tea vs coffee vs pipes

[DrwHem]

which is best overall for relaxation or other benefits?

[OKOK]

Tea and coffee, pipes waste too much time.

[Actual Malice]

Coffee takes two hours to make on the stove, uses 20 wheat, produces five cups, and gives +15 pleasure bonus in the form of Caffeine (manipulation/mobility bonus?).
Smokeleaf tea takes two hours to make on the stove, uses 20 raw smokeleaf, produces five cups, and gives +15 pleasure bonus in the form of pain relief.
Teaball tea (only found on Desertum) takes two hours to make on the stove, uses 20 teaballs, produces five cups, and gives +15 pleasure bonus in the form of pain relief.
Smokeleaf pipes take six hours on the workbench, use 10 dried smokeleaf (and four sticks), produce two pipes, and give +18 pleasure bonus in the form of pain relief.

Pipes take a minimum crafting skill of three (no failure at six) and give 600 xp. Neither smokeleaf tea nor coffee have any minimum skill level to make and neither gives any xp.

Note, too, that pipes take dried smokeleaf, so will need a drying rack (under Ranching). If you want to make smokeleaf tea, it is perhaps best not to construct a drying rack, because the survivors automatically take harvested smokeleaf and put it on the rack, making it unsuitable for tea.

OKOK is clearly correct in that pipes take longer. It can be a bit situational, though. If you need pain relief (and Carter, Conner and Jack always need pain relief, and anybody can end up in pain after an attack and mistreatment due to low Healing), you might prefer tea or pipes over coffee. If you want to use your grain for other things, again tea or pipes.

The advantages that pipes offer are that they are crafted on the workbench, so it frees up your stove for food, and they offer substantial xp to craft (everything else you craft on the workbench offers only 100-300 xp) so pipes can help level somebody in crafting.

[emmanuelfrancois]

You can build and use a drying rack - you just need to unallow the s;okeleaves in it<

[Actual Malice]

Originally posted by emmanuelfrancois:

You can build and use a drying rack - you just need to unallow the s;okeleaves in it<

Good point and thank you for the clarification. I tend to go the pipeweed route, so have never even bothered to check the restrictions, because I want my smokeleaf dried.

[NukeAJS]

The only real reason to use pipes is pain relief. It gives more pain relief than tea. If I remember correctly, tea is -15 pain and pipes are -30 pain.

Pipes take a LONG time to make for what you're getting. I really think the devs should reduce the time by like 75%. They sell to ships in the trading scenario quite nicely if you only look at raw materials. The time investment almost certainly makes it not worth it unless you have nothing else to sell, though.

Last thing to add -- coffee gives the caffeinated buff which gives +3 to manipulation and consciousness which is something but I doubt you'll notice or that it will make a difference.