A large Oxford University study tracking nearly a million people has confirmed what smaller investigations long suggested: the quiet, daily ritual of drinking scalding tea or coffee carries a measurable cost to the body's inner passage. When heat becomes habit, the oesophagus bears the burden — and science now places a number on that burden, finding a threefold rise in cancer risk for those who drink at temperatures of 65°C or above. The remedy, fittingly, asks not for sacrifice but for patience: simply waiting for a drink to cool may be enough to spare the body a slow, cumulative harm.