The power of tea.

[AB Asks]

The power of a cup of tea is amazing. It rehydrates the body as well as water and the goodness it is packed full of can protect against heart disease. Tea also contains fluoride which is great for teeth. But what is even more astonishing is the way a cup of tea can handle a crisis or counteract a stressful day. Tea breaks are a God send to the stressed worker, an enjoyable beverage when friends come round; some people even find it difficult to start their day without a cuppa. What is it about a good cup of tea that is so good? Why is it when life gets tricky the tea bags are reached for?

[havinmysay]

tea makes me more thirsty and how can it be good for teeth when it stains the teeth like your a chain smoker

altho i do love my morning cuppa

[Skreecheeboy]

It doesn't stain your teeth as badly as coffee! I could't live without it!

[havinmysay]

coffee gives me tooth ache!

[cyanide]

I absolutely love tea but am a bit of a tea snob,it has to made just right,brewed to a deep brick red then the milk in last. Delicious need a cup now.

[originalspa]

I'm not much of a tea drinker, infact I hardly drink it! I much prefer coffee!! Definitely need one first thing!

[devilwoman]

how come when someone dies/you've been burgled/ attacked or whatever, people say...... i'll make you a nice cup of tea? in some of the most tragic circumstances.
sometimes you need more than a cup of tea.

the world does'nt right itself with a ! NICE CUP OF TEA, for god's sake.

[originalspa]

I agree devilwoman! When something serious happens, I'm gonna need something alot stronger!!

[4getmenot]

Is there a question. Tea also contains caffeine which is bad for you. Most people have sugar in their tea which is bad for teeth. I dont drink tea.

[redcrx]

whats the question?
i have a cuppa first thing in morning and thats it for rest of day usually.
Theres nothing worse than really enjoying a cup of tea. You make a second one and it never tastes as good!

[Miss Inquiry]

Tea limits the body's absorbtion of iron, and should not be drunk with a meal, and also contains a lot of caffeine. Not the wonder cuppa it's made out to be.

[Pippa68]

I love tea.

It's a shame it's good properties are destroyed when you drink it like I do...with milk & sugar!

[nat_84]

I have my tea with milk but no sugars.
Just finshed a cup.

Bloody love it!

[Skreecheeboy]

Devilwoman, when some tragedy happens, it does help to have somebody offer to make you a cup of tea. It's not much but it's a start on the road to recovery. Argue till you're blue in the face but sometimes it's the small things that help most, people can't move mountains for you or turn back time but they can make you a cup of tea and be there for you when you need them. It could just as easily be water but tea is warming and refreshing and due to the fact that it takes longer to drink is more social so it's better than a glass of water in a catastrophe and it tastes good too. 'Mon the tea!

[idalovett]

I'm a total teaboat. I drink pints of it each day. My Mother told me that after I was born (breech and after 16 hours of hard toil) the nurses gave her a cup with a spout of tea. She wetted her finger and placed some on my lips when I was just minutes old and apparently I licked my lips at the taste. Tea was the first thing I had in this world and ever since I have been hooked on the stuff. It's the great British institution innit?

[Octavius]

Tea = power.

We called it plumbers petrol when I worked on site. I prefer the buzz of coffee meself.

[Ellipsis]

I drink red bush tea with no milk or sugar. It tastes great and it's caffeine-free.

In the afternoon I switch to fully leaded coffee to get me through the day.

The good things about tea are the warmth (the way it cools you when you're hot and warms you when you're cool), the steam (great for relieving aching sinuses!), the flavour and the very socialness of preparing and drinking it in a group. These are the same reasons it's good in a crisis.

[suffragette]

I once heard a British historian argue that tea helped Britain develop an Empire because more of the working class 'cannon fodder' were not plagued by many of the illnesses borne in the contaminated water supplies found in industrial cities.

The regular boiling of water for tea meant the British didn't have to rely on alcoholic drinks like beer for the safe consumption of water, which made fighting soldiers more efficient and less plagued by hangovers than their enemies. So, to answer the question, we reach for tea because it is part of a tradition that quite literally made people feel better in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Personally, I think the historian was stretching his argument quite considerably, but it did get the students thinking beyond the obvious reasons for British military success.

Wasn't it the Spanish wife of Charles II (Catherine of Braganza?), who started the English infatuation with tea?