Drinking tea has become a ritual. Tea has become a "social drink" and is consumed in enormous quantities. Surprisingly, about 350 litres (3600 cups) of tea are consumed every day in IIT during the working hours (9 a.m.–5 p.m.).

During these hours, no one is officially permitted to discontinue his work and go for tea. But almost as a ritual, most people drink tea twice a day between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Do we consume tea only for its warm, stimulating effect, or do we have other reasons too? This inexpensive drink has so widely influenced people that it drives hordes of them towards itself throughout the day. Someone has aptly commented that IIT is engulfed by a "tea phenomenon." This is an attempt to look into this "phenomena." It seems futile to convince people that it is a waste of time (if one thinks so). It would be preferable to understand what people want and to provide them with certain basic amenities so that time is not wasted in this process (tea drinking).

Though the study could be done for the amount of tea consumed in 24 hours in the whole of IIT, we have decided to limit ourselves to studying this "phenomenon" only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The study will also be limited to the working areas (administrative and academic) of IIT and not include residential areas.