Coffee, Tea, Milk or a Nitroglycerin Tablet?

"One should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round."
-George Orwell

Thank you, George, but as my old professor used to say, "You're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic." I must interrupt your monologue with the following bulletin:

There's bad news tonight for Britannia, but taking comfort in the fact that our mates across the Big Pond survived the Blitz we are confident they will find the courage to face the biggest challenge since the rise of Nazi Germany, namely -

"Why you shouldn't add milk to tea"

It seems that a group of scientists from Berlin (Berlin? Those Schweinehunds!) analyzed 16 female volunteers who drank either black tea, black tea mixed with 10% skim milk, or boiled water (which served as the control). The women then underwent ultrasound scanning of their brachial arteries to determine the effect of tea on endothelial cells. The results, checked in two other experiments, were positive:

Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was measured by high-resolution vascular ultrasound before and 2 h after consumption. Black tea significantly improved FMD in humans compared with water, whereas addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea. To support these findings, similar experiments were performed in isolated rat aortic rings and endothelial cells. Tea induced vasorelaxation in rat aortic rings and increased the activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase by phosphorylation of the enzyme in endothelial cells. All effects were completely inhibited by the addition of milk to tea.

Apparently the caseins of the milk combine with the catechins of the tea to disable the relaxing effect tea has on arteries. My God, is nothing sacred? Next thing you know they'll proclaim that bangers and mash cause E.D. Denen Widerlings!

Well, to all you tea lovers - sorry for the bad news. Of course you could continue to live dangerously and swirl cow juice into your daily cuppa, but why take such risks?

As we loyal patrons of the nearest Kneipe like to say, "Besser ein atrocity mit Bier als eine Tasse Tee mit Milch!"