Tea or Coffee? Choosing Between These Wellness Drinks
Tea or Coffee? Choosing Between These Wellness Drinks
Coffee and tea offer benefits. Should you choose depending on your health risks?
By Mark S Gold
Published by Psychology Today on December 3, 2025
Key points
• Those who drink tea tend to have a lower death rate than those who don’t, and more illness-free years.
• Coffee drinkers have lower rates of death, diabetes, liver problems, Parkinson’s Disease, and some cancers.
• There are different health benefits for tea and coffee drinkers; consider drinking both to improve your odds.
Coffee and tea are among the most consumed beverages worldwide. Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee daily, says the National Coffee Association’s 2025 survey, up 7 percent from 2020. In contrast, the Tea Association indicates that just under half the population drinks tea. (Some drink both beverages.) Tea attracts a younger, health-oriented crowd to new-age teahouses, a social setting akin to bars and coffeehouses.
