Are your trying to switch your morning coffee with tea ? That's often a good idea, when we're going overboard with the caffeine.
You'd need some really good morning tea, then.
Luckily, there are some really good alternatives to your coffee, which will both wake you up and keep you focused, without the jitters.
Table of Contents
1. Matcha powder for the supreme energy boost
Matcha powder is the Batman of green teas.
It uses the same leaves as a green tea, but they're processed differently. These are the best green tea leaves, grown in the shade so their caffeine level is high, and they have barely any oxidation.
This means your cup of tea will be bright, flavorful, and come as a burst of energy.
No worries though, matcha's caffeine works like any other tea's caffeine.
It will gently but surely wake you up, and keep you on your feet.
The added bonus is that you're going to get a bit more caffeine than a regular green tea, along with a higher dose of antioxidants. You can find a clearer comparison here.
Normally, from green tea you'd get most of the caffeine by infusion. But with matcha, you'd ingesting the powdered leaves, so you're getting all the caffeine available in those green tea leaves.
As such, matcha is revered as a health drink, and has been said to contain more antioxidants than teabags (source).
It also helps in balancing cholesterol levels (both the good and bad), aiding in weight loss, and reducing blood sugar levels as well (source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
As such, your morning matcha will be both a source of health benefits, and of wonderful caffeine to help you on your feet as you head off to work.
You will need to look for the freshest matcha possible, as it oxidizes in a few weeks after it's been produced. The greener the matcha, the better it is.
For example this one from KO is a ceremonial grade matcha. This is the highest grade, ensuring that you get the full flavor of matcha, and freshness as well.
It comes in a good, sturdy black jar, which means no sunlight will damage the tea powder inside.
This is important, as matcha's value and usefulness decreases if it's not kept properly.
You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
KO matcha can get you anywhere between 20-40 servings, depending how much powder you add to your drink.
If you want to be extra health-conscious, you can always add a dose of matcha to a healthy smoothie, and use that as morning coffee. A bit of ginger and spinach will be a good addition to the morning routine.
2. Green tea to get a good caffeine spike
If matcha isn't really your thing, you can opt for regular green tea.
Matcha's a basically green tea supercharged, so taking regular green tea will net you the same health benefits, just in a lower dose.
A morning cup of green tea is easy enough to brew, and takes about as much time as a regular cup of coffee.
In terms of caffeine, green tea is about half as strong as a cup of coffee. That puts green tea at about 30-50 mg (source) of caffeine for a 9 oz/263 ml cup of beverage.
You might think you'll need to drink 3 cups of green tea to match coffee. You'd be right, but the question is how necessary is it ?
Think about it. The more caffeine you ingest, the more you end up needing, because you build up a tolerance.
Switching to green tea (or any other tea that has caffeine) will give you a smaller caffeine kick in the first few days, yes. But you body will soon reduce its tolerance and respond just as well to the caffeine in tea.
So, if you're on a rod to cut coffee out of your life and want to feel better overall, you'll get through the first few days of less caffeine easily enough.
Many people choose to drink another cup of tea around the afternoon, to avoid beat the 2 PM slump. This will keep you going through the rest of your day, and have you on your feet and ready to take on the rest of the workday.
For example this nice green tea is a Japanese one, and it's organic. This means your cup of tea will be both high quality, and free of any unwanted chemicals.
It's grown on a farm in Japan, and it's processed by steaming the leaves and then drying them out.
You can find the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
You're getting 20-30 servings of tea with this pack, which should last you an entire month if you only drink it in the morning, instead of coffee.
The number of servings depends on how many leaves you add to each cup.
3. Black tea to replace your coffee - takes milk, too
If green tea isn't very tasty for you - it can be too much for some people - then maybe black tea is more your style.
To be fair, it even resembles coffee more than any other tea out there, so you might have a point in preferring it.
In terms of taste, black tea is a malty, earthy, nutty sort of taste. It can be taken simple, with no added flavors, and it would be fine enough on its own.
And as for caffeine content, black tea is along the same line as green tea.
This tea contains a whole lot of antioxidants as well, which helps in reducing free radicals in the body, and in turn preventing cancerous growths (source 1, 2)
It also helps balance cholesterol levels in the body, especially for those people who are at risk of developing heart disease or obesity. (source 1, 2)
As for blood pressure, black tea helps here as well. In a study of two groups - one placebo, one actual black tea - that were meant to drink 3 cups of black tea daily, for six weeks, the results showed that the group who drank black tea did have a lower blood pressure. (source)
This is important, since a high blood pressure - too high - affects many people around the world and is part of a more serious health problem.
Now, this all makes sense when you think of what black tea really is.
There is one plant, called Camellia sinensis. Nearly all teas made of this plant and as such will have similar effects on the body, like the green tea we discussed before.
So, there are so many kinds of black tea out there. But the most common is the breakfast tea, which became the go-to drink for heavy labor workers in Britain, hundreds of years ago.
A nice breakfast tea will be strong, malty, a deep amber in color, and will take milk and sugar very well. You will need to add much less milk than you would for coffee, which is again great if you need to cut back on that.
For example this one from the Republic of Tea is a great Assam black tea.
It's a breakfast tea, it's full-bodied and rich, and will give you exactly what you need in the morning.
There are 50 cups of tea in this pack, so you're getting more than enough for one month.
As always you can add milk and sugar to the teas as you see fit, like you would with your coffee. Just don't expect it to taste the same, since the color might fool you into thinking you've got coffee instead of tea.
You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
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4. Green tea with peppermint, to get the best of both worlds
We've discussed green tea, but what about green tea with peppermint ?
You know peppermint, you might even have some at home right now. Adding some of it to your green tea will help in the morning, or any time, really.
For example one of the benefits of peppermint is the fact that it will relieve stress by relaxing muscles, and relieving fatigue. (source)
Another benefit is the fact that mint actually freshens breath. In the morning, I think this is a major plus for many people, and we could all benefit from some mint throughout the day (source 1, 2)
Peppermint oil is also known to improve alertness and focus, which is going to be very helpful if you're drinking this tea jst before work, or at work after lunch for example. (source 1, 2)
Yet another way to beat the afternoon slump!
Of course, you can always just drink peppermint tea by itself, and it will do its job very well.
But adding a bit of peppermint to your morning green tea will be a wonderful addition, and why not have the best of both worlds if you can ?
You can always find a mix that's already got both green tea and mint blended together, like this one from Republic of Tea.
It's got beautiful green tea and Moroccan mint (peppermint), and it will net you 50 cups of tea, and it comes in full leaf form.
You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
Their Amazon offer also comes in loose leaf tea, but in a larger serving, if that's rather your style.
This tea is also wonderful for an iced tea in the summer, and I think guests would be very happy to have a glass of it.
5. Yerba mate is another great alternative to coffee
If you've never heard of yerba mate, don't worry. It's not a very popular drink outside of the American continent, but ti very well should be.
This tea is a South American one, made from the leaves of the Ilex paraguariensis plant.
It's prepared a bit differently than most other teas, in that it has a certain vessel to drink from. But, if you have no such vessel, you can very well use a French press or regular teapot and strain the tea before serving.
There are quite a few health benefits of consuming yerba mate regularly.
One of the is how rich yerba mate is in antioxidants, much like the other teas we discussed before.
Yerba mate's antioxidants can help in several health problems, but most importantly it seems that it's a bit more powerful than green tea. (source)
It also contains nearly every essential aminoacid ( 7 out of 9, actually), even if it's in a small dose. (source)
Yerba mate also contains more caffeine (85 mg) than a cup of green or black tea, but still less than coffee. (source)
It will also help with burning fat, as people who have taken capsules of ground yerba mate leaves just before moderate intensity workouts managed to burn 24% more body fat. (source)
So there you have it, yerba mate might just become your new favorite tea.
For example this is a 2-pack of about 4 lbs of yerba mate. It's going to last you for several weeks, if not months, and provide enough caffeine to get you going through the day.
This is Rosamonte's special selection, and is one of the best yerba mate available out there.
You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
6. Ginger tea to keep you focused and alert
Ah, ginger tea. Ginger's going to have people split into two very different camps.
This who hate it and find it way too spicy and unbearable, and those who love both he ginger and its spicy kick.
I for one love ginger, and I think it smells amazing.
What no one can deny though, is that ginger has been long hailed as a healthy plant, and its effects have been recorded for a long time.
For example one of the benefits of ginger is how well it reduces inflammation, and how well it can fight future inflammations. Along with its powerful antioxidant properties. (source)
Ginger can also alleviate many symptoms of nausea and general sickness, including morning sickness.
So if you're an expecting mother, ginger tea will be a great help for you. (source)
Do consume it in moderation though, as with any strong plant.
Since ginger also helps with indigestion, consuming it in the morning will help wash down your breakfast with more ease. (source)
You can also add some fresh ginger to your green or black tea, and it will go great with both. You could even try it with yerba mate.
For example this one's one whole pound (450 gr) of cut and dried ginger root.
You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.
It's cut into very small pieces, so you can place as much or as little as you want in your cup.
You'll be drinking ginger root tea for a few months before you go through the whole bag.
Be warned though, ginger tea is spicy and it will give you a mild burning sensation like pepper or chili.
Final thoughts
If you've found a good substitute for your morning coffee in this article, I'm very happy. That's all I was looking for.
I love coffee myself, but sometimes it gets too much, you know ? I usually reach for a black tea when that's the case, and I'm very happy with that substitute.
If you want to know more about coffee or tea, feel free to check the related articles below. Who knows what else you might find ?
