The average preferred tea temperature in the UK is 56-60ºC

“Very hot tea and coffee linked to raised oesophagus cancer,” reads the headline in The Times today. The newspaper reported on findings from a study in northern Iran, which found that drinking tea at 70ºC or more increased the risk of cancer eight-fold compared to drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65ºC or less). Drinking it at 65-69ºC doubled the risk.

There are a number of points to consider when interpreting this study. It did not actually measure the temperature of tea drunk by the people with oesophageal cancer, rather it asked whether they drank their tea “very hot”, “hot”, or “warm or lukewarm”. These categories may mean different things to different people, and so it is difficult to identify the exact temperatures with which the risks are associated. Also, the researchers did not look at hot beverages other than tea, and so the results may not apply to these.

As the researchers say, studies have shown that the preferred tea temperature in the UK is 56-60ºC.

Where did the story come from?The research was carried out by Dr Farhad Islami and colleagues from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and other research centres in the UK, France, Sweden, the US and Iran. The work was funded by the Digestive Disease Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The study was published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/03March/Page...ancer.aspx

Hi
The interpretations did the researchers draw from these results is:
The researchers concluded that “drinking hot tea…was strongly associated with a higher risk of oesophageal cancer”. They say that “Nonetheless…..the nature and strength of the association needs to be established in prospective studies”.