Around the world in 8 tea ways

For International Tea Day on 21 May, we look at eight teas that have (arguably) changed the world.

The year 2020 marked the first International Tea Day as sanctioned by the United Nations, recognising the global nature of the tea industry from production to consumption. This spectrum covers its environmental and agricultural impacts as well as the industry’s influence on human rights and labour, and finally its expression as part of culture.

United Nations stamp sheet depicting different styles of tea preparation

We take a look at eight teas that have played a pivotal role in global tea culture.

1. White tea

The origin legend of tea is that a Camellia sinensis leaf fell into a pot of Shennong’s boiling water and the resulting brew deactivated some of the poisons he had consumed earlier as part of his edible experimentations. Thus, tea was discovered. The earliest teas were white: picked, withered and dried before being boiled and consumed. We still drink white tea today, and aged white tea is becoming more popular.

2. Pu’er

Before pu’er was pu’er, it was just a load of Yunnan tea bricks that had been sent west on the Tea Horse Road starting from the 7th century. The journey imparted its own special funk that became the classic taste of this fermented tea. Let’s not forget it bought Tibetan horses for China! Fast forward to modern times and there is a whole sub-industry that deals with the production, storage and investment of pu’er.

3. Matcha

When Japanese monks brought tea over from China it was the ground and whisked kind from the Song Dynasty. Since then, its production and preparation has been codified and passed down for several generations as chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. Beyond chanoyu, it’s a huge trend and popular ingredient – demand has seen a recent shortage of the powdered tea.

4. VOC teas

The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), better known as the Dutch East India Company, was the first corporate entity in the world owned by its shareholders and often touted as the birth of capitalism. Its Asian interests included Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia, from where it exported green tea, oolong and, later, black tea. The VOC was a crucial part of the Dutch economy during the 17th and 18th centuries and its trade in Chinese porcelain, including teaware, also led to ceramic innovation in Europe.

5. Black tea

From the local word for Wuyi, where it originated, bohea is the English term for partially and fully oxidised tea from this region of Fujian province. The initial making of black tea (hongcha in Mandarin) was purportedly an accident, but a happy one – fully oxidised tea was better suited to international travel on ships compared to green tea, leading to an expansion of the international tea trade by sea.

6. Assam tea

After Robert Fortune stole the secret of tea from the Chinese, the British set up tea plantations in colonised India. The earliest of those was in Assam, where tea already grew wild, and by the mid-1800s Assam was producing tea for British consumption. India is now the world’s second-largest exporter of tea after Kenya.

7. Masala chai

The difference between India and Kenya, however, is India’s huge domestic consumption, which came about after some gallant marketing campaigns and an enterprising chaiwallah. Masala chai – generally considered to be black tea and a mix of spices simmered in milk – has since become a national drink. The spice mix differs by region and even by family; in fact, many clans have established their own family recipes, which often incorporate favoured spices from their local area.

8. Bubble tea

Originating in Taiwan in the 1980s, bubble tea was initially black tea and sugar shaken with ice to cool; it was the shaking that produced the eponymous bubbles. Today bubble tea is more often associated with milk tea and tapioca balls even though the beverage requires neither to be considered bubble tea. If bubble tea stores seem ubiquitous, it’s because they’re highly profitable; according to one estimate, the sector is valued at US$2.83 billion. It’s also a key driver of tea consumption in the youth market.

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