"Tea, not coffee!"
Translation:Herbata, nie kawa!
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without context the expression (or half of sentence) is not clear. It may be: (This is) tea, not coffee! - (to jest) herbata, nie kawa (I am drinking) tea, not coffee! - (pije) herbatę, nie kawę!
OK, I guess it is justifiable to accept the Accusative verion, as (I am drinking) or (I ordered) are probable. Added "Herbatę, nie kawę!"
The only case which changes when negated is when the verb needs Accusative. And indeed, if you wrote "I drink tea, I do not drink coffee!" that would be "Piję herbatę, nie piję kawy" and Genitive would be used. But here, the thing negated is not any verb, but just the noun, so it stays. It's a relatively rare situation throughout this course.
The only slavic language that felt the need for tea to not be similar to neither Tea nor Chai
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It's "herba the" - tea herb though. ;) And teapot is "czajnik". So in a way it's similar to both. ;P
Herbata is nominative case- the form of noun that it takes when it is a subject of a sentence - like tea is hot - herbata jest gorąca. It is also "dictionary form". which is the one you see at dictionaries and pick when there are pictures in duolingo.
herbatę is accusative case, -the form of noun that it often takes when it is a object of a sentence. Poproszę herbatę means literally I will ask for tea
"kawa" or "herbata" are the basic forms of those nouns, they are in the Nominative case.
"kawę" and "herbatę" are the Accusative forms, used for the direct object of the sentence. E.g. "Piję kawę" (I am drinking coffee) or "Kupuję herbatę" (I am buying tea).
It would sound a bit more natural if used as a question:
Herbata, nie kawa?
Someone making sure you wanted tea and not coffee.