What Tea Rituals Looks Like Around the World

A cup of tea isn’t merely a drink: It’s the history of the world itself.
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    Before steel, before oil, before cars or guns or Coca-Cola, there was tea. Heidi Johannsen Stewart of Brooklyn tea emporium Bellocq shares her insights.

  • The British Isles

    They may not have discovered it, but no one (save the Chinese) loves tea more than the British. The United Kingdom’s two greatest contributions to tea are in fact relatively recent ones. The first, Earl Grey—a blend of black tea given a distinctive floral note from bergamot oil—was invented for the 2nd Earl Grey in the 1830s. The second, teatime—a light meal usually served at around 4 P.M. and not to be confused with high tea, which occurs between 5 and 7 P.M. and includes a hot dish—is generally attributed to Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, circa 1841. Two centuries later, they’ve become as indelibly associated with Great Britain as the Queen—a tea drinker herself, of course.

  • India

    If hot pink is India’s signature color, then the scent of chai might be its signature fragrance. Every block in every town has its own chai wallah who makes his proprietary version of chai, a black tea—usually Assam—slow-brewed with milk; sweetened with sugar, honey, or jaggery; and spiced with cinnamon, ginger, star anise, fennel, peppercorn, nutmeg, and cloves. “In India, they boil it down quite a bit, so it’s very rich and creamy,” Stewart says. “When I make it at home, I also add a slice of fresh ginger: Its freshness gives the tea extra nuance and heightens its warmth and sensuality.”

  • Morocco

    Anyone who’s been to Morocco knows that there, a greeting is never a greeting without a glass of steaming-hot mint tea, served in one of two ways: sweet or very sweet. “The preparation is traditionally done by the eldest male of the household,” says Stewart. “The tea itself is a combination of Chinese gunpowder green tea and lots of dried or fresh mint, with sugar to taste.” Her favorite part of the ritual is the actual pour: “It’s served from standing height into the glass below,” she says. “It’s a beautiful, elaborate gesture, but it also aerates the tea, making it more flavorful and releasing its aroma throughout the room.”

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  • China

    Tea is serious business in China, where you're more likely to be served tea than plain water. Here, however,the democratization of the drink has done nothing to diminish its value: You can buy a cup of everyday tea for a few pennies, or, if you're a true connoisseur, one of Da Hong Pao, an oolong tea that can command up to $35,000 per ounce and is considered among the finest in the world. "China remains the largest tea producer on earth," says Stewart. "The offerings there are terrifically varied: Different regions produce black, oolong, yellow, white, green, or pu-ehr tea." (This last is a fermented black tea grown in Yunnan Province, in the western part of the country, and typically sold in the form of a pressed tea "cake.") And it's not just the brew itself that the Chinese adore; it's also the vessel it's served in. Recently, a Shanghai-based collector paid $36.3 million at a Sotheby's auction for a tiny Ming dynasty teacup... out of which he now drinks his tea.

    Tasting notes: "In China, tea is consumed throughout the day, but not usually at meals," says Stewart. "The exception is dim sum." The teas shown here are, clockwise from left, pressed pu-erh cake, Keemun Imperial Black Snail, Yunnan Golden Buds, Lion's Peak Dragonwell, and Da Hong Pao.

  • Japan

    Perhaps no culture on earth loves rituals as much as the Japanese do. There, the things we in the West consider forgettable, even mundane—the arrival of the full moon, the budding of spring’s first blossoms, the changing of the leaves from green to gold—are cause for celebration and memorialization. So it’s little wonder that the drinking of a cup of tea should be treated with similar formality and elegance. “The tea ceremony was initially an elite pursuit, one that provided a forum for the rulers of ancient Japan to forge social ties,” Stewart says. “And even now, everything is always carefully considered: the type of drinking vessel, the palette, the season. There’s a sense of harmony achieved from the balance of bitter and sweet.” But beyond a perfect aesthetic experience, the tea ceremony is something more precious still: a moment out of time, when everything slows, and the only thing to concentrate on is the bitter taste of the frothy green tea on your tongue.

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  • Eastern Africa

    Not to make light of colonization, but along with the less-than-happy changes wreaked by the British upon Africa, one of the sublime things they did introduce was afternoon tea. While tea is not widely drunk throughout eastern (and southern) Africa, the continent didn't start producing its own leaves until the 1800s. "Many of the teas are grown in Malawi and Kenya and have a rich, old-leather fragrance," Stewart says. "They're very unusual and distinctive."

    Tasting notes: Stewart suggests conjuring up a post-safari afternoon with Shire Highland Antlers tea, grown on a small estate in Malawi. "It has lovely, earthy cocoa notes." she says.

  • Russia

    The Russians are used to extremes. Their winters are colder, their vodkas are stronger, and appropriately, their teas are so potent that, as Stewart says, "you can get intoxicated on them." The secret behind their particular brew is the samovar. The heart is stuffed with burning charcoal, wood, or pine cones, and boiling water, which dilutes the concentrated tea (usually black or green leaves, often of Chinese origin) held in the teapot perched on top. Add generous amounts of sugar and you'll get a tea that, as Stewart says, is an inimitable "balance between smoky and sweet."

    Tasting notes: In the nineteenth century, people would sip the tea through a sugar cube held between their teeth," says Stewart. "Now, you should have your tea alongside a spoonful of fruit preserves and a square or two of cake." The tea shown here is a slightly black tea blend called Gypsy Caravan.