Our cup of tea:
purpose, people, partners

Purpose

Based on the European Tea Cul­ture Research Circle, foun­ded in Feb­ru­ary 2021, the European Tea Cul­ture Insti­tute ETCI was foun­ded in Janu­ary 2024 as an inde­pend­ent insti­tute offer­ing an inter­dis­cip­lin­ary envir­on­ment for research and edu­ca­tion regard­ing tea cul­tures in Europe.

Rep­res­ent­ing a vari­ety of European uni­ver­sit­ies and their research­ers, but also prac­ti­tion­ers with dec­ades of exper­i­ence, the ETCI focuses mainly on applied sci­ences, and joint activ­it­ies, broad­en­ing the hori­zons of tea related research and education.

As the UNESCO lis­ted three tea cul­tures in Europa (East Frisia in 2016, Türki­ye and Azerbaijan in 2022), this was one of the impulses to elab­or­ate social, eco­nom­ic, entre­pren­eur­i­al and cul­tur­al mean­ings and import­ance of tea related her­it­age, tea trade, tea ware and the role of dif­fer­ent pre­par­a­tion and con­sump­tion of tea for arts, culin­ary aspects and his­tor­ic­al per­spect­ives. This vari­ety of top­ics shows clearly that tea is much more than only a cup of hot water col­oured by tea plants. It is a pas­sion­ate sym­bol for cel­eb­rat­ing the plant ori­gin­ally com­ing from Asia, trans­ferred to Africa, ennobled in Europe, mak­ing tea cere­mon­ies also in Europe an iden­tity devel­op­ing instru­ment of social gath­er­ing and nation­al pride.

There­fore, the European Tea Cul­ture Insti­tute has an inter­dis­cip­lin­ary approach to ana­lyse, com­pare and share the know­ledge regard­ing cul­tur­al her­it­age, eco­nom­ic import­ance, the value chain and social influ­ence of tea, tea trade, teaware and related tra­di­tions, stake­hold­ers and impacts in Europe.

The research pro­jects, calls for pub­lic­a­tions, train­ings, and events are open for all aca­dem­ics, research­ers, PhD stu­dents, but also for prac­ti­tion­ers for joint pro­jects focus­ing on tea cul­tures of Europe.

The approach of the ETCI includes research and pub­lic­a­tions regard­ing con­tem­por­ary chal­lenges, but also tra­di­tions, his­tor­ic­al links and the social role of tea con­sum­ing habits. In addi­tion, the first hol­ist­ic book about tea cul­tures in Europe: Tea Cul­ture of Europe: Her­it­age and Hos­pit­al­ity, (Bohne, 2024) offers a guideline for the trans­fer of research into train­ing and edu­ca­tion. The ETCI offers train­ing, and work­shops relat­ing to tea her­it­age, tea tour­ism, and tea tra­di­tions, and hosts the annu­al European Tea Cul­ture Conference.

In sum, the European Tea Cul­ture Insti­tute is the only aca­dem­ic insti­tu­tion blend­ing the activ­it­ies and pro­jects of research­ers, lec­tur­ers, and prac­ti­tion­ers related to Tea Cul­tures in Europe to make tea cul­tures more vis­ible and under­line their value.