The day following my horrific experience of the 19 cups of tea, my consumption went down to 12. So I decided for the next day (yesterday) I would set myself the target of drinking the same number of cups. Interestingly by the late evening I still had a couple of cups to drink and had to force myself.
So I have come to the conclusion that the best way to proceed is to follow the same pattern of two alternating days - one day drinking as many cups as I want without restraint, followed by another day in which I have to drink the same number as the previous day.
Today is a no restraint day, and I am on my 4th cup of tea as I write this at 3 p.m. So it looks as if I will be well under the previous figure of 12 cups by the end of the day.
It’s early days yet, but I do get the impression that the method is reducing my cup of tea consumption. I’ll be very interested to see if this continues.