Last month, insurance firm Lloyds of London announced that employees are no longer allowed to drink alcohol during office hours. The move, which offered the twin benefits of potentially raising productivity while lowering the strain on company credit cards, brought Lloyds into line with other City firms such as Hiscox and QBE. A sober move – but in the aftermath, as everyone raised a glass to the passing of the lunchtime pint, no one stopped to ask: what about the poor restaurants?

Without those reliable lunchtime drinkers to help ring up the tills, restaurants in the City have been forced to reconsider their menus. Now, it seems that a new wave of drinks are accompanying food in some of the UK's swankiest joints. Tea is the order of the day.

Michelin starred restaurants such as Club Gascon and Fera at Claridge now serve tea with savoury food, and both employ a tea sommelier to advise customers on the most appropriate food and tea pairings. And the practice is not reserved for haute cuisine: Jikoni in Marylebone offers tea suggestions alongside each of its brunch dishes, as does Kaffeine, a small cafe on Titchfield Street.

So is tea the new wine?