Here are our top 5 fun facts about the world's favourite drink (other than water).
1. Turkish people drink the most tea
Turkey is the country with the highest tea consumption per capita. Each year the average Turk drinks 1,300 cups of tea or 3.5 cups a day.
2. American Iced Tea and Canadian Iced Tea are different
Canadian Iced Tea refers to a delicious sweet iced tea usually sold alongside soda in restaurants and stores. American Iced Tea usually refers to a bitter cold tea with no sugar added. Many unwitting Canadian tourists have learned this tidbit the hard way by ordering Iced Tea in an American restaurant.
3. Tea used to be locked up
You read that right, tea was such a hot commodity that it would get locked away. In 17th-century England only the upper classes could afford tea. They did not trust their servants with the precious leaves so they purchased special locking tea caddies. This practice evolved as tea became commonplace eventually leading to the non-locking caddies people use today to organize their tea.
4. Milk was originally added to prevent porcelain cups from cracking
Most people add milk to their tea after steeping their tea for the rich creamy flavour but this was not always the case. The practice of adding milk to tea began as a way to stop porcelain tea cups from cracking due to the extreme heat differences between hot tea and a cold porcelain cup. People would add the milk first and then pour in the hot tea to prevent cracking. Milk is also added as a way to stop tea cups from becoming stained from repeated exposure to black tea.
5. All teas come from ONE plant
Camellia sinensis is the plant that is made into all 3000 types of tea available. Black tea is left to oxides for a long time resulting in a dark colour while white and green tea is not oxidized for long. It’s pretty incredible that different processing and oxidation of the same plant can make such a difference!
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