For faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, desiring to abide by the faith’s Word of Wisdom, some dietary decisions are simple.
A Michelob and a Marlboro are out — as are a Folgers and an Earl Grey. After all, the faith’s health code teaches members to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea.
But some drink choices can get a bit blurry.
As a substitute for coffee, for instance, many members stop by dirty soda shops for their daily fix. Others pop into the closest gas station for an energy drink to provide a quick boost.
Healthy choices? Maybe not. Sinful ones? Again, maybe not.
The current debate involves an ingredient in some drinks: green tea.
Green tea and green tea extract can be found in many thirst-quenching products, including Sparkling Ice, CELSIUS and Monster Energy drinks.
And while the scriptural language in the Word of Wisdom forbids “hot drinks,” church leaders have defined those as coffee and tea. They have further clarified that while herbal tea gets a pass, other teas (such as black and green) do not.
A 2019 edition of the faith’s youth magazine also explained that, regardless of temperature, some substances should be avoided altogether.
“Green tea and black tea are both made from the leaves of the exact same tea plant,” said the article. “The only difference is that the leaves in black tea are fermented and in green tea they’re not. They’re both tea and against the Word of Wisdom.”
Cultural conundrum
For some cultures, though, tea is an important staple.
Emma Cook, a BYU student and Utah-born Latter-day Saint, moved to China when she turned 12.
She said it was not only difficult to avoid green tea there, but it also was rude customarily to reject food and drink when offered.
“I always felt like I had to overcompensate in my affection for them,” Cook said, “to make up for the fact that I wasn’t drinking their tea.”
In Utah, Cook added, the culture leans in the opposite direction and consuming tea is sometimes frowned upon.
BYU takes action
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The new BYU Creamery on Ninth in Provo. Drinks containing green tea extract have been yanked from the shelves.
In mid-January, the new church-owned BYU Creamery opened its doors with a wide array of new products.
The Daily Universe, the Provo campus’s newspaper, reported that several energy drinks sold within the store during its opening weeks included coffee bean and green tea extract.
The store then removed these products, referencing Brigham Young University’s dining policy, which states that “Dining Services will not sell products that list green tea or coffee extracts on their ingredient statement.”
Hannah Cardon, a Latter-day Saint and former BYU student, said that while the school reserves the right not to sell certain products, members may have varying standards when it comes to green tea consumption.
Cardon said she knows members who drink products with green tea and may not be aware of that ingredient, while others simply don’t view it as a problem.
“If it’s in a drink that is not advertised as being tea, or it’s not part of the branding at all, then I’m usually just not aware of it,” Cardon said. “But also I have vanilla extract all the time, and that has alcohol in it.”
Caffeine confusion
Cook said she used to drink kombucha for the health benefits and now sees it as a growing trend among Latter-day Saints.
“It’s a little silly that different substances carry different weight in the Word of Wisdom,” Cook said, “specifically when talking about coffee or tea.”
Many members and outsiders wrongly presume the faith’s ban on coffee and tea is because both beverages contain caffeine, so they avoid, say, Mountain Dew or Pepsi or Coke. But Latter-day Saint leaders have reaffirmed repeatedly that the only prohibited drinks are alcohol, coffee and tea (unless it’s herbal).
So caffeinated colas — and many of those dirty sodas — are kosher.