Stephen Hawking Had Very Strong Feelings About Proper Tea

Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll wrote a wonderful tribute to the late Stephen Hawking for The Atlantic, sharing anecdotes that shed light on Hawking's unique personality. In Carroll's description, Hawking was a man who steadfastly insisted on living life on his own terms — and some of Carroll's most amusing examples of this, perhaps surprisingly, revolve around food and drink.

Hawking was fond of taking bold positions, had a legendary sense of humor, enjoyed scotch, and was fond of proper English tea. Once, while Carroll was with Hawking and his entourage on the way to a restaurant, the group decided to stop for groceries.

"While parked at a local supermarket, a stream of nurses traveled between the van and the store, bringing various samples of tea bags for Stephen to choose from. Stephen, solid Englishman that he was, was very particular about his tea," wrote Carroll.

The caravan later took a meandering route to Hawking's restaurant of choice. Carroll eventually learned the cause of the detour: Only Hawking knew where the restaurant was, and it took the celebrated physicist some time to give directions via his computer.

Carroll also noted Hawking's infectious joie de vivre, sharing a memory with readers about the time he attended a scotch tasting with the world-renowned scientist. "At a cosmology conference in England's Lake District, the organizers had scheduled a tasting of Scotch whiskeys as an evening's diversion," he wrote.

"As the group of physicists chatted and sampled the wares, I turned around to see Stephen in the back of the room, his nurses helping him taste the various single malts, one by one. His body may have been frail, but his enthusiasm for living was unmatched."

Hawking, who passed away at 76 on March 14, has been remembered by friends, family, colleagues, and a slew of celebrities, including chef José Andrés, who called the Englishman a catalyst for "culinary physics."

Andrés is known for a lust for life of the sort that Hawking himself might have appreciated — one of the many reasons José Andrés is the hero we need right now.