Hot Tea Can Raise Risk of Esophageal Cancer If you're a smoker, you might want to keep off the hot tea. According to Annals of Internal Medicine: Hot liquids was linked to an increased risk of esophageal cancer specifically for smokers. Esophageal cancer is the eight most common cancer and is typically fatal, killing about 400,000 people each year. It's caused by repeated injury to the esophagus, including smoking, alcohol and very hot liquids!