1.IN 2010 CHINA CONSUMED TEA LEAVES EQUAL IN WEIGHT TO TWENTY SIX TITANICS.
In China the average person consumes four hundred cups of tea a year. Tea is very popular in China, tea drinking certainly became establishedin China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the west. Containers for tea have been found in tombs dating from the Han dynasty(206 BC - 220 AD) but it was under the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD), that tea became firmly established as the national drink of China. It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch'a Ching, or Tea Classic.
2.CH'A CHING BY LU YU
Ch’a Ching is a book written by Chinese scholar Lu Yu, the book itself elevates the preparation and drinking of tea to near-religious status. . Like a religious ceremony, there is a set ritual, using particular implements which are endowed with individual significance, and there are guidelines on the appropriate state of mind for the tea drinker, and the atmosphere in which tea should be drunk. Lu Yu next describes the implements needed for the preparation of tea - 24 in all. Lu Yu gives advice on every aspect of these implements, and indeed the right equipment was so important to him that he states that if even one implement is missing, it is usually best to dispense with the tea altogether.
3.TEA SMUGGLING AND TAXATION
The British took to tea with an enthusiasm that continues to the present day. ey were though the preserve of middle- and upper-class men; women drank tea in their own homes, and as yet tea was still too expensive to be widespread among the working classes. In part, its high price was due to a punitive system of taxation. The first tax on tea in the leaf, introduced in 1689, was so high at 25p in the pound that it almost stopped sales. It was reduced to 5p in the pound in 1692, and from then until as recently as 1964, when tea duties were finally abolished, politicians were forever tinkering with the exact rate and method of the taxation of tea.
One unforeseen consequence of the taxation of tea was the growth of methods to avoid taxation -smuggling and adulteration. By the eighteenth century many Britons wanted to drink tea but could not afford the high prices, and their enthusiasm for the drink was matched by the enthusiasm of criminal gangs to smuggle it in.Their methods could be brutal, but they were supported by the millions of British tea drinkers who would not have otherwise been able to afford their favourite beverage. What began as a small time illegal trade, selling a few pounds of tea to personal contacts, developed by the late eighteenth century into an astonishing organised crime network, perhaps importing as much as 7 million lbs annually, compared to a legal import of 5 million lbs.
4. THE UK DRINK 165 MILLION CUPS OF TEA A DAY
The popularity increase in Coffee is still no match for the amount of tea consumed a day in Britain with an estimated 70 million cups of coffee drank per day.
Tea breaks are a tradition that have been with us for approximately 200 years.
In the UK we consume about 130,000 tonnes of tea a year of which at least 95% is in teabags.
5. THERE ARE ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT 1,500 DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF TEA AND ARE KNOWN TO HAVE VARIOUS HEALTH BENEFITS
Earl Grey, Darjeeling Tea, Breakfast Tea, Jasmine Tea, Herbal Teas
6. GEORGE ORWELL- 'A NICE CUP OF TEA'
"A Nice Cup of Tea" is an essay by British writer George Orwell, first published in the Evening Standard newspaper of 12 January 1946. It is a straight-faced discussion about the craft of making a cup of tea, including the line: "Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden."
Orwell's rules cover such matters as the best shape for a teacup, the advisability of using water that is still boiling, and his preference for very strong tea. He also considers what he calls "one of the most controversial points of all" - whether to put milk in the cup first and add the tea, or the other way around. Orwell says tea should be poured first because "one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round." "I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable," he writes.
7.TEA CEREMONIES
Tea ceremonies are popular in China, Japan and Russia. It is all about the art of drinking tea, The art of preparing and making tea is called Cha Dao. In less than a minute, the server pours the tea into small narrow cups but he doesn't pour one cup at a time. Instead the cups are arranged in a circle and the server pours the tea in all of them in one go. He fills the cups just over half way. The Chinese believe that the rest of the cup is filled with friendship and affection.The server passes a cup to each guest and invites him or her to smell the tea first. You should thank him by tapping on the table three times with your finger. Next each guest pours their tea into a drinking cup and they are asked to smell the empty narrow cup. Finally they drink the tea. It is most polite to empty the cup in three swallows. When you drink tea in a teahouse or restaurant is it called Yum Cha, yum is to drink and cha is tea.
8.COUNTRIES THAT CONSUME THE MOST TEA PER CAPITA
(according to the latest survey, 2009)
1.United Arab Emirates
2.Morocco
3.Ireland
4.Mauritania
5.Turkey
6.Seychelles
7.United Kingdom
8.Kuwait
9.Qatar
10.Kazakhstan
9.TEA IN THE USA
In 2010, Americans consumed well over 65 billion servings of tea, or over 3.00 billion gallons. About 80% of all tea consumed was Black Tea, 19.5% was Green Tea, and a small remaining amount was Oolong and White Tea. Approximately 85% of tea consumed in America is iced.
10.CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA
In the contemporary era tea is so much associated with the British way of life that it can come as a surprise to learn that it owes much of its popularity here to a foreign princess. While it is not true to say that Catherine of Braganza, the queen-consort of Charles II of England, actually introduced tea to Britain, she certainly had much to do with it becoming a fashionable and widely drunk beverage. Catherine arrived in Portsmouth on 13 May 1662. It had been a long and stormy crossing, and as soon as she arrived she asked for a cup of tea. So rare was it at this time that there was none available; the princess was offered a glass of ale instead. Although she adopted English fashions, she continued to prefer the cuisine of her native Portugal - including tea. Soon her taste for tea had caused a fad at the royal court. This then spread to aristocratic circles and then to the wealthier classes.
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