Does tea drinking define the British? Yes, but only in the same way that eating hamburgers defines Americans. Brits also consume coffee, water and alcohol. The latter often in great quantities, but that is definitely another article.

So let's look at tea drinking in more detail. Watch a British soap opera such as Eastenders or Coronation Street and you see a great emphasis placed upon tea drinking. This is a divergence from normal British daily life, as our lives do not revolve around drinking tea by the bucket load although we do get through about 150 million cups a day, a substantial number of which will be Tetley, PG Tips and Brook Bond, the most popular blended teas in Britain. Why do the soap writers and producers perpetuate this myth? I think this relates to a bygone era of Britishness in which tea drinking was a focus of sociability.

Apart from the genteel ideal of a high tea, which comprised cucumber sandwiches and cakes served with properly brewed tea, from the late 1800s when heavy taxation on tea was reduced, all Brits drank tea at any time of the day. So tea became an integral part of British society, its drinking spreading from the wealthy in the mid 1600s to all classes. Tea is now a habit in the same way that someone bites their nails, or wears a lucky pair of underpants when watching their favourite team.

But, in the same way that tea is a habit, coffee drinking was also a habit. The first coffee house opened in England in 1651, with coffee drinking becoming popular and widespread long before tea became affordable. Therefore, the proliferation of Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Coffee Republics and hundreds of independent coffee houses that can be found on any British High Street or in any British shopping mall is not a new phenomenon. Whether it is a latte, a cappuccino or a tall, frothy, whipped, hazelnut, mocha, double choc thingy, Brits love their coffee, drinking approximately 70 million cups per day.

Back to tea though, as in a crisis tea is the drink of choice according to the soaps. Soap plot goes something like this. Your cat has just been run over. A voice will say 'Have a cup of tea, it will make you feel better'. Your great aunt Bertha died leaving millions to the local cat sanctuary, whilst you are penniless and about to lose your house. A voice will say 'Have a cup of tea, it will make you feel better'. Take your choice here though from a Northern accent or a cockney one. Soap plot in which your husband has run off with another woman. Yes. There's that voice again, offering instant relief by way of drinking tea. Diagnosed with a terrible disease. What comes next? Yes you guessed it, yet again the voice that says 'Have a cup of tea ...'.

Is this what happens in thousands of British homes when tragedy strikes or a crisis happens. After consideration I would have to say yes it is. Tea is a soothing, emotionally calming and healing elixir that has been scientifically proven to have health giving properties. Drinking tea aids hydration, helps with iron absorption and also contains antioxidants which can help the body resist illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and strokes. There is also research being conducted into tea reducing high blood pressure as this often rises during stress. For me though, I'd have to forego the tea and I will tell you why in a while.

Tea drinking also featured as a long running joke in the Irish Comedy Program 'Father Ted' which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK. I thought it was funny, although some didn't: it just wasn't everyone's cup of tea. The vicars' house-keeper would start off by saying 'have a cup of tea' a few times and would then virtually screech 'go on go on go on go on' (this would be run together so that each go on sounded like one word). Tea for her was the solution to any problem big or small, and a way to serve and help her priests through any of the many calamities and crises that befell them.