Green Tea vs. Coffee

[DarrelSPowers]

So on the way to catch the T to work the other day I grabbed a free paper "Stuff @ night" that had 'bodies by boston' as the cover.

I flipped through the 20 or so interviews they did with the winners, and most of them mentioned giving up coffee for green tea.

It got me thinking about the merits of one vs the other. I'm allergic to milk, so I already take my coffee either black or with a bit of soymilk, and a bit of sugar. When I drink tea, its never with any milk or sugar, maybe some honey if its around but I rarely have it. Based on that, changing to green tea would slightly reduce my caloric intake, but outside that, are there any other benefits of switching? I could see that green tea would stain my teeth slightly less than coffee, and maybe reduce my caffene dependence since its got 1/3 the caffene or something like that, but those are both fairly insignificant at best.

Anyone else here try a similar switch?

link to article

 

[Crono]

I drink both, but green tea far more often. Like you said, caffeine dependence is an issue. If I drink coffee too much, I start to lose sensitivity to it. Plus the acid in coffee gives me heartburn (if I drink too much). Green tea is healthier overall, I think, but coffee has some micronutrients, too.

 

[Deeko]

They both have some advantages. I'm narcoleptic and largely immune to small amounts of caffeine, so I don't get any energy boost from tea personally. You could also just drink your coffee black, it takes some getting used to, but now I much prefer it.

 

[Redfraggle]

Another plus for green tea is that you can make it nearly anywhere. It's hard to mess up heating water, and most places will just give you hot water if you ask. Green tea actually is supposed to be made with water not at the boiling point. It's an advantage over coffee because less equipment is needed. You could think bigger picture if you want and extrapolate that into using less resources as well (plastic, glass, electricity, etc for the coffee maker).

I miss Boston.

 

[Metaliz]

I'm a coffee addict myself. lol. I've successfully limited my intake to about 2 cups per day though -- I don't care really about the caffeine or how it makes me feel, I mainly love the taste of coffee. I don't drink tea too much except for herbal tea at night.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: Metaliz
I'm a coffee addict myself. lol. I've successfully limited my intake to about 2 cups per day though -- I don't care really about the caffeine or how it makes me feel, I mainly love the taste of coffee. I don't drink tea too much except for herbal tea at night.

Welcome to the forums

 

[HardcoreRobot]

i cant handle the caffeine from real coffee, so when i drink it i take it decaf.
tea has a much better amount of the stimulant for me, so i definitely prefer it for that case. coffee can also irritate my stomach at times, so i dont drink too much, but i can drink tea all day without any adverse effects. i have a drawer of different teas at work, lots of flavor but no sugars!

 

[ubercaffeinated]

i do both. i drink 2 shots of expresso straight, in the morning, and 2-3 cups of japanese green tea throughout the day. yeah it keeps me pissing a lot, but it keeps me going, and warm during the winter months. i <3 coffee and tea.

 

[Metaliz]

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: Metaliz
I'm a coffee addict myself. lol. I've successfully limited my intake to about 2 cups per day though -- I don't care really about the caffeine or how it makes me feel, I mainly love the taste of coffee. I don't drink tea too much except for herbal tea at night.

Welcome to the forums

Hey, thanks!

 

[Mr Pickles]

There is a place down the road called Hooker Tea (guy's last name is hooker ). They have great teas and when I have them around its awesome, but when I run out I'm right back to coffee. I'm not a dependency type guy, I hate anything that I "must have" in order to go through my day. So I try and avoid getting attached to things like caffeine but its hard. I just got a new coffee maker and I've found myself using it just to brew hot water so I can put the good teas that I get from the shop in there.

Aren't green teas supposed to be chalk full of antioxidants and good things for your body. I always thought green tea was essentially much better for you than coffee. Doesn't sound like that in this thread.

 

[irishScott]

Black tea has half the caffeine of coffee, green tea has about 2/3 that of black. So you're getting about 1/3 of the caffeine you'd get with coffee.

Green tea also has mucho antioxidants that are lacking in coffee, and is overall healthier, although black coffee isn't bad overall. Obviously adding sugar/cream/sweetness can offset any benefits though. Honey is actually quite healthy though in moderation.

 

[Eric62]

I mix 1 bag of green tea with 2 bags of black tea at home - with lemon juice. Once or twice a day.
At work I drink 1 to 4 bags of orange pekoe tea per shift. Don't know much about it except it's hot and free...

IMO it's far healthier than the 2 to 3 POTS of black coffee I used to drink.