Which one has more carbon emissions? Tea and coffee are amongst the most popular drinks consumed across the world. Around 2 billion cups of coffee and 5 billion cups of tea are drunk everyday worldwide. If you are indifferent between drinking either of the drinks, choose tea over coffee because tea has lower carbon emissions. Tea leaves are produced in Asia. Because tea leaves are transported around the world by boat rather than plane, the carbon emissions are low. Professor Bridle’s book Food and Climate Change without the hot air shows the difference between using a teabag and instant coffee powder in our hot drink:

1g teabag = 3g emissions

1g instant coffee powder = 17g emissions

Coffee has a bigger footprint than teabags because of the way coffee beans are produced and processed. Coffee beans are produced by tending, watering and fertilising coffee plants. Emissions from fertilisers increase the carbon emissions of coffee significantly. The processing of coffee beans to instant coffee powder, which is also packaged increases the emissions even more. Choosing a cup of black tea over a cup of black coffee will roughly halve your emissions from drinking hot drinks.

Other ways to reduce carbon emissions from a hot drink

If your hot drink is a takeaway drink from a café, using a reusable cup further reduces your carbon emissions. Another way to reduce the carbon emissions in your tea is to not boil too much water in the kettle. The average person boils twice as much water as they need when making a hot drink. Since tea and coffee have low emissions generally, they will be one of the lowest carbon emitting things you will be consuming in the day.