The Caffeine Battle

Coffee v. tea. I always have this mental debate in the morning. Green tea with antioxidants that fight against different cancers and jumpstart metabolism that will maybe help me reduce my 5 yawns per minute to 3. Or, the Colombian roast vanilla flavored coffee from the Fresh Market that will reduce my yawns to 0 if I add enough International Delight creamer. Undoubtedly, I end up with a few cups of coffee in my stomach and I wonder if I will ever pick tea over coffee in the endless caffeine battle.

Unless you have a tea addicted family like myself or a frequent visitor to Teavana, you might not even consider tea as a duly respectable player in the caffeine battle. No, green tea comes nowhere close to roasted coffee beans, but there are some other options. Chai tea, either from the carton mix, bag, or Indian-style using Brooke Bond tea grounds is an excellent alternative to the daily coffee grind. It's fun to mix it up. After reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I definitely discovered that there are people out there who drink more coffee than myself, but we should excite our taste buds every now and then. People like surprises and presents, so why not do the same for your taste buds?

Although Wal-Mart has a surprisingly collection of tea offerings, Teavana is definitely my favorite. Yes, the samples are pretty delicious. Plus, there are so many people trying the free tea that you don't have that guilty feeling in your stomach when the salesperson looks at you with judging eyes because you'e the only person taking advantage of free samples. Mattes, blends, and combinations of teas you have and haven't heard before with all sort of redeeming qualities that help with digestion, weight, and energy. Not all of these teas will taste like their description, but the caffeine in some of them are definitely there.

A good lead-in tea that's so great that I took the box with me to the store to make sure I grabbed the right one is this fasting dieting tea from Yogi. Yogi fasting tea helps with dieting and fasting, but that's not why I liked it so much. It tasted so delicious, and I've had my fair share of teas. Reading some of the comments on the tea, I see that other people have noticed the same thing. If you're not much of a tea drinker or dubious as to its ability to taste good, well this is heaven-sent. I've only had the tea a couple times, so I can't remark on the ability to cut down on my desire to eat (which I'm not too keen on reducing because I love food so much), but it does taste great. It's a good gateway tea which can lead you into those specialty caffeine explosion ones at Teavana and other specialty stores.

As for the caffeine battle tea might not be the resounding winner, but it's an important player. Some specialty teas come with the same or more caffeine than coffee, but you really have to be quite the avid tea fan. If you're looking to become a tea junkie, I would go for teas packed with flavor so you don't feel like you're forcing yourself to drink hot water. But don't forget about the old favorite: plain coffee. Always getting criticism but having a few healthful qualities like possibly preventing diabetes and other diseases, I can claim that while drinking coffee I'm doing good for myself. But really, I wouldn't drink coffee or tea just because of its immune boosters or newest healthy benefit. Do it for the caffeine.