The numbers behind American and world tea, each one linked to the report it came from: the Tea Association of the U.S.A. fact sheet, the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea, and Circana retail data. Published October 1, 2026.
US tea consumption by type, 2024. Source: Tea Association of the U.S.A.. Oolong, white and dark tea make up the small remainder; the fact sheet does not size it.
The 249 million lb import figure covers January to November 2024; the Tea Association expected 265–270 million lb for the full year, about 17% above 2023’s 230 million lb.
US retail tea sales and change, 52 weeks ending April 20, 2025
Segment
Dollar sales
Dollar change
Volume change
Canned and bottled (RTD)
$4.8 billion
flat
−3.3%
Refrigerated
$1.7 billion
+5.1%
+0.5%
Bags and loose leaf
more than $1.6 billion
+3.6%
Not reported
Single-cup pods
$64 million
−17.2%
Not reported
Bottled tea sells about three times what the bags and loose-leaf aisle does, yet its volume fell 3.3%. Refrigerated tea grew fastest in dollars (+5.1%); single-cup pods shrank 17.2%.
Tea production by country, 2022. thousand tonnes. Source: FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea, 25th session, January 2024. All tea types. FAO names these four in its production summary; Sri Lanka’s 2022 crop fell 15.6% after a 2021 fertiliser ban.Data table: Tea production by country, 2022
Tea consumption by country, 2022. thousand tonnes. Source: FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea, 25th session, January 2024. China alone drinks 46% of the world’s tea. US black tea consumption was 101,868 t (FAO Table 3).Data table: Tea consumption by country, 2022
Tea consumption by country, 2022
Country or type
thousand tonnes
China
3,000
India
1,160
Türkiye
250
Pakistan
247.5
Russia
132.5
Producing countries drink most of their own tea: China and India together consume 4.16 million of the world’s 6.5 million tonnes.
Common questions
How much tea do Americans drink?
About 86 billion servings in 2024, roughly 4 billion gallons, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A. More than half of Americans drink tea on any given day.
What share of American tea is iced?
Approximately 75–80%, per the Tea Association of the U.S.A. Black tea is 86% of all tea consumed in the US and green tea 14%.
Which country produces the most tea?
China, with 3.34 million tonnes in 2022, nearly half the world’s 6.7 million tonnes. India was second at 1.37 million tonnes, then Kenya and Sri Lanka, per the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea.
Which country exports the most tea?
Kenya leads black tea exports with 450,336 tonnes in 2022, ahead of Sri Lanka and India. China ships over 75% of the world’s green tea exports.
How big is the US bottled tea market?
Canned and bottled tea sold $4.8 billion in US retail over the 52 weeks ending April 20, 2025, flat in dollars with volume down 3.3% (Circana data via Beverage Industry).
Method
We only publish figures we could read in the source document ourselves. The FAO report (January 2024) is the latest with country tables; its figures are for 2022. US consumption figures are the Tea Association’s 2024 fact sheet. Retail dollar figures are Circana scanner data as reported by Beverage Industry. Cite this page as: My Tea Explorer, “Tea Statistics 2026,” https://myteaexplorer.com/reference/tea-statistics-2026, and cite the original source for each figure.
Sources
Every figure on this page was checked against the linked source on October 1, 2026.
Tea Fact Sheet — Tea Association of the U.S.A.. 2024 consumption, black/green split, iced share, import volumes