Alice Loxton

Takes ages to make.

Yeah, well, you know, I think in this situation, it would mean that you played the baddie and I was the good character.

So I'm all for it, all for Penn Vogler's theory.

But the crucial point is that the Industrial Revolution seems to cement tea as this warm and sustaining drink that's good for our health.

But I suppose the key point here is that in the Industrial Revolution, tea is cemented as not just a kind of warm and cosy drink, but actually one that's really integral for our health.

And we actually spoke to a tea expert, Jane Pettigrew, and her theory is that Britain's success during the Industrial Revolution could be credited to the importance of tea.

Just the simple point that the water had to be boiling, so that made it safer to drink, or the fact you've got milk for protein and sugar for energy, all of this was fuelling a workforce of healthy workers.

Absolutely.

The temperance movement, I think, is how it's described.

And Florence Nightingale, who was the founder of Modern Nursing, she recommended it.

So she said that it was certain that there is nothing yet discovered which is a substitute to the English patient for his cup of tea.

He can take it when he can take nothing else and he often can't take anything else if he has it not, which is a bit of a convoluted way of just saying that they would often give tea to the patients.

And she thought that was a great morale boost.

So at this point, tea is really embedded in British society.

A great moment is in the 1800s when the first tea room opens in Glasgow, which I know you would have been very excited about, Ben.

The first one queuing up outside, I'm sure.

I know, exactly.

Wait, you got barred from the tea room?

Pretty much, yeah.

My favourite tea room, it's in a village called Chawton in Hampshire, which is where Jane Austen lived and wrote her books.