A Little Death With Your Tea?

As a TeaPunk, I come across some interesting tea facts. To get into the spirit of this month, I looked up death. Can you die from tea? Apparently so (or at least get really, really sick). Bring these up at your Halloween tea party for some macabre conversation starters:

The “Teacup Poisoner,” an English serial killer of the later 20th century put poison in the tea (and other drinks) of over 70 people! I like this quote from his father, when his boy had been “experimenting” with poisons on his family in his early years: “He warned his son to be more careful in future when ‘messing about with those bloody chemicals.'” Really? Be more careful? That’s it?! It wasn’t until he killed his step-mother that the family finally turned to the police.

This seems to have been an honest mistake: A server mixed up sugar with a toxic cleaner in a restaurant making tea for a patron. She survived, but eeeeep!

I am a big fan of bubble tea, but this is so dangerous! You can’t even see them in the glass! Who created these? Choking hazard!

Not exactly deadly, but cheap tea may contain too much fluoride for your health. Good tea doesn’t cost that much, so don’t go for the cheapest box on the shelf, okay?

Taking too many green tea supplements can cause liver damage. This is how people come to the conclusion that “natural” remedies are bad for you: A lab takes a whole food, like green tea, turns it into some concentrated pill form, and then someone is able to take waaaay too much of the stuff and gets sick. Drink a few cups of the normal version (it’s so much nicer of an experience than chugging pills!) and get all the benefits without liver problems.

However, even the whole version of tea can be abused. Too much of anything is a bad thing. Moderation, people. Even tea. This woman had 150 cups a day!!! Of course something is going to go wrong! Is her bladder half the size of her body? How is this even possible?

And now for death fun and games! How much caffeine would it take to kill you? Plug in your drink and weight and find out! My son explored this a bit, and laughed at how hard it would be to ingest that much tea…though I’m sure someone has tried.