The Study
Moderate coffee and tea consumption is associated with slower cognitive decline
This study watched a bunch of older people for years and noticed that those who drank a few cups of coffee or tea every day tended to forget things a little slower than others. But it didn’t make people drink coffee or tea—it just watched what they already did. So we can’t say coffee or tea caused the better memory.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
This study looked at what happens to older people’s thinking skills over nearly 10 years, depending on how much coffee or tea they drink.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 559 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — drinking 2–3 cups of coffee daily may help protect your thinking skills as you age, but drinking 4+ cups might make them decline faster.
- 2Tea seems helpful no matter how much you drink, but only for overall thinking speed, not memory or speed.
- 3People who drank 1–3 cups of coffee a day had slower brain decline than those who drank 4 or more.
- 4Tea drinkers (1–3 or 4+ cups) also had slower brain decline than non-tea drinkers, even if they started with worse scores.
- 5Coffee didn’t affect memory or reaction time.
- 6Tea didn’t affect memory, reaction time, or matching errors.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Year
2025
Authors
S. Rainey-Smith, Kelsey R. Sewell, B. Brown, H. Sohrabi, Ralph N. Martins, S. Gardener
Related Content
Claims (7)
Over nearly ten years, drinking tea did not change how quickly people aged 60–85 reacted, remembered numbers, or matched pairs, but it was linked to a slower decline in their ability to solve new problems.
Over nearly ten years, drinking coffee does not change how quickly older adults react or how well they remember numbers, but it is linked to differences in fluid intelligence and performance on pair-matching tasks.
People who drink caffeinated coffee have a lower incidence of dementia compared to those who do not, while people who drink decaffeinated coffee show no difference in dementia incidence.
Adults aged 60–85 who drink one to three or four or more cups of tea per day show a slower decline in fluid intelligence over nearly ten years than those who never drink tea, even though tea drinkers started with lower fluid intelligence scores.
Adults aged 60–85 who drink 1–3 cups of coffee per day show a slower decline in fluid intelligence and make fewer mistakes in memory tasks over nearly ten years than those who drink 4 or more cups per day.
People who drink two to three cups of coffee each day have the lowest risk of developing dementia compared to those who drink less or more.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.