It’s thirty five in the shade and some helpful friend or rellie swears the best way to cool down is by drinking hot tea. Their logic goes like this: the hot tea makes you sweat and that helps cool you down.
Make sense, right?
Wrong.
Ever wonder why no one ever suggests that lighting the fire, putting on a jumper or going to the gym will make you cooler, since these things make you sweat too?
Enter: thermodynamics. (I was probably napping when Mr Norton explained this back in the high school lab but it's not too hard to follow in the kitchen.)
The amount of heat you lose by sweating and evaporation will never exceed the amount of heat you gain via the hot drink.
Also, the extra heat from the tea makes blood vessels near your skin dilate to help cool your blood faster. The nerves in your skin can sense this, causing you to feel flushed and warm.
Not exactly the result you were looking for.
Bottom line: hot tea will make you sweat more and increase your cooling. However (and it’s a big one), the amount of extra cooling won't be enough to offset the heating-up from the tea.
So, next time someone says to drink hot tea in summer, don't rush to put the kettle on. Grab an icy G&T instead.
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