What Kind Of Tea To Drink In The Morning, Afternoon & Evening

With so many great teas in the world to choose from, how do you decide which kind to drink? You could stick with your favorite go-to, but as a tea lover and purveyor myself, my philosophy is: why choose just one?

To start the day off, try white tea — it has a light aromatic quality with subtle, nuanced flavors, which may be more apparent in the morning when the palette is still fresh. Unlike drinking green or black tea on an empty stomach, when I drink white tea before breakfast it doesn't tend to cause discomfort.

Later in the morning, or just before lunch, green tea is good choice. It's said to boost metabolism — a perk, whether for the extra energy for a noontime workout or some added calorie burning at lunch.

With lunch, I recommend black tea for a few reasons.

First, it's the most widely available and commonly found in restaurants, which makes it an easy go-to at lunch. Second, it's less delicate, so it's more resilient in a food service environment when the water temperature can be variable.

Pu-erh tea is what I drink after lunch. Pu-erh is different from most other teas in that it undergoes a fermentation process before the final drying — this unique processing method makes it a stellar choice to support digestion. It's also traditionally used in China to ward off weight gain following a heavy meal.

In the early evening, oolong is my tea of choice. While oolong does still contain caffeine, it doesn't seem to have the same buzzing, wakefulness effect more commonly associated with green or white tea. When using loose leaf, opt for a smaller portion to reduce caffeine and focus on the subtle flavors of a delicate cup of lightly oxidized oolong.

If you want to cut the caffeine altogether, look for a herbal infusion, such as rooibos or more calming herbs like holy basil and lemon balm to help recover from the stress of the day.

If you're new to tea, and especially if you're not used to consuming caffeine, I don't recommend trying to drink too many cups of tea in a day. Start slowly, choosing one tea per day, experimenting and experiencing how each cup makes you feel and build from there.