This study investigated whether or not tea consumption can enhance the survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. A prospective cohort study was conducted in Hangzhou, China. The cohort comprised 254 patients recruited during 1999–2000 with histopathologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer and was followed up for a minimum of 3 years. Two hundred and forty-four (96.1%) of the cohort or their close relatives were traced. The variables examined included their survival time and the frequency and quantity of tea consumed post-diagnosis. The actual number of deaths was obtained and Cox proportional hazard models were used to obtain hazard ratios and associated 95% CI, adjusting for age at diagnosis, locality, body-mass index, parity, FIGO stage, histologic grade of differentiation, cytology of ascites, residual tumour and chemotherapeutic status. Survival was different between tea drinkers and non-drinkers. There were 81 (77.9%) of 104 tea-drinkers who survived to the time of interview, compared to only 67 women (47.9%) still alive among the 140 non-drinkers. Compared to non-drinkers, the adjusted hazard ratios were 0.55 (95% CI = 0.34–0.90) for tea-drinkers, 0.43 (95% CI = 0.20–0.92) for consuming at least one cup of green tea/day, 0.44 (95% CI = 0.22–0.90) for brewing one batch or more of green tea/day, 0.40 (95% CI = 0.18–0.90) for consuming more than 500 g of dried tea leaves/year and 0.38 (95% CI = 0.15–0.97) for consuming at least 2g of dried tea leaves/batch. The corresponding dose-response relationships were significant.