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In the morning we all need a little kick to get us going for the day. Some go to buy coffee, some make it at home, and some prefer tea. I am one of the ladder group. I like tea a lot. Coffee has its ups and downs as it is the classic caffeine drink, but tea has got coffee beat in every flavour imaginable.

Coffee has a lot to offer in it’s bitter kick of caffeine that gets you moving in the morning. I can see the appeal of that, however I just don’t understand why it is so bitter. Tea also is able to offer a significant caffeine fix as black teas are mostly caffeinated and still give you a kick in the morning to get you going. Although the morning battle may be majorly won by coffee I would say that Tea offers the variety, the choice, the freedom to try something new.

Tea comes in many different varieties. I’ll start with the most caffeinated, Black tea is the most caffeinated type of tea, and it is also the most heavily processed tea. Black tea is your Earl Greys, your Assam teas, your Ceylon teas and many more types that are less well known in North America. This tea generally is the most intense in flavour as it can be smokey, or have similar hints of bitterness to coffee. You then have your Oolong tea which can also have a lot of caffeine in it, this amount depending on when the leaves are picked in the season. This type is less popular in North America as well, still easily available at local tea shops. 

Now we get into the teas which can have caffeine in them but most widely popular ones don’t. We have your green teas, white teas, yellow teas, and your post-fermented teas. Green tea comes in two varieties, one from Japan, and one from China. Your Japanese green teas are your Sencha’s, Matchas, your Kukicha which is a blend of Sencha leaves and stems, and many more. The Chinese green tea at least the most well known is your gunpowder tea, it gets the name from resembling gunpowder when it is fully processed. Yellow tea is very expensive and rare as it is green tea with another step to production that is called encasing and then it is also steamed. White tea is the last one I will talk about today. White tea is made from the young or minimally processed leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. The tea itself doesn’t look white it appears yellow but it is a really light tea compared to black or green tea. 

I think I may have badgered the point, with how variable tea is. So when you get up in the morning maybe start to try an Earl Grey or a nicer more mainstream tea, the Cream Earl Grey, which is earl grey tea with some vanilla to give you some nice variety to your generally strong black teas.