Does tea or coffee have more 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. They create a carbon footprint through their production. If you are indifferent between drinking either of the drinks, choose tea over coffee.  

Tea leaves are produced in Asia and transported around the world by boat. Because it is transported around the world by boat rather than plane, the carbon emissions are low.

1g teabag = 3g 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 and then processing the bean to instant coffee powder, which is also packaged increases the emissions even more.

1g instant coffee powder = 17g emissions

The diagram below shows choosing a cup of black tea over a cup of black coffee will roughly halve your emissions from drinking hot drinks.

If this 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. However, because tea and coffee have low emissions generally, they will be one of the lowest carbon emitting things you will be consuming in the day.

Other benefits of choosing tea over coffee

• Cheaper than coffee
• Less calories than coffee
• Its better for your skin

Source: Sarah Brindle