I'm an avid tea drinker, plain and simple; to be frank, my whole family is. We have over seven tea sets in the house, two separate kettles, and don't even get me started on the number of mugs & teacups (it is bordering on insanity [insani-tea]). With that being said, we always have two french presses in the fridge: one filled with freshly brewed Earl Grey, and the other with iced black coffee. But why? If we truly love tea, then why toe the line between two intensely loved drinks?

Simple: they're both awesome. However...is one truly better than the other?

I have met some crazy people in my life, ranging from the mildly deranged to the truly certifiable, but none of them can hold a candle to dedicated coffee drinkers. These people will probably kill you and your future children before their first cup o' joe in the morning.

This isn't solely due to the fact that they love the taste of coffee so much they'll kill for it -- no no no -- this is due to the fact that the caffeine-laced coffee is addicting as all hell. For those of you who don't know, the caffeine embedded in the murky depths of that o-so-tasty wake up call enhances dopamine signaling in the brain, a chemical that improves and controls movement, emotion, alertness, and motivation. By drinking coffee every morning, we become more and more dependent on it to the point where without our bean water in the morning, we could be plagued with headaches and irritability (to the point of killing you and your future children in some extreme cases).

I know some of you are thinking "tea can be caffeinated too," and you would be absolutely correct, however the truth of the matter is that coffee has a much higher concentration of caffeine and more of a depressive effect than tea.

There's a possibility that you're sensing a slight tea bias from my end, and you wouldn't be wrong. The truth of the fact is that I love coffee, but I had to stop drinking it after it began causing me stomach pain and initiating esophageal spasms (which are the worst, by the way). For me, the choice between tea and coffee is easy, but I will conceded the fact that few things are better than the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Not only that, but the warm, earthy taste of coffee is comforting to the extreme, pairing well with many different flavors to create new experiences with every cup-full -- it may possibly be the best thing to nurse early in the morning when the sun is just coming up.

See? I can be a coffee fan-boy.

Although, it can also be said that tea has quite a history.

Like, an over 4,755 year recorded history.

Tea is practically a 'tiny cinnamon roll' that has done very little wrong in its existence, hosting hundreds if not thousands of different varieties, all varying upon the six basic categories: white, black, green, dark, oolong, and yellow. Each tea has special properties with positive health aspects, brewing methods, origins, and unique tastes. Tea even helps you stay hydrated way more than coffee. Think about it: tea is literally just water with a slight amount of flavoring (if you skip the milk and sugar, of course). Coffee just cannot (or really just shouldn't) be chugged, nor is it half as refreshing on a hot summer's day.

Research has proven that tea can help prevent cancer, reduce stress, strengthen your immune system --

TEA ALSO --

………….

…………..Okay, so I know I can't convince coffee drinkers to "change over to the dark side" (or vice versa), but what do you think? Is one really that much better than the other when it comes down to it? Everyone has their own love of either one or the other, or both, or neither.

With that being said, I think both sides of the argument can agree on one thing:

Hot chocolate people are the WORST.