Drinking tea when it is too hot may increase the risk of esophageal cancer in those who smoke cigarettes and consume alcohol daily, a new study warns. However, tea aficionados do not have much reasons to worry as the researchers found that in the absence of both excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, daily tea drinking was not associated with esophageal cancer risk.

"Drinking hot tea contributed to cancer only when it clustered with smoking and drinking alcohol excessively," lead author Jun Lv, Professor at Peking University in Beijing was quoted as saying by CNN.