Modern coffee shop design often uses carefully crafted aesthetics to hint at a sense of "ritual," but does the fast-paced experience actually back up the branding? Walk into almost any specialty coffee shop and you'll see the word "ritual" somewhere — on the menu, on a chalkboard, in the copy…

Gongfu tea and espresso: Two different cultures, one shared purpose of slowing down. On the surface, these two rituals couldn't look more different. Gongfu tea is slow, quiet, stretched across many small infusions over half an hour or more. A proper espresso is fast, intense, over in a few sips,…