Blow on your cup of tea!

If you have an asbestos mouth, it is not something to boast about as a new report on the British Medical Journal website has found that drinking very hot tea (70°C or more) can almost double the risk of cancer of the oesophagus.

Scientists are also willing to give us the facts, and apparently the optimum period to wait is 4 minutes so get out the egg timer and then count to 60. The study was carried out in northern Iran, where large amounts of very hot tea are drunk every day, but in Britain we apparently prefer our tea at 56-60°C – so only pay heed if you are one of the ‘scalding’ variety of tea drinkers!