Bigelow Tea Wonders: Does Hot Tea Beat the Heat?

Image Via bhg.com

It’s sweltering outside and the air is heavy with humidity. Waves of heat are radiating off the streets and the pavement is nearly melting. The Dog Days of Summer are here. Naturally, you reach for… a steaming hot mug of tea. Sounds crazy, right?

But maybe not. It was British Prime Minister William Gladstone who famously remarked in the late 1800s, “If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you…”

People in the warmest climates such as central Asia, India, and Africa have sworn by this age-old custom. The theory is that drinking a beverage closer to your body temperature does a better job of cooling you off, because the body doesn’t have to expend energy (producing heat) to warm up the cold liquid. You’re better able to absorb the liquid, the thinking goes, when its temperature is closer to 98.6 degrees. In contrast, an icy Frappuccino, for instance, can make the heat of the day seem even more unbearable.

Photo via www.flickr.com

Another school of thought holds that a hot drink makes you sweat, which works to cool you off the same way perspiration does. Naysayers who doubt that a hot drink can make you feel cooler say that you’ll raise your body temperature more than the sweat will lower it.

But even skeptics agree that taking in fluids – whether it’s iced or steaming – is the right prescription for avoiding heat stroke on a sweltering day. Here at Bigelow Tea, we strongly concur. Hot tea, cold tea: it’s all good. Gladstone was on to something after all.