The coffee you’re gripping in the drive-thru line might be hotter than the science recommends
Picture the average Tim Hortons order on a cold Ontario morning. Steam rising off the lid, first sip taken before you’ve even pulled back onto the road. That habit just got a second look from researchers, and the findings landed hard this week.
A study covering 977,000 people, published September 9, 2026 in the International Journal of Cancer, found that people who like their coffee or tea “very hot” face roughly triple the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus compared to people who drink it warm.
What “very hot” actually means
The researchers weren’t vague about it. “Very hot” was defined as approximately 149 degrees Fahrenheit, while “hot” sat around 140 degrees. Drinks in that hot-but-not-scalding range were still linked to roughly double the risk.
That’s a narrower gap than most people assume. A fresh-brewed coffee straight off the machine regularly clears 160 degrees, which puts a lot of morning routines squarely inside the risk zone before the cup even reaches your lips.
Who’s behind the research
The lead researcher, Dr. Keren Papier, a senior nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health, said in a release distributed through Cancer Research UK that scientists had long suspected a link in populations where scalding drinks are the norm, like mate drinkers in South America.
What hadn’t been nailed down until now was whether the same risk applies at the temperatures people in Western countries typically drink tea and coffee. This study, conducted in the UK, was built specifically to answer that gap.
Why temperature, not the drink itself, is the culprit
It’s not about caffeine or tannins. Researchers point to thermal injury: repeated scalding contact damages the lining of the esophagus, and that chronic irritation and inflammation is thought to raise cancer risk over years of exposure, the same way ongoing irritation from smoking or heavy alcohol use does.
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma specifically was the form flagged in the results, not the adenocarcinoma type more commonly linked to acid reflux. Worldwide, esophageal cancer accounted for roughly 604,000 new cases and 544,000 deaths in 2020, according to World Health Organization figures cited alongside the study, which gives some sense of scale for a cancer type that doesn’t always get the same attention as lung or breast cancer.
A takeaway you can actually use tomorrow morning
Nobody’s telling you to give up your coffee order. The practical fix researchers point to is simple: let a hot drink sit for a few minutes before the first sip, enough time for it to drop out of that 140-to-149-degree range.
A rough guide that worked in prior heat-related studies: wait about four to five minutes after a coffee is poured before drinking it, or until the cup is comfortable to hold without steam still rising off the surface. That small delay is enough to take most drive-thru coffee out of the highest-risk temperature band.
If you’re someone who regularly reheats tea in the microwave until it’s near-boiling, or drinks mate or yerba the traditional way straight off the kettle, that habit is worth reconsidering based on where this research points, especially if esophageal cancer already runs in your family.
What this doesn’t mean
One study, even a large one, isn’t proof that your Tuesday latte is dangerous. Self-reported drink temperature is an imprecise measure, since “very hot” to one person might be lukewarm to someone with a higher heat tolerance, and the researchers built their conclusions on people’s own descriptions rather than a thermometer reading at the moment of drinking.
The risk increase also needs to be weighed against how rare esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is in the first place for most Canadians who don’t smoke heavily or drink alcohol regularly, since those two factors remain the dominant risk drivers the study adjusted for.
What to watch for next
Cancer Research UK, which backed the release of these findings, has signaled that follow-up work will look at whether objective temperature measurements, rather than self-reported “hot” versus “very hot,” produce the same tripled-risk pattern. Until then, the easiest move is also the cheapest one: give your coffee a few extra minutes before that first sip, and treat scalding-hot drinks the same way you’d treat any other habit worth dialing back gradually rather than eliminating overnight.
