Leading article: Tea for our time

What retro times we are living in. Last year it was the Second World War poster, "Keep Calm and Carry On", that was a best-seller, sustaining us through the financial crisis and swine flu. This year it could be army tea – 90 years and going strong.

The blend favoured by the Naafi, as supplied to our troops in Afghanistan, is about to go on commercial sale. Nor is it just curiosity that should send you down to the supermarket, post haste. With 50p from each box going to Help for Heroes, the charity that helps wounded servicemen and women, there's a good deed in there, too. Army tea will sit on the shelves right next to Fairtrade coffee. What is more, given the still austere public mood, we suspect that this particular seam has not yet been fully mined.

Next up, we suggest, boxes of powdered egg and tins of spam, and some desert-surplus Meals Ready to Eat. After all, you need something solid for all that vintage tea to wash down.