Someone asked me recently to name the thing I’ve been most grateful for in 2025.
After giving it some thought, I realised it had to be the heat capacity of water. And not just for 2025.
Tea is my warm beverage of choice, and my favourite version is with Tata tea leaves, lots of water, an ampoule of milk (just to absorb the tannins), crushed ginger, and a certain brand of chai masala.
The heat capacity of water is 4,184 joules per kilogram per centigrade.
This means you need to supply 4,184 joules to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1º C. It’s why water takes quite a bit of time to come to a boil on the stove. Most of us just don’t notice because we rarely have to bother with bringing other things to a boil. If we did, we’d probably see them become hotter much faster.
Things with a lower heat capacity include coconut oil, neon, aluminium, diamond, and uranium. (Please don’t try boiling any of them at home.)
All that water makes a big difference to when I can have my tea.
I can brew it when I feel like, pour it into a mug and close it with a plate, finish my shower, dry off, and come pick it up. It’ll still be just as hot.
I can feel its fervent warmth seep slowly into my palms when I hold the mug on a cold morning.
I can make a mugful and savour it over half an hour as I think, and it’ll be almost at its hottest throughout.
Of course, anything else with that much water — including coffee — will take its time cooling down. But for me that kind of heat and persistence have become synonymous with tea. I don’t find it with anything else I consume as regularly.
My tea lasts a long time. It waits for me to finish making my point between sips. It doesn’t interrupt.
It reminds me of my current pair of jeans pants. They’re 13 years old. I bought them when I graduated from journalism school. Save for a small tear at the bottom of the right leg, they’re in perfect condition. I used the pair before them for six years.
Like these jeans, my tea reminds me to consume well, efficiently, to make sure things last for as long as they can be made to be.
It allows me to make my point, yes, but it also teaches me to take it slow, to think things through.
For 2026, I wish us both lots of good tea.