Which Tea Is Best, By Science?

What kind of tea is best for the health?

It’s popular knowledge that tea is a healthful drink, and green tea tends to get the popular credit for “healthiest”.

Is that accurate? It depends on what you’re looking for…

Black

Its strong flavor packs in lots of polyphenols, often more than other kinds of tea. This brings some great benefits:

• Antioxidative properties of black tea
• Mechanisms of Body Weight Reduction by Black Tea Polyphenols

As well as effects beyond the obvious:

The Effect of Black Tea on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

…and its cardioprotective benefits aren’t just about lowering blood pressure; it improves triglyceride levels as well as improving the LDL to HDL ratio:

The effect of black tea on risk factors of cardiovascular disease in a normal population

Finally (we could say more, but we only have so much room), black tea usually has the highest caffeine content, compared to other teas.

That’s good or bad depending on your own physiology and preferences, of course.

White

White tea hasn’t been processed as much as other kinds, so this one keeps more of its antioxidants, but that doesn’t mean it comes out on top; in this study of 30 teas, the white tea options ranked in the mid-to-low 20s:

Phenolic Profiles and Antioxidant Activities of 30 Tea Infusions from Green, Black, Oolong, White, Yellow and Dark Teas

White tea is also unusual in its relatively high fluoride content, which is considered a good thing:

White tea: A contributor to oral health

In case you were wondering about the safety of that…

Water Fluoridation: Is It Safe, And How Much Is Too Much?

Green

Green tea ranks almost as high as black tea, on average, for polyphenols.

Its antioxidant powers have given it a considerable anti-cancer potential, too:

• Green tea consumption and breast cancer risk or recurrence: a meta-analysis
• Green tea consumption and prostate cancer risk: a prospective study

…and many others, but you get the idea. Notably:

Green Tea Catechins: Nature’s Way of Preventing and Treating Cancer

…or to expand on that:

Potential Therapeutic Targets of Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), the Most Abundant Catechin in Green Tea, and Its Role in the Therapy of Various Types of Cancer

About green tea’s much higher levels of catechins, they also have a neuroprotective effect:

Simultaneous Manipulation of Multiple Brain Targets by Green Tea Catechins: A Potential Neuroprotective Strategy for Alzheimer and Parkinson Diseases

Green tea of course is also a great source of l-theanine, which we could write a whole main feature about, and we did:

L-Theanine: What’s The Tea?

Red

Also called “rooibos” or (literally translated from Afrikaans to English) “redbush”, it’s quite special in that despite being a “true tea” botanically and containing many of the same phytochemicals as the other teas, it has no caffeine.

There’s not nearly as much research for this as green tea, but here’s one that stood out:

Effects of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) on oxidative stress and biochemical parameters in adults at risk for cardiovascular disease

However, in the search for the perfect cup of tea (in terms of phytochemical content), another set of researchers found:

❝The optimal cup was identified as sample steeped for 10 min or longer. The rooibos consumers did not consume it sufficiently, nor steeped it long enough. ❞

~ Dr. Hannelise Piek et al.

Read in full: Rooibos herbal tea: an optimal cup and its consumers

Bottom line

Black, white, green, and red teas all have their benefits, and ultimately the best one for you will probably be the one you enjoy drinking, and thus drink more of.

If trying to choose though, we offer the following summary:

• 🖤 Black tea: best for total beneficial phytochemicals
• 🤍 White tea:best for your oral health
• 💚 Green tea: best for your brain
• ❤️ Red tea: best if you want naturally caffeine-free

Enjoy!