itäranta’s debut novel, Memory of Water was first published in Finland with the title Teemestarin kirja, the Tea Master’s Book. With a title like that, it should be no surprise that tea plays an important role, although given that the book is set in a dystopian, water-scarce future, it’s not necessarily a solely comforting beverage. Noria Kaitio is studying to be a tea master, a position that comes with great responsibility: tea masters hold the secret of of the hidden water sources. When Noria inherits knowledge of a nearby secret spring, she must decide whether to keep her secret or let it go
What’s your favorite example of coffee/tea-obsessed SF?