Now more drinkers in France will get to try the real thing, best blended with water and a lump of sugar to create an eminently sippable cocktail.

BBC: The green fairy flies again

The judge is too harassed to be grand, and I liked the sight of him wearily dipping a lump of sugar into his glass of tea, and clearly thinking, Spare me these folk.

NEWYORKER: Tehran Tales

In 2006, a woman in Chaddesden, Derbyshire reported a lump of ice about the size of three bags of sugar fell from the sky and narrowly missed her car.

BBC: Falling ice chunk smashes into Derbyshire house

His notion of a day's work was to ask a passer-by for tuppence for a cup of tea and, having got the money, produce Thermos, milk and sugar for the astonished benefactor and inquire whether they wanted one lump, or two.

ECONOMIST: Jonathan Routh