Three cups of tea is the law in East Frisia, Germany
2024-08-12
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Celia Brandenburg, director of the local tea museum, holds a manual on making East Frisian tea in Lower Saxony, Germany, July 29, 2023.
Germans are well-known for their love of beer, but few people know that Germans also have a tradition of drinking tea, especially in the East Frisian region of Lower Saxony in the country, where drinking tea is not only a daily habit, but has also been elevated to the level of "law" and philosophy.
"Three cups (of tea) is the law in East Frisia", this is a local proverb, which means that it is considered impolite for a guest to not drink three cups of tea when visiting the host's home. In fact, three cups is just the beginning. According to German media, locals drink tea four or five times a day, in the morning, afternoon, and even before going to bed.
In the tea culture of East Frisia, tea needs to be added with rock sugar and then cream, but never stirred. Locals believe that after the cream is poured into the tea soup counterclockwise, all that is left is to wait. "Time is still like this." In their view, drinking tea is an indispensable part of slow life.
With such a love of tea, it is no wonder that East Frisia's tea culture has been included in the German Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The amount of tea consumed in the region has also led to a higher annual per capita tea consumption in Germany. A recent report by British media said that East Frisia is one of the regions with the highest per capita tea consumption in the world.
There is no tea in Germany
Like other European countries, Germany did not have tea originally. The tea drinking culture in the country began in the 17th century. According to Li Huailian of Anyang Normal University in his article "On German Tea Culture": In the early 17th century, the Dutch ocean-going fleet came to Macau via Java and transported Chinese tea to Europe. East Frisia, located in the northwest of Germany, borders the Netherlands, so it became the first region in Germany to come into contact with tea.
Since the 18th century, the East Frisian region has been enjoying a tea drinking trend, but it was limited to the wealthy class. In 1806, a man named Johann Benting brewed the first batch of East Frisian tea, which was later regarded as "authentic", in a grocery store in Lehr, northwest Lower Saxony. This tea is rich and fragrant, containing a variety of tea leaves in fragments, with the largest proportion being black tea from Assam, India. However, some people say that the reason why East Frisian tea has a strong taste is because of the unique local water quality.
But for the early fishermen in East Frisia, it was a luxury to drink a cup of hot tea before going out to sea, because tea was obviously rare and expensive in Europe at that time. According to German media reports, it was not until around 1850 that the price of tea gradually fell as the supply increased, and tea culture was truly integrated into the lives of ordinary people in East Frisia.
The Three Realms
The bitterness of strong tea, the smoothness of cream and the sweetness of rock sugar are like a colorful symphony played by an orchestra. This is the feeling that East Frisian tea brings to people. Different from the tea parties of British aristocrats described by Jane Austen and different from the tea ceremony in the East, the tea drinking ceremony in East Frisia has a unique German exquisiteness.
The local tea museum holds several demonstrations every week: the tea artist first warms the teapot with hot water, then uses a small spoon to accurately measure the tea, then pours in hot water, keeps it warm with a candlestick, and finally filters the tea with a metal sieve. The Germans' seriousness in drinking tea is not only shown in museums in East Frisia. In order to accurately calculate the time for brewing tea, hotels across Germany provide guests with funnels to avoid brewing tea for too long or too short a time, which results in a bad taste.
The most special thing about the East Frisians’ tea drinking is that they first put a large piece of rock sugar into the teacup and then pour the tea in. When the tea comes into contact with the sugar, a soft and pleasant "crackling" sound will be made. Finally, a little cream is poured counterclockwise along the wall of the cup. The milky white cream sinks to the bottom of the brown tea and then rises, blooming like white clouds. The locals affectionately call it "little clouds".
Tasting it this way, the first mouthful is the fragrant cream, the second mouthful is the strong black tea, and the last mouthful is the sweetness of rock sugar. The three realms are intertwined and integrated, making people feel the life. German writer Christopher Peters once said: There is no drink more suitable for people to fall into quiet contemplation and boundless reverie than tea.
The material basis of tea culture is not only tea, but also tea sets and snacks. Most of the tea sets used by East Frisians are painted with rose patterns. The "East Frisian Rose" in German refers to tea sets with rose patterns. Local snacks are mainly pasta containing dairy products, such as butter cake, waffles, cheese sandwiches, apple tarts or raspberry jam cakes.
Tea as a medium
"The daily schedule of the residents of East Frisia is guided by tea," an expert from the local tea museum told Chinese media reporters. Tea is simply the spiritual food of the people of East Frisia. Neither beer, which was once dominant before the arrival of tea, nor coffee, which became popular after the arrival of tea, has reduced the local people's deep love for tea.
German tea culture, inspired by the East Frisian tea culture, has developed various herbal teas, fruit teas and practical tea sets. For example, peppermint tea can be used to treat gastrointestinal discomfort, chamomile tea can be used to lower blood sugar levels, and lemon ginger tea can be used to reduce inflammation and treat colds. The German "tea brewing controller" is exactly the same as the Chinese Gongfu tea.
"Tea" is written as Tee in German. Otto Kunz, a German botanist in the 19th century, said that Tee originated from the pronunciation of "tea" in the Minnan dialect of China. In addition, the long-standing tea-drinking tradition has also refined tea-related life experience and wisdom in both countries, such as "coarse tea and light meals" and "people leave and tea gets cold" in Chinese. There is a proverb in German, "Abwarten und Tee trinken", which literally means to observe what may happen while drinking tea, and the extended meaning is to be calm and patient in the face of things.
With tea as a medium, China and Germany have also carried out a series of cultural exchanges in recent years. In August 2010, German friends from meditation classes in Berlin, Munich, Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and other places came to Shijiazhuang Sanzi Zen Tea House, where lay Buddhists from both countries practiced Zen and talked about tea together. In March 2013, Lao She Teahouse was unveiled at the Berlin International Tourism Expo. In April 2015, in Emden, East Frisia, the Hannover Confucius Institute and four museums in East Frisia jointly held a Sino-German tea culture seminar.
The significance of tea in Germany not only goes beyond the "laws" of the East Frisian region, its medicinal value in treating various diseases, and the reciprocity of bilateral trade, but it can also be an opportunity and a way for Germans and even Westerners to perceive and understand the essence of another civilization across historical contexts, civilizations, and institutional differences.
Author: Gu Wenjun
Text: Our reporter Gu Wenjun Photo: Visual China Editor: Liu Chang Responsible editor: Jin Wei
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