Milk tea has become a personal favorite among early birds just like coffee. Both of them provide excellent benefits in their most raw forms, that can really help an individual make it through their day of busy work.
However, anything can become unhealthy and unsafe for daily consumption if it is corrupted by the appetite of a sweet tooth, or consumed in large quantities. Let’s look at which of these beverages are the most healthy drinks to have, both in their first stages, and at their worst.
The fact is that many individuals will not just drink plain coffee, but will add in sugars and creamers. The same concept can also be true for milk tea.
Calories
- Milk tea – 76 calories per cup (using an equal amount of milk and tea).
- Coffee – 1 calorie per cup (just plain coffee without any additives)
The calories in a milk tea is mainly affected by the amount of milk used, and the type of milk used to make the drink. A milk tea calories chart can better help determine the calories that can be found in a milk tea using a specific type of milk. However, for the sake of discussion, we will use a milk tea made with whole milk, since this is the most common ingredient in milk tea.
The coffee calories is based off of nothing but the water and coffee flavor from the grounded beans. This is about the same as what you will get from making a cup of tea. The only factors making a difference would be the milk and sugar at this point. The milk has to be included with the tea, since that is how milk tea is made.
This means that coffee would be the winner in terms of calories vs milk tea, with both drinks at their base form with no additives (sugar). Even with additional similar ingredients of a reasonable amount added to each drink, coffee would still have lesser calories than milk tea per cup.
Carbs
- Milk tea – 12 grams per cup.
- Coffee – 0 grams.
There are 0 grams of carbohydrates found in a cup of coffee with no additives, compared to milk tea, which would have 12 grams.
In diets that avoided carbs, coffee would again be found to be the healthiest option.
Fat
- Milk tea – 2.5 grams of fat per cup.
- Coffee – 0 grams per cup.
Because of the milk in the tea, milk tea would have 2.5 grams of fat per cup, while coffee would have 0 grams with no additives.
Coffee can be consumed to the fullest with no fat gains as long as the additives are left out, while milk tea would add a slight amount of fats to the diet due to the milk. However, the amount of fat can be reduced by lessoning the amount of milk used to make the milk tea, or by using a less fattening milk.
Sugars
Up until now, all of the information has been given without any additional ingredients in the milk tea or the coffee. However, in order to give a measurement for this one, the average amount of sugar used by the average person to sweeten each drink will be used instead.
- Milk tea – 2 tablespoons of sugar (24 grams) per cup.
- Coffee – 1 tablespoon of sugar (12 grams) per cup.
So for the average person that drinks their milk tea and coffee with sugar, they would use 1 tablespoon of sugar for coffee, and 2 tablespoons of sugar for milk tea. This makes coffee the healthiest choice vs milk tea.
Of course for individuals that drink coffee or milk tea long term, they end up weaning off of the sugar and drinking their coffee or milk tea without sugar, preferring to enjoy the natural taste. This means that in this case, both coffee and sugar are equally healthy.
Caffeine
- Milk tea – 13 milligrams of caffeine.
- Coffee – 95 milligrams of caffeine.
In the terms of caffeine, milk tea is the healthiest choice. Around 30 cups of milk tea can be consumed before reaching the 400 milligram daily limit of caffeine recommended by the USDA. Only 4 cups of coffee can be consumed without going over the daily limit.
This means that milk tea is a better choice for an individual trying to watch their caffeine intake if they plan on drinking milk tea instead of coffee regularly throughout the day. Milk tea can be consumed all through the day with no side effects from caffeine intake, or fear of exceeding the daily limit.
Which is better coffee or milk tea?
For an individual trying to pick one or the other for a specific diet, coffee is a better choice. It has less calories per cup, no carbs, and no fats, while milk tea has more calories, carbs, and fats. However, not for healthy diets for gaining weight or muscle building. Milk tea is the better choice.
However, this is a two-edged sword for coffee, since coffee doesn’t have as many health benefits as milk tea. It lacks the nutritional value that the milk has that is found in the tea. This isn’t even counting the benefits found in the tea in the milk. Coffee in itself may have its benefits, but so does tea. Adding the milk with the tea makes milk tea the winner in the terms of nutritional value.
Which is better for weight loss milk tea or coffee?
If both were consumed regularly throughout the day, coffee would be the better choice for weight-loss. This is taking into account that both are consumed without sugars.
For instance, milk tea can become the healthiest choice out of the two for weight-loss if an individual preferred to drink their strong coffee with a lot of sugar and creamers, but their milk tea without any sugars.
Milk tea at its worst can have 800 or more calories if an individual added a lot of sugars and tapioca pearls to the drink. Coffee at its worst can have sugars, syrups, milk, and whipped cream on the top, which would make it about 600 calories or more for beverages of the same size.
