Of the things that are commonly known about Latter-day Saints is that they do not drink tea or coffee. The problem is that the reasons we abstain from tea or coffee are little understood, even among members of the Church. Having addressed issues in the way we understand the Word of Wisdom itself as well as the history of its interpretation, specifically as having to do with alcohol, I now want to attempt to clear up some of the most common errors we make in regards to the Word of Wisdom’s prohibitions on tea and coffee so that we can better understand what exactly is being asked of us and how we can more fully live the Word of Wisdom correctly. This I will do in two parts. In the first section I will address issues surrounding tea and in the second I will address issues surrounding coffee.
Hot Drinks?
Sometimes people will ask why the Church leaders say we should drink tea and coffee when the actual text of the Word of Wisdom only says “hot drinks.” This is a great question. The answer is because they have taught since the very start that coffee and tea are what the Word of Wisdom means when it says “hot drinks.” Though it is hard to find a specific sermon still on record where this is taught before Hyrum Smith’s 1842 sermon on the subject, we find references throughout the documentary record that tell us that coffee and tea had been verboten for since very early on. For example, take this W.W. Phelps quote from an 1835 letter written to his wife who was then in Missouri while he was in Kirtland, “They keep the Word of Wisdom in Kirtland; they drink cold water and don’t even mention tea and coffee.” As. Dr. Paul Y. Hoskisson observes, “Phelps’s letter again confirms that at least tea and coffee were strictly prohibited and, second, his mention of ‘sameness’ suggests general compliance in 1835, not an isolated phenomenon practiced by a few overzealous members.”(Hoskisson, pg. 166)
While we should be careful we aren’t believing something because Church leaders do, the absolute unity with which all of them have taught this singular interpretation in every era of Church history from the very reception of the revelation fulfills the qualification that anything taught as the doctrine of the Church must be something consistently taught by the entire First Presidency and entire Quorum of Twelve Apostles together as a unified whole. This is why this interpretation should be accepted as doctrine while we can feel comfortable dismissing the contradictory justifications given for believing this or that thing about other controversial beliefs by Church leaders. None of those beliefs ever achieved the unity of acceptance and teaching by the Brethren from the very start and on through to today that interpreting the phrase “hot drinks” as coffee and tea did and are therefore not doctrine.
Now that we understand why we are talking about coffee and tea specifically, let us continue on to confront and correct some of the many misunderstandings surrounding the prohibitions of these substances by the Word of Wisdom.
Of Teas and Tisanes
First thing that is important to clarify is exactly what we mean by “tea.” Colloquially, in every day speech, we often refer to any plant that we dip in warm or hot water, let it soak until the water is infused with the juices and flavors of the plant matter, and then drink as “tea.” But this is actually incorrect, an error that is at the heart of many of the problems we have with understanding this prohibition. Actual tea is a:
beverage produced by steeping in freshly boiled water the young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Two principal varieties are used, the small-leaved China plant (C. sinensis sinensis) and the large-leaved Assam plant (C. sinensis assamica). Hybrids of these two varieties are also grown. The leaves may be fermented or left unfermented.
Tea is not just any drink made from soaking plant matter in water. Tea is the specific drink made from soaking a specific plant – Camellia sinensis or the “tea plant” – in water to make a drink from it. This plant can be processed and prepared for consumption in a variety of ways, which has given rise to its various forms such as Red tea, Green tea, White, tea, Oolong tea, or Pu’erh tea. The crucial thing to understand about all of those is that they are not separate types of plants. They all come from the same exact plant, Camellia sinensis. The only difference is in how the tea is prepared for public consumption, with black tea being the only variety of Camellia sinensis that goes through the entire production process. This website gives a detailed description of how the various forms of Camellia sinensis are produced.
What then is herbal tea? Well, herbal tea is not tea at all. What we call herbal tea is properly called a tisane, which are:
usually dried flowers, fruits or herbs steeped in boiling water (no actual tea leaves are included).
Virtually any flower, fruit or herb that can be steeped in water and ingested can become a tisane. Just take a trip to your local health food store and you’ll find dozens of “medicinal herbal teas” boasting a variety of benefits from relaxation to rejuvenation.
Almost everything we typically think of as being an herbal tea – lemon tea, cherry tea, chamomile tea, peppermint tea, etc. – is in fact a tisane.
Once you understand the differences between teas and tisanes many of the seeming contradictions of the Word of Wisdom – such as, “Why can you guys have peppermint tea but not black tea?” – are easily explained. Latter-day Saints are prohibited from drinking tea, not tisanes. This is why the leadership of the Church has emphasized that we are not to drink green tea or iced tea. Green tea is the same tea as black tea, from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, and iced tea is just Camellia sinensis cold. And, as a reminder, the prohibition on tea, as outlined in the Word of Wisdom, has little to nothing to do with the positive or negative health benefits of tea, which is why you can drink Red Bull but not green tea.
On Coffee: Caffeinated Or Otherwise
If the prohibition on tea is often misunderstood because of misinformation or misunderstanding, the prohibition of coffee suffers from the opposite problem. Everyone understands fairly clearly that you aren’t supposed to drink coffee. The problem is that we have invented so much folk lore around why we can’t drink coffee and then taken that folk lore as gospel truth that we have misled ourselves and created problems where there should be none. Hopefully we can correct many of those now.
First: God didn’t prohibit coffee because it is unhealthy. As noted with tea in the previous link, nothing in the Word of Wisdom even mentions health. Not once does it say you shouldn’t do something because it is unhealthy or that you should do something because it is healthy. This explains why you are prohibited from drinking coffee but not soda or eating eight 4×4 burgers in a single setting. God isn’t trying to micromanage your health for you. Instead He has commanded that we specifically not drink coffee.
Second: God didn’t prohibit coffee because it is addictive. As with health, nothing in the Word of Wisdom even talks about addiction. God does not apparently care about whether you have caffeinated beverages or not. The idea that coffee, or tea for that matter, were prohibited because they have addictive caffeine in them is a particular Mormon Pharisee-ism that has sprung up which neither reflects the spirit of the Word of Wisdom nor can be justified from its text in any manner. Thus it is not hypocritical or contradictory to abstain from drinking coffee (or tea) while drinking caffeinated sodas, energy drinks, or other non-coffee, non-tea beverages. God prohibited coffee (and tea) not caffeine. This also means that all forms of coffee, even decaffeinated coffee, are prohibited because it is the coffee, not the caffeine, that is prohibited.
(On a side note, if you’re looking for a caffeine kick but don’t want to drink coffee, tea, or soda, I highly suggest yerba mate, one of the few plants that naturally have caffeine in them. Though not as caffeinated as coffee it still has much more caffeine than tea. Make your tisane from loose leaf yerba mate as opposed to the baggies and you can make it as caffeinated as you want. It is my go to when I need a boost on particularly rough days.)
Third: God didn’t prohibit coffee (or tea) because it has tannins or tannic acid in it. Tannic acid is a commonly occurring compound with a large number of medicinal usages. It has been used to:
treat tonsillitis, pharyngitis, hemorrhoids, and skin eruptions; it has been administered internally to check diarrhea and intestinal bleeding and as an antidote for metallic, alkaloidal, and glycosidic poisons, with which it forms insoluble precipitates.
Note that it has been used to specifically treat internal bleeding, which goes to show how folk lore fears over how “That stuff is used to tan leather, just imagine what it does to your insides,” are out of step with medical fact. Not only is this reasoning not based on any scriptural injunction and completely made up, it is entirely irrational when you actually study the issue for just five minutes. This is another Mormon Pharisee-ism that has nothing to do with the actual Word of Wisdom and it demonstrates not only how our ignorance of the purpose of the Word of Wisdom can lead us into nonsensical conclusions, but how doing that just opens us up to be mocked and made fun up for something obviously silly.
Four: God prohibited members from drinking coffee, not from eating anything which might have it as an ingredient. As I shared in a previous post, no less a figure than President David O. McKay loved to eat rum cake and when asked about eating it at a party once, “reminded the guest that the Word of Wisdom forbade drinking alcohol, not eating it.” If that is true of alcohol then I’m sure it is true of coffee. Now, of course this shouldn’t be seen as an excuse to have something like alcoholic milk shakes since you technically “eat” ice cream, but it also suggests that if your cake or chocolate has coffee as an ingredient then it shouldn’t be barred and treated as a violation of the Word of Wisdom. Even the Church seems to emphasize that it is drinking coffee in some fashion that is the issue.
Be wise. Be smart. Don’t try and look for loopholes. You can’t trick God. Likewise, don’t build up “hedges around the law” that create rules which God hasn’t made in order to protect yourself from breaking His commandments. Just as with the Pharisees of old, this eventually leads not just to an artificial limiting of the liberty God has granted us but to an obsession upon rules that originate with man and not God. And that always leads to nonsensical conclusions like you can only walk so many feet on the Sabbath because anything else has been arbitrarily decided to count as “traveling” or the belief that God forbade coffee because of caffeine so now if you eat chocolate you’re going to Hell because chocolate has caffeine in it. Ultimately, our efforts to add to or improve God’s commandments, such as the Word of Wisdom, only succeed in distancing us from Him instead of bringing us closer to Him, harming our faith and the faith of others.
Summaries and Summations
The Word of Wisdom isn’t that hard of a commandment to follow once properly understood. Don’t drink coffee. Don’t drink tea. Don’t obsess about extra rules that God has not given. Don’t invent reasons which God has not given. These only lead to ignorance and hardship as these man-originated causes and justifications just confuse people, create contradictions, and make us look like hypocrites. All of which ultimately confuse those trying to understand the truth and even cause harm to the faith of the believer. Unless something can be found in the revelations of God, as found in the canonized scriptures or from Prophets and Apostles actively acting in their roles to declare revelation (something far different from merely giving talks) then you don’t need to worry. That isn’t from God and it isn’t binding upon your life. Instead of following latter-day folk lore follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ and adhere to the Word of Wisdom as it has been given to us by the Lord Himself. Not only will it help you avoid the manifold errors outlined above, none of which have any basis in scripture or revelation, but you’ll find that doing so will be spiritually fulfilling and rewarding as it brings you closer to God without having to worry about the rules and worries of men. Being a disciple of Christ requires discipline, but it is a yoke that is easy to bear because He is doing all the real lifting.