Black Tea vs. Coffee

Whether you wake up at 6am to exercise, get ready for work, get the kids off to school, or just seize the day, mornings can be tough. Heck, for some of us, waking up at the crack of noon can be difficult! Regardless, sometimes we all need a little extra boost. Usually, we gravitate to what will wake us up, not what will be the best for our health—a cup of water isn’t going to help us much in the morning. However, there are many options that can wake you up, and fall in line with our healthy standards of living. We are going to be comparing the world’s most popular wake-up drink, coffee, with black tea; the less-popular cousin of green tea.

Let’s start with the obvious question; which one has more caffeine? An average cup of coffee contains about two times as much caffeine as an average cup of black tea. So, if you find yourself jittery after a cup of coffee, the tea switch might be ideal for you. On the other hand, from a caffeine perspective, if you are still exhausted immediately after a cup of joe, perhaps tea is not your best bet.

Since we are extremely health oriented, let’s hop on this topic for a minute. Of course, we could all pound a standard energy drink first thing in the morning, and that will probably wire us for a few hours (before the inevitable crash and jitters), but we know this is not in our best interest. Coffee has been linked to both positive and negative health effects. While it can regulate blood sugar and decrease the risk of attaining certain diseases, it can also lead to irritability, anxiety, and sleep-related problems. Tea has been shown to help reduce cholesterol levels, increase metabolism, and relax blood vessels, but can have the same adverse side effects as coffee if similar amounts of caffeine are consumed (remember, 2:1 ratio). Both coffee and black tea contain antioxidants, however, black tea contains significantly more.

We can conclude that this is really a matter of preference. While black tea is healthier than coffee, it contains less caffeine so may not have the same wake-up power you need. On an aside, we would recommend if you are going to switch to tea, switch to white or green. White and green teas are both minimally processed, unlike black tea which is fermented. The fermentation process reduces the amount of antioxidants! However, black tea does have just a little bit more caffeine than green and white teas.  Of course, you can always get the best of both worlds by getting a coffee’s cup worth of caffeine, AND a boat load of antioxidants (plus much more) from a Phix Energy!

Rise and shine,

Your friends at Phix