I have a tea problem, drinking far too much since my teens. The addiction is bad, though cheap as addictions go. My justification is that there are so many problems to which a cup of tea is the answer. Who doesn’t think it’s a lifesaver right now, as the dark descends and the cold creeps in?
Luckily, I needn’t be ashamed of my tea dependence any longer – in fact, I should be proud, even patriotic, about it. Because new research by Francisca Antman shows widespread adoption of tea drinking in late 18th-century England wasn’t just central to the development of our national culture, it literally saved lives.
