• Home
• What's new
• Tea time
  • Serenity Now
  • Show us your mug
  • Tea Talk
  • Tea Recipes
  • We Love!
• Tea and health
  • History of Tea
  • Australia's Tea History
  • Where does tea come from?
  • Types of Tea
  • From Plant to Cup
  • Ask the tea tasters
  • Tea Rituals
  • The perfect cuppa
  • Q & A
  • Wellbeing 4 Life
• Tetley tea
  • Black Tea
  • Green & White
  • Fruit & Herbal
  • Iced Tea
• Tetley Australia
  • Tetley People
  • Tetley in the Community
  • Tetley and the Environment
  • Links
  • Contact Tetley

Tea Rituals

Tea and how it is drunk is such an integral part of our daily lives, that it is only natural that different types, flavours, styles and rituals to drink it have evolved in different cultures.

Tell us about your favourite tea ritual!

China

Tea is of course a big deal in china, and in the 8^th Century it involved many steps. First of all the tea leaves were steamed, then broken up, and combined into a loaf through the addition of different ingredients. This loaf was then toasted and seasoned then ground between fine paper sheets. Salted water was then boiled, the loaf was then added with a spoonful of cold water before waiting for the tea leaves to settle. When the tea was brewed it was flavoured with milk and onions.

Japan

Green tea drinking has significant traditions in Japan. Tea ceremony is often performed by geishas who are the descendants of the old tea masters. The geishas are taught the tea ceremony in special schools. For the ceremony, they use only tea powder (very fine ground up tea leaves), which they mix with hot water until it foams. They use a ceremonial bowl and a bamboo stirrer for this purpose. The Japanese do not add flavour or sweeten their tea, but eat teacakes instead.

India

Indians like their tea sweet. They brew tea leaf in a huge pot, with lots of milk, about 1/3 milk and 2/3 water, and then they add sugar, cloves, spices. They brew it for a long time and then the tradition is to pour it from a great height into glass or clay cups.

Russia

Russia makes tea in a very traditional way. They make tea in samovars which are large decorated containers. Often they use condensed tea which they have already brewed, and then has been kept warm in a dish on the top of the samovar. They place some of the condensed tea in a cup and then dilute the condensed tea by dipping the cup into the boiling water in the bottom of the samovar until it's the required strength.

Europe

Europeans started with loose tea, and would add a spoonful of tea per cup to a teapot and add boiling water and leave it to infuse for 4-6 minutes, releasing its flavour. The tea is then poured into cups, using a strainer to catch loose tea.
In England tea is sweetened with sugar or honey and often flavoured with milk, rum, whisky, or lemon. It has been known that they would sometimes even add jam!
In Hungary they have similar tastes to England, but have been known to sweeten their tea with wine!