英語時差：直談茶

Which has more caffeine, coffee or tea? Ask this at a party and then watch the sparks fly. Everybody, it seems, has a definitive answer that is a little different from someone else's. What's the truth?

Well, the real answer is a little more complex than just choosing one or the other -- which is, no doubt, why everyone remembers something slightly different. Here are the facts: an average pound of tea has the equivalent caffeine content of two average pounds of coffee. Yep -- if you were in the tea-has-more camp, you would be right.

However, unless you have a real coffee problem you don't just sit down with a spoon and eat the beans straight. That same pound of coffee beans will result in only 40 cups of coffee, whereas the pound of tea leaves will result in 160 cups. So on the whole, one cup of coffee is about twice as caffeinated as one cup of tea.

So here's your other answer. If you were in the coffee-has- more camp, you win also.

Now, variation definitely exists in the kind of bean you use, or, in the case of tea, how long you let the tea bag soak, and how hot the water is. Tea also contains a chemical called theobromine, which has a similar effect to caffeine. But in general these figures are accurate.

Might we also solve the dispute about soda? On the average, four bottles of twelve-ounce soda equal the caffeine of one cup of coffee. So if you're trying to cut the caffeine, watch out for soda too -- it's right up there.