Coming From Coffee
Tea vs coffee cost per cup
Here is the arithmetic, and the re-steeping variable that changes the answer more than the price of either.
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We are not going to print a cents-per-cup number. Every one you find online is either stale, based on unstated assumptions, or both — and the variable that matters most is one almost nobody includes. Here is the arithmetic so you can run it on the tea and coffee you actually buy.
The formula
For dose: Art of Tea publishes about one tablespoon of leaf per 8 ounces of water. In weight terms the conventional figure is 2 to 3 grams, which we are quoting as convention rather than as something we measured. Use your scale if you have one — that is exactly what it is for.
The variable everyone forgets
Tea leaf gets used more than once. Whole-leaf oolong and pu-erh routinely give three to five infusions from one dose, and the later ones are genuinely different rather than watery.
It is also why comparisons that treat tea as one-use-per-dose systematically overstate its cost. If you are the kind of person who re-steeps, divide accordingly.
The other costs people leave out
| Cost | Coffee | Tea |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per gram | Varies enormously by origin and roaster | Varies enormously by type and grade |
| Grams per cup | Higher — typically several times a tea dose | Lower |
| Uses per dose | One | One to five depending on the tea |
| Consumables | Paper filters, if you use them | None with a metal basket |
| Equipment | Grinder, brewer, kettle, scale | Kettle and a basket infuser |
| Equipment lifespan | Years | A basket infuser is effectively permanent |
The dose difference is the structural point. Coffee uses substantially more grams per cup than tea does, so even at similar prices per gram the per-cup arithmetic favors tea before re-steeping enters it at all.
Why we will not publish a headline figure
Because we would have to invent the inputs. Tea and coffee prices vary by an order of magnitude within each category, they move constantly, and we do not have live retail pricing for tea — the price layer on this site covers equipment, not leaf.
A number here would be a number we made up and then presented as a finding. That is exactly the practice this site was built to avoid, and it would be strange to abandon it on the one page that is explicitly about arithmetic.
Run it yourself
- Weigh the dose you actually use, for both drinks. Not the recommended dose — yours.
- Divide each pack price by pack weight in grams.
- Multiply by your dose.
- For tea, divide by how many infusions you genuinely get. Be honest; if you never re-steep, divide by one.
- Compare. The answer is about your habits, which is the only version of this comparison worth having.
Do that once and you will have a better figure than any article on the subject, including this one.
Questions
Is tea cheaper than coffee per cup?
Usually, for two structural reasons: a tea dose is several times smaller than a coffee dose by weight, and good whole-leaf tea can be re-steeped. The exact figure depends entirely on what you buy.
How do you calculate cost per cup of tea?
Divide the pack price by the pack weight in grams, multiply by your dose in grams, then divide by the number of infusions you get from that dose. The last step is the one most comparisons omit.
Does re-steeping really change the cost?
Substantially. A dose that gives four infusions costs a quarter as much per cup as the same dose used once, and coffee grounds have no equivalent.
Why do you not publish a cost-per-cup figure?
Because we would have to invent the inputs. Tea and coffee prices vary enormously and move constantly, and we do not have live retail pricing for leaf. The formula is more useful than a number we made up.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these, retrieved during the research pass for this article. Where a maker publishes nothing we could verify, the page says so instead of substituting a number.
Read next
- Tea vs coffee caffeineWhat the FDA actually publishes about caffeine, why per-cup tea figures are ranges, and the variables that move them.
- How much loose-leaf tea per cupThe published ratio, why a spoon is unreliable across tea types, and the point at which weighing starts to matter.
- Tea for coffee drinkersWhich teas suit a coffee palate, which of your coffee gear already works, and the two cheap things you still need.
- Loose leaf vs tea bagsWhat genuinely changes when you switch, what does not, and the situations where a tea bag still wins.
- The tea brewing accessories worth buyingFour accessories ordered by impact rather than price, including the one we tell you to buy last.