Battle of the beverages.
Credit: Louise Lister
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As you're standing in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil, have you ever wondered if your choice of beverage has an impact on the environment?
Biodiversity, pollution and (un)Fair Trade
Coffee was traditionally grown in tropical regions, under the shade of trees. However, since the 1970s, many farmers have planted new high yielding sun- loving varieties, creating monocultures.
Environmentalists are critical of this approach because it results in forest clearing, which is causing massive biodiversity loss.
Tea is grown largely in Asia, with India being the world's largest producer. As with coffee, WWF report that converting natural areas into tea plantations is a major concern for plant and animal life.
Both tea and coffee farming also come in for criticism for using increasing amounts of fertilisers and pesticides, which destroy soil fertility, pollute rivers and can harm workers.
Free trade agreements have also meant that coffee growers don't get a fair price for their beans, and tea plantation workers are poorly paid, according to international aid agency Oxfam.
Water mark
According to Dutch researchers, for a single cup of coffee, growing the beans, processing them and making the cuppa at home requires 140 litres of water.
That's fourteen buckets of water for just one coffee!
This is eight times more water than what is needed to make a cup of tea.
An energy boost
The processing of both tea leaves and coffee cherries (of which coffee beans are the seeds) is energy intense, involving all manner of steaming, drying, heating and firing, with production facilities equipped with a range of automated machinery.
According to the Global Environment Facility, 30 per cent of India's tea production costs go towards energy, with 0.5 kWh of electricity needed to produce one kilogram of final product.
While similar figures for coffee are unavailable, we know about 0.3 kWh is needed to produce one kilogram of raw coffee beans, prior to the bulk of commercial processing.
Considering the steaming, drying, roasting and sorting ahead for the green beans, we presume tea will ultimately trump coffee in the energy stakes.
Eco-footprint
By dry weight, the world makes a lot more coffee than it does tea.
We produce around 3.9 million tonnes of tea each year, grown over 2.8 million hectares of land, compared to a whopping 7.7 million tonnes of coffee, which is grown over 10 million hectares.
In addition to coffee taking up more land than tea, it also has a lower yield per hectare.
In terms of the beverages' overall eco-footprints - the land required to grow them as well as embodied energy created through processing and transport - tea fares better than coffee.
British researchers found the footprint created by one town's drinking of tea to be 0.0035 global hectares per kilogram. This was smaller than coffee's footprint of 0.0045 global hectares. Incidentally, wine had an even lower footprint of 0.0022 gha/kg...but might make for a difficult start to the day!
Interestingly, less than five per cent of the footprint for the non-alcoholic drinks was due to transport.
Black, no sugar
How you take your tea or coffee has an effect on your drink's footprint too.
Carbon offsetting company Carbon Neutral conducted a study, finding that producing milk creates 1.5 kg of CO2 per kg and sugar creates 2.4 kg of CO2 per kg.
If you have your drink black and unsweetened, you'll avoid these impacts, plus the additional energy for refrigerating the milk.
The verdict
Tea sneaks ahead of coffee with lower water use and a smaller eco-footprint, and although information on greenhouse gas emissions is lacking, it's likely that tea wins on this score, too.
The more processed your drink, the greater the footprint. So loose-leaf tea will be gentler on the planet than teabags, and fresh coffee better than instant.
If you add milk and sugar you'll slightly increase the impact of either beverage.
Buying organic tea or coffee and shade-grown coffee is preferable. Buying Fair Trade will ensure farmers and workers receive a living wage.
And of course, to make your hot cuppa greener, drink from a reusable mug and toss the coffee grounds or tea leaves into the compost.
