19 Shocking Tea Consumption Statistics

For some cultures, having tea is just a regular part of life. In other areas of the country, tea is something that is rarely touched. Despite the variation, however, tea is still the most consumed beverage in the world today next to water.

80% of homes have some form of tea that can be found in them.

Tea Consumption

In the United States, tea isn’t scheduled into break times or routines, but it is widely consumed. Over 158 million Americans will drink tea on any given day. Since it is the only beverage that is served hot or cold on a regular basis, the beverage appeals to many different people. Maybe that’s why Americans consume over 3.6 billion gallons as a people every year.

• Ready to drink tea products have seen a 15x increase in sales and consumption since 2004. The value of its market is estimated to be $5.2 billion.
• In 2014, over 77% of the tea brewed in the United States was prepared using tea bags.
• 84% of the tea that is consumed is black tea.
• The percentage of tea that is consumed which is green tea: 15%. It’s growth is outpacing all other forms of tea, however, with 60% more volume consumed since 2004.
• The other 1% of teas are about evenly split between white tea, Oolong, and dark tea.
• 87% of Millennials say that they regularly drink tea.
• In the United States, just 15% of the tea that is consumed will be hot tea.
• On any given day, over one half of the American population drinks tea. On a regional basis, the South and Northeast have the greatest concentration of tea drinkers.
• For home consumption, iced tea mixes or pre-made beverages account for more than half of the tea that is consumed.
• In 2016, Turkey was the largest tea-consuming country in the world.

Tea has long been the beverage of choice when water just won’t do. As more people around the world actively seek out alternative beverages besides soda and other sugary drinks, tea stands out as a healthy, potentially sugar-free option. Although some pre-made teas have just as much sugar in them as a soda, people will still transition over to these beverages because there are fewer acids and additives in the beverage. There’s no doubt about it. The tea consumption statistics prove that this is a very strong market.

What Does The Tea Market Look Like?

• 519 million pounds. That’s the amount of tea that is imported into the United States every year. The only country that imports more tea is Russia, but the US doesn’t even make the Top 10 of per capita tea consumption countries.
• 1.42 million pounds of tea is consumed by Americans every single day.
• Around the world, 2 billion people will drink tea every morning.
• 3 billion tons of tea are produced worldwide very year for consumption.
• 1 pound of loose tea leaves will create up to 200 cups of tea. Turkey leads the world in tea consumption, with each person using 7 pounds of tea every year – that’s 1,400 tea servings.
• Americans will consume 0.5 pounds of tea in comparison every year.
• There are direct links to the amount of tea a person consumes and their risks of serious health problems. Men who drink more than 1.5 cups of tea per day, for example, have a 70% lower risk of developing colon cancer.
• 1 serving of black tea has about 40 mg of caffeine in it, which is the equivalent to what can be found in most caffeinated sodas.
• When compared to coffee, 3 cups of tea are consumed for every 1 cup of coffee that is consumed.

If sugar-free black tea can help to lower the risks of cancer, heart disease, and stroke and it contains an almost equal amount of caffeine to a soda, then why are half of all Americans drinking at least one can of soda every week? Even the cost of tea consumption is ridiculously low when compared to sodas and other beverages. Sodas can easily reach $0.40 per serving, but tea that is made at home will cost just $0.03 per serving. At 3 servings consumed per day, that’s a lot of money over the course of a year. Then, just to balance the scales, maybe a cup of coffee would be in order as well.