There are few things more quintessentially British than a cup of tea, and the royal family members are known to be big fans of a brew.
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The Princess of Wales reportedly enjoys a classic builder's tea with a dash of milk, while the late Queen Elizabeth II was a fan of Assam and Earl Grey, and always poured the tea in first, if she was taking milk.
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The Duchess of Sussex, on the other hand, prefers herbal infusions, though admitted on her podcast, Archetypes, that she has switched back to coffee since moving home to California.
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More than just a traditional pastime though, there are myriad health benefits to drinking tea, with a recent study analysed by the Tea Advisory Panel stating that regular tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease – who knew?
"This is confirmed by a new study of more than 100,000 Chinese adults who were followed for seven years," explains dietitian Dr. Carrie Ruxton, who was speaking on behalf of the Tea Advisory Panel. "Regular tea drinkers were 20% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who didn't drink tea," she said.
Princess Kate enjoying a cup of tea
"Habitual tea drinkers lived for 15 months extra on average and enjoyed an extra 17 months without any cardiovascular disease compared with non-drinkers of tea," Carrie added.
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The element of tea that makes it so healthy are the flavonoids, says a study published this year in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
Queen Elizabeth II likes Assam and Earl Grey tea
Flavonoids, which the tea plant makes as it grows, improve the performance of blood vessels helping to control blood pressure.
The Tea Advisory Panel says that it needs to be black or green tea to see the benefits, with around four cups daily being the optimum amount – Tetley and Yorkshire Tea are both black tea, so why not pop the kettle on?
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