In 2019, Roy Morgan found that over 15.2 million Australians drink hot drinks including tea, coffee or hot chocolate in an average week.
Around 11.5 million Australians drink coffee, 9.8 million drink tea each week. A significant number of Australians (2.5 million) consume hot chocolate.
Each generation of Australians also have different consumption patterns, with older Australians consuming more tea and coffee, with Gen Z consuming the most hot chocolate. Older generations are more likely to consume a hot drink:
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), April 2018 – March 2019 (n= 14,722). Base: Australians aged 14+.
What hot drink do you consume by preference?
Coffee
Hot Chocolate
Tea
0voters
There are many ways to have a hot drink. The two main variations are addition of milk and a sweetener.
Tell us how you have your cuppa:
Straight with nothing added
Add milk but no sweetener
Add sweetener but no milk
Add both milk and a sweetener
0voters
If you wish to, you can provide further details below about your preferred cuppa and how you make it. If you also have a different way of making your cuppa, let us know as well.
I’m actually 50/50 on my daily coffee/tea: coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon, white with 2 sugars. Occasionally, before bed I make a hot chocolate drink from Baking cocoa, it’s a richer no-sugar added cocoa, I make it with milk and add some sugar. I’m over Drinking chocolate that contains a lot of sugar.
Can you have too much tea? I love the stuff, and after drinking a mug of decaffeinated, I know I do it for the caffein. I had to do a full fasting, glucose tolerance test, and had no headaches or other symptoms, so I know I am not addicted. But I also felt the best I had after not eating or drinking tea for 20 hours, except for water and that terrible bottle of glucose syrup (and I proved don’t have diabetes). I would have between 4 - 6 mugs of tea a day.
I have Choice recommended Yorkshire Tea - all the varieties - Gold, Proper Strong, & Red which I have to travel to another town to get at Coles. I also have Dilmah and Bushells Round tea bags. The worst was Lipton & some from the cheap shop (can’t remember the brand, if it had one).
Mr Z has Nescafe or Moccona cappuccino sachets with extra full cream milk. I didn’t vote on his behalf.
The cuppa tea. I usually have three a day, with meals. The water is important. (When I worked in town the tea made on town water was awful.) I use rainwater, straight from the tap and not previously heated. (The town-water tea was undrinkable if it had been stewing in the jug.) Boiling, into the mug with the teabag (Australian-grown), brew for a minute or two, teabag out, skim milk in, just a bit. Then a teaspoon of local honey. That’s how I like it. I might use a teapot if making it for more than myself, but otherwise the mug is the way to go.
I pour boiling water straight into the mug over a one spoon jigger of Nerada loose leaf tea. (It’s Aust grown so limited food miles and no unsound tea bags). It’s a good flavour. I add a tiny bit of low fat milk. It has to be dark but not too dark. I trust very few people to make my tea and hate anyone else adding the milk. They generally add too much and ruin the flavour of the tea. I have trouble handling caffeine - stopped drinking coffee 20 years ago. Black tea is relatively high caffeine so I confine myself to two mugs with breakfast. After that it’s herbal teas - mostly chamomile.
I drink Liptons Loose Leaf tea.4-5 large cups (500ml) day. With milk and 0.5 teaspoon sugar.
The caffeine content of tea is significantly lower than coffee. Even high caffeine teas like Matcha have less than half that of coffee. I find Matcha quite deceptive, almost innocuous in colour compared to English black teas, but the highest in caffeine.
Regarding sweeteners. I think there are two types of non sugar sweeteners, but the old fashioned and more harmful type is the only one available in Australia.
There are more than just those two. This document lists sweeteners available in Australia:
It refers to three categories: Artificial (non-nutritive), Nutritive, and Natural intense sweeteners. Saccharin is an artificial sweetener and Stevia is a “natural intense” one.
It’s been suspected, but doesn’t seem to have been proved, that artificial sweeteners can directly cause significant blood sugar spikes.
However, there’s evidence that long-term use of some types of artificial sweeteners can increase insulin resistance - an undesirable side-effect!
This is a recent study using mice and tightly controlling their daily sucralose dose to the equivalent of that for a human.
I believe @longinthetooth posted the wrong page on the UK diabetes website…this one has some information:
And states:
Although marketed as a ‘calorie-free’ sweetener, several recent studies have found that saccharin actually raises blood glucose levels. It is thought that these effects are due to changes in gut bacteria triggered by the sweeteners.
However, most of these studies have been conducted on mice, and those that have been conducted on humans have involved very small sample sizes.
Because of this, it’s difficult to draw solid conclusions from the research. However, most studies indicate that the sweetener stevia does not influence blood glucose levels, which makes it a viable option if you are concerned about the possible effects of saccharin.
I drink mostly tea, no more than 2 mugs with caffeine daily (Madura loose leaf).
And maybe 4-5 with no caffeine (black–Dilmah; black Twinings EBT; Rooibos).
All with unsweetened soy milk.
And one espresso (decaf) coffee, either black (at home). Or flat white with soy very occasionally when I’m out.
I know I am affected by too much tea, especially when I’m tired, and not just the caffeine.
When my children were young, the whole family did an elimination diet, to see if my son was sensitive to anything. I After removing all tea (and other potential triggers) from my diet for about 2 weeks I felt really good: more energy, better mood. Then came the challenges… both decaf and caffeinated tea made me feel irritable and low in energy. So for me, it’s not just the caffeine but probably the polyphenols and/or tannin.
These days, I get a decent amount of sleep (now that my children are much older!), and I am much less affected by both types of tea. But I do find 2 drinks with caffeine in a day is my limit, and about 6-7 cups of tea in total is also pushing the limit. I would probably feel better physically if I didn’t drink any tea, but worse emotionally; so it’s my small vice.
As they say, at least it’s not crack!
I love tea but it must be loose leaf made in a teapot, preferably stainless steel. My preferred brand is Nerada, I buy Australian whenever possible. I don’t drink tea bag tea or coffee. Obviously there are times I’m served tea made with a tea bag, that’s OK I can still drink it. I have a tiny drop of milk and 1 tsp sugar. I have 4 or 5 small cups a day, the cups must be small and made of fine china. I hate those thick mugs. I guess I’m pretty fussy about my tea, my husband caters to my fussiness.
Ah, good old murine models and bolus administration!
I find the idea that synthetic sweeteners affect the gut microbiome and so alter blood sugar fascinating. We could have a thread on the many things that our gut companions do to us (for us, with us) but I doubt too many readers are that keen.
I don’t use synthetic sweeteners or want to but I will stay tuned to see how human studies turn out. Best get back to tea.
I’d be in it! The gut biota is turning out to be a seriously major influence on just about every bodily function (including cognition). Plenty more is being and yet to be learned about it.
Why don’t you start the thread - and find out how many others share our interest?
My indulgence since retiring is to drink plunger coffee with good quality ground coffee. I now have a coffee grinder to grind the beans, when I’ve learned how to use it. I drink my coffee black with no sugar.
I’m a start the day with two decent mugs of tea, English Breakfast blend and a dash of low fat milk. I prefer to drink each mug cooled to near body temperature before consuming progressively over 10-20 mins while reading the latest online.
Late morning a decent double shot of coffee, a cappuccino on full cream keeps the body going. It’s also one portion of the daily calcium intake.
As to the effects of the potions in tea, coffee etc or any other outcomes. Feel free to open a new topic, or continue an existing one with a similar focus. I’d like to believe tea which is a relatively low cost beverage is a healthy option, whether 2 or 10 cups daily. While coffee has long been commonly consumed around the Mediterranean coast. Thick black and bitter with sugar often added the ‘Mediterranean diet’ appears to be happy to accommodate it.
About more than tea or coffee to further that discussion.
I have trouble handling caffeine - stopped drinking coffee 20 years ago. Black tea is relatively high caffeine so I confine myself to two mugs with breakfast. After that it’s herbal teas - mostly chamomile.
