I’d personally place tea on S and water on A. Tea is far too versatile. Water is great but tea hydrates just as much and has the potential to be much much more.
Possibly depends a bit how you make it. If you make extremely strong black tea and then dump tons of sugar in it it’s definitely less refreshing than unsweetened mint tea for example. Tea, like most things in life, is a spectrum.
I mostly agree, but I'm not drinking any sort of tea after a 10k. Water/tea/coffee is 95% of what I drink. Whole milk is 3%, and boba tea is another 1%. I'm ashamed to say I drink soda in social settings.
I’d argue though, after a 10K, you’re not drinking for any other reason than hydration and in such cases water is always the best. But I’d argue that’s an edge case unless you’re a professional athlete or live in a very hot environment
I also drink because I enjoy the taste. Some people drink coffee or energy drinks to stay awake. One can drink alcohol to get drunk. There are many reasons. Yes, hydration is almost always a present and desired effect but not always the reason.
That's cheating! I can take medicine with honey as well and even if it stops tasting horrible it's still the honey doing the heavy lifting. We can agree on a compromise and put honey in the D tier though.