It was at that point that I realized that the whole thing is just training us for a future in which we are displayed the item of our choice - a tea, piping hot

It was at that point that I realized that the whole thing is just training us for a future in which we are displayed the item of our choice - a tea, piping hot Darjeeling or Lapsang Souchong - as just out of reach until we interact with the machine and are then blessed by it cautiously, tentatively and maybe even lovingly dispensing to us a tasteless brown liquid that is guaranteed to be almost but not quite entirely unlike tea. (Can we claim Hitchhiker's Guide as Prior Art for all this nonsense?)