Tea Stories N°3

a journey into the world of tea and beyond

In this series, I write about travels on which I have learned more about tea and have experienced hospitality. There is surprising diversity in traditions and tastes revolving around tea. In case you haven’t read the first two stories, here they are: N°1 and N°2. Enjoy!

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3rd Cup

It’s time to admit it: I also used to be biased when it comes to tea. For me, tea would simply be black tea. After all, it’s the standard English tea, and there’s a whole ceremony around it. “Five-o’clock-tea”, from English breakfast, over Earl Grey to Darjeeling, the British are well known for their fine black tea. But it took all until university for me to become acquainted first-hand with a tradition around black tea. And funnily, this didn’t happen in the UK, but in the North of Germany, more precisely the Ostfriesland islands.

Sailing for the finest tea

The Ostfriesian tea tradition mounts back to the 17th century and is still flourishing to this day. Ostfriesian sailors in the service of the East India Company sailed between the North Sea and Asia. They first brought tea to Europe in 1610. In the century that followed, tea was extensively traded with in Ostfriesland. The people there quickly embraced this low-priced, tasty beverage in an everyday ceremony and protected it against all odds that would follow in the years to come.

The local authorities didn’t approve at all of the large amounts of tea consumed by their people. After all, the tea had to be imported from abroad and therefore generated an outflow of money. The Prussian king tried to forbid the trading of tea and encouraged citizens to consume more beer, since its ingredients could be grown at home and didn’t “waste” national money. But this prohibition only resulted in smuggling, civil disobedience and secret tea drinking. Finally, the frustrated king of Prussia had to give in to his stubborn tea-drinking subjects.

Shortage was again experienced during the two World Wars in the 20th century. The Ostfriesian people would receive monthly ration stamps for tea, addressed specifically to the “tea-drinking-districts”. Shortly after World-War-II, people would trade their rations stamps for bacon, butter or eggs for more tea-stamps, driving hundreds of kilometres to other regions in Germany to get them.

Experiencing tradition

When you enter a home in Ostfriesland, you are first greeted with some Ostriesen tea. It is served in delicate, beautifully painted, tiny porcelain cups.

While the chattering around the table has already started, you are served your first cup of tea. The tea is served in a very special manner: first, you put in a piece of “kluntje kandis”, which are irregularly formed chunks of sugar. Listen to the distinctive crackling sound as the tea is poured into your cup! And at last, a cloud of cream is gently poured into the cup by using a special “cream spoon”. Now take a moment just to look at the pleasant sight of your steaming cup, with the whirling cloud of cream dancing through the tea.

Traditionally, the tea never gets stirred. This way, you will have a threefold taste experience while sipping your tea. First, you can taste the bitterness of the pure black tea, then the freshness of the cream, and at the bottom of the cup waits the sweetness of the kandis sugar. The truth behind this “prohibition of stirring” is this: at times when this tradition emerged, sugar used to be an expensive commodity to the people of Ostfriesland. They tried to use it very sparingly. If you left the cup unstirred, you could use one chump of kandis sugar for multiple cups, while the sugar slowly dissolved itself in the tea.

Living the Ostfriesian way

Please take at least three cups of tea, since drinking any less is considered quite offensive. That the Ostfriesian people are indeed in love with this tea shows the fact that an average person there consumes around 300 litres of Ostfriesen tea a year. This is the highest tea consumption in the world!

The Ostfriesen tea-ceremony is an integral and beloved part of life for the Ostfriesian people.

It starts with the first cup taken with you loved ones in the bedroom in the morning. It continues with the “elführtje” break at around 11 o’clock. The day ends with an afternoon or evening “teetied” (tea time). And of course, a welcoming pot of tea for any guests dropping in is always ready throughout the day.

So, whenever you need to slow down and relax or just want to have a fine conversation with friends or family, be sure to put on some Ostfriesian tea, and the Earth can stop turning for a while…

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Next month, we are heading for a faraway, dreamy country – but without having to travel at all! Don’t miss the Tea Stories N°4.