Coffee, Tea Or Me?

5 Ponderings On Which Is Better
By Pandora Poikilos

Here's a debate that has been a guest at many a breakfast table. When all you need and crave for, one groggy morning, is that sweet flavour of caffeine, sliding down your tongue and hitting your nerves in that soothing and warm manner you're accustomed to, but instead someone picks this very moment to give you a series of long lectures on how coffee is bad for you. Sound familiar? Well, if I'd have to pick a side (without a moment's hesitation) my pick would be - coffee. Even as I spell the word, I know Peas will be cross eyed as he reads this post seeing he can never get through a day "without a few cups of tea." For me, good and bad factors taken into consideration, I just love the way coffee goes with anything. You can have it after a super spicy dish or as you savour that delicious slice of blueberry cheesecake. Coffee is also not complicated to match unlike tea that has some types that need to be served with a slice of lemon and others with milk. Just in case you haven't decided on your favourite beverage, here are some pointers that might help you choose which beverage you'd like to sip.

Is coffee really bad for your health?
I'm no scientist but what I do know is that for every study that says, don't touch that cup of coffee there's another that says, drink it. What I can tell you from my own experience is that a drink that has you craving for more, gives you the perception that you need to keep sipping it while working or to stay awake and when after regularly consuming large amounts of it on a daily basis has your fingers shaking when you can't drink it in the same quantity, it can't be the perfect ingredient for good health, so controlled intake is necessary. Bear in mind also, that it's the caffeine in coffee that gets you going and some people opt to enjoy decaffeinated coffee, which is not necessarily a caffeine free version of coffee, it just has less caffeine. This makes it less evil but taken in enough large quantities, it's like drinking normal coffee isn't it? If you're re-reading this bit with raised eyebrows, think of another two words - Diet Coke. It doesn't say sugar free Coke, it doesn't say good for you Coke, it says Diet Coke which means there's a little less of what everyone else is getting but it doesn't necessarily make it good for you which is probably why they finally came up with Coca Cola Zero.

Tea has caffeine?
That it does. So do soft drinks and chocolate. What makes each item different is the caffeine levels contained in each raw item are varied alongside the process of each product resulting in different levels of caffeine remaining in the end product to affect your body. Also, in the case of chocolates it may not necessarily be the caffeine that's giving you that little 'kick' it may be all that sugar that'll have you thinking its Christmas morning again. I may be way past the Trick or Treat age group but I know given the right unhealthy amount of chocolates, I can still get a sugar rush. So what's the grand difference? If tea and coffee both have caffeine, why is coffee singled out to be the bad boy of a breakfast table? In comparison with tea, caffeine in coffee moves through our system much more rapidly than caffeine in tea. For instance, and this is not based on any particular study, 50mg of coffee might react within minutes while 50mg of tea will take two hours. Just like coffee, different types of tea have different caffeine levels so each type will have a different time frame of when it reacts in your system.

Coffee as a brand
With the advent of outlets like Starbucks coupled with the wireless era, coffee became a 'cool' badge. I say "coffee" because it was no longer, "Let's go for a drink", it became, "Let's go for a coffee". It was no longer "Coffee for breakfast" it became "After dinner coffee". Either tea got left out in the popularity contest or it just didn't qualify as 'cool' word. But this where I'm a little curious. Imagine this, a couple walk in. Obviously they are a couple, they are holding hands, whispering in those little tones that lovers reserve for each other as they order their coffee beverages and then when their order is served, they sit opposite each other, slide out a laptop and spend the rest of their outing communicating to each other and others through their laptop. So maybe this is the only place they can get internet connection together or maybe its a new form of communication that's lost on me because I just wouldn't understand how if you were lucky enough to be holding someone's hand why you would want to spend the rest of the time texting through a laptop? Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against these outlets. Personally, I adore a Caramel Machiato from Starbucks. Different countries on different continents and you know this will taste the same. But it does make me wonder, why all the funding and hype about coffee and not tea? We know its addictive and you'll come back for more so let's keep reminding you?

Tea provides more cures
Even as some studies point towards findings that drinking tea can prevent heart diseases and cancer, we're back to turning this into a debate. While I know that tea has fixed some severe colds and flus for people I know, the only thing that worked for me when I had a ghastly cold when I was about 10 was an even more ghastly mixture that an aunt made using a teaspoon of brandy, eggs and coffee. While some people say that coffee works better to fix a tummy upset, a cup of tea (no milk or sugar) does that for me. While some studies point to tea acting as a soothing agent when having a migraine, even more studies say that caffeine in any dosage (coffee, tea, chocolates) can aggravate migraines. Tea components are also said to be beneficial when used in skin care products, I personally have to disagree. Having tried it at varying stages as a teenager I ended up with much bigger spots then when I tried the products with clear skin.

Coffee or tea for baby?
While I cannot speak from personal experience on this point, caffeine during pregnancy has also been the source of many studies and even more misunderstandings with some saying a maximum of 3 cups of tea and 1 cup of coffee and others saying that any amount of coffee is fine during pregnancy. Some studies have pointed out that coffee leads to miscarriages early on in a pregnancy while others have shown that, even getting pregnant when drinking large amounts of coffee everyday, is going to be difficult. The best remedy for this is of course to check with your family doctor. Then comes the question of how old is appropriate for children to have coffee. Some are given sips as early as 8 and others are not allowed anywhere near tea or coffee till aged 16. There are studies that point towards caffeine being a contributor to stunting one's height. And yet, there are the 6 footers who've been sipping away at coffee since they were 7.

Maybe like so many things in life, our preferences about tea and coffee are decided from how we're brought up or about what we end up feeling comfortable with. Whatever the beverage, moderation is still necessary and if you're drinking caffeine to the point of yellow-rotting teeth and fingers shaking the minute your body lacks caffeine, then maybe, just maybe it might be worth trying a different beverage? If you're still deciding, what will it be? Complicated tea or simple coffee? Sip.