While coffee may be the world’s favorite caffeinated beverage, tea has a much longer history, and is still deeply ingrained in many cultures. How people in each country take their tea is as varied is the types of tea available, and even personal preferences within each country.
Whether you like your tea black, green, white, hot, iced, served straight or with yak butter, take a look at this video compilation of teas around the world and see how many you have tried!
Keep in mind that tea has been around as a beverage for thousands of years, has varied and complicated origins, and has been traded and imported from country to country for centuries. This video isn’t necessarily looking at which teas originated from specific counties, but rather which country each tea is most associated with and the teas that are most commonly drunk in there.
So, was your country’s tea accurately represented? Commentors had loads of opinions, and as it turns out, no one can really seem to agree!
“OMG, Earl Grey goes with lemon, English Breakfast goes with milk and sugar! This bothered me way more than it should have.”
“Ah, but London Fog? You know, Earl Grey tea with steamed milk and vanilla? It’s rather good, honestly.”
“I can’t drink Earl Grey without milk and sugar.”
“I live in China and I am not have seen that tea even once?!?!”
“So glad they mentioned pu-er tea! I love boba milk tea too though~”
“that butter tea looks so good omg”
“No, it’s really not, trust me. It’s very bitter and salty and an overall unpleasant experience. It’s good to try once though.”
“It is good. Its something you have to try twice to like it.”
“Rooibos tea’s history is rooted in the Cederberg region of South Africa. :)”
“Rooibos is so god damn good”
“I like drinking Rooibos, not just because it is tasty, its super cheap and almost every single supermarket or grocery store has a ton of it.”
“I really want to try that one”
“I spent a month there and it was literally all I drank. I miss it so much.”
“moroccan tea is the best + I am from Morocco”
“masala chai….. yum…THE BEST!”
“Chaiiii but we don’t usually put so many spices. Mostly just ginger.”
“I love my masala chai made by my lovely mother!!”
“That Japanese tea looks like Shreks jizz”
“wow matcha tea looks awesome”
“Matcha actually isn’t all that common for everyday use in Japan – you’re much more likely to be served sencha or bancha/genmaicha, depending on the setting. Matcha is pretty much reserved for tea ceremony and culinary use, especially considering its popularity as a flavor for ice cream and confectionery. In the summer it is actually quite popular to have cold mugicha, which is made from roasted barley rather than tea, but it has a lot of the qualities of iced tea, except for the caffeine.”
“i thought it was called bubble tea :P
well that’s at least what i call it”“i call it both lol” (To the comment above)
“I tried to like it I really did but I just don’t like a gel nugget suddenly in my mouth when drinking tea”
“The American one is so boring and not ethnic lol”
“Living in the hot and humid south, iced tee is like heaven my friend.”
While it would be impossible to fit every single country’s tea into a single video, many commentors were quite surprised and disappointed that Turkish tea was not included. What other teas would you like to have seen featured? Which of the ones shown do you like? Let us know!
Source and images: YouTube/BuzzFeedBlue via Lakatan (Top image edited by RocketNews24)