I absolutely agree that the "slowing down" and tea ritual in front of the stand-up can potential be dangerous for speed and terseness if you aren't conscious about keeping the meeting to the point.

I can understand how it might sound controversial in the blog post. That said it worked great for us to have it in place as a buffer before the actual meeting. I've seen teams that were very disciplined in being prepared that didn't need an explicit buffer for getting into the moment or being on time before the meeting. Our "Stand-Ups" definitely got more focused and fluent since we have it in place. Definitely sounds counter-intuitive :)

Thanks for sharing your experience!