I remember growing up that my mom had to have a couple of cups of hot coffee in the morning or she struggled the rest of the day and would usually be pretty grumpy about everything. In college, I knew a number of other students who also claimed to need their morning cup of coffee in order to function. At virtually every job I’ve worked, some of my co-workers also claimed to be reliant on their morning cup of coffee.

In many, if not all of these cases, the person has become addicted to caffeine and needed their morning fix to help them function.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen numerous studies on the effects of coffee and caffeine. Some studies claim that drinking more than one cup of coffee a day is harmful while other studies claim that there are a number of health benefits to having a daily cup or two of coffee.

There is no doubt that coffee is a huge multibillion-dollar industry. Walkthrough any grocery store and look at how much shelf space they give to coffee. Thinks about companies like Starbucks and others who are making billions of dollars off peoples’ addiction to coffee and caffeine.

Depending on what source one turns to, the average American (18 and over) spend between $2,000 to $3,000 a year on just coffee. In 2018, it was calculated that of the 327,167,434 people in the US, 253,768,092 of them are 18 and over. That equates to about $507,536,184,000 to $761,304,276,000 spend just on coffee in the United States every year.

Now look at the same grocery stores and see how much shelf space is dedicated to tea. In comparison to coffee, tea drinkers spend about $12,870,400,000 a year on tea, a fraction of what is spent on coffee.

So, let me ask you this – who is smarter, coffee or tea drinkers?

If you find that question curious, then consider this report about drinking hot tea:

It’s one of the most common jokes shared between coworkers in the office kitchen: “I’m just a zombie before I get my morning cup of coffee.” But research published this summer finds that a different warm drink can help your brain function better, so you don’t have to just shuffle around looking like you’re ready to eat other people’s. 

Researchers took MRI scans of habitual tea drinkers and non-tea drinkers and found that the brains of regular tea drinkers were more well-organized and efficient. 

The study made a point of targeting the effects of tea itself instead of looking at tea extracts or other constituents of the drink, as a number of other studies have done. 

“Our study… provided the first compelling evidence that tea-drinking positively contributes to brain structure making network organization more efficient,” the research team made up of researchers from China, Singapore, and the UK concluded. 

Therefore, while millions of people need their morning fix of coffee, it seems that those who turn to drink tea regularly are mentally well organized and efficient.