The Harry Potter stories play to an ingrained fascination that we have with the mythical and magical.

The ritual of taking daily afternoon tea began in the 1840s amongst the British aristocracy, who introduced it as a small meal to stave off hunger…

The word ‘Hogmanay’ derives from the French ‘hoginane’, meaning ‘gala day’, and was likely first used in 1561, following the return of Mary Queen of Scots to Scotland from France.

There is no confusion about the transformation of the word ‘cacao’ [bean] to ‘cocoa’. This is widely believed to be the result of a spelling mistake by English traders – and the misspelt word stuck!