The Key to Tea

Doing research and lec­tur­ing about tea is based on the plant Camel­lia sin­en­sis, which can be treated dif­fer­ently to get six main types of tea: black, green, white, Oolong, yel­low and Pu-Erh-Tea. In addi­tion, the nam­ing can also change due to the col­our of the tea’s infu­sion; the tea which is usu­ally called “black tea” out of China is named “red tea” with­in China, Oolong Tea can also be found as “blue green tea” and the Pu-Erh-Tea is called “black tea” in China.¹Excerpt from the chapter “Explor­ing Thea sin­en­sis – sorts, ori­gin, and his­tory”, by Bern­ard Ricolleau, Hartwig Bohne and Lys­beth Vink in Bohne, H. (2024). Tea Cul­tures of Europe: Her­it­age and Hos­pit­al­ity. De Gruyter.

After water, tea is the most con­sumed bever­age in the world. In many nations, espe­cially in Asia, but also in Poland, Türki­ye, Geor­gia and Azerbaijan, tea is the every­day drink. But, in most of the oth­er coun­tries, tea and related beverages/​cocktails are still rarely found on res­taur­ant menus. Primar­ily tea is part of break­fast or after­noon tea offers. In many European coun­tries, indi­vidu­al tea trad­ing com­pan­ies have spe­cial­ized in cater­ing and offer hotels and res­taur­ants the whole range of tea, teapots, tea strain­ers as well as train­ing courses on tea. Since tea can be drunk ice-cold, cold, luke­warm warm or hot, this makes it a very flex­ible com­pan­ion. There is also the pos­sib­il­ity to elab­or­ate with steep­ing time and the amount of tea in rela­tion to water, to increase or decrease cer­tain fla­vours or tex­tures such as tan­nins to per­fect the food pairing.

Tea is a ver­sat­ile com­pan­ion and can accom­pany a com­plete menu. Many white and green teas, oolongs, but also black teas are ideal. More aro­mat­ic teas, such as Lapsang Souchong (smoked tea) or Pu-Erh, are a little more chal­len­ging. For example, a dish that would be accom­pan­ied by a lightly toasted bar­rel-aged Amer­ic­an oak Chardon­nay can also be well accom­pan­ied by a 60% oxid­ised Oolong, as Oolongs also con­tain vanilla notes.²Excerpt from the chapter “Tea as a soph­ist­ic­ated food com­pan­ion”, by Nicole Klauß and Hen­rik Scander in Bohne, H. (2024). Tea Cul­tures of Europe: Her­it­age and Hos­pit­al­ity. De Gruyter.

The ETCI aims to ana­lyse, com­pare and struc­ture tea related bever­ages and dishes, tea pair­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, and also spe­cif­ic habits and socially dom­in­at­ing tea cere­mon­ies as a cul­tur­al her­it­age in Europe. In addi­tion, water related top­ics and research pro­jects regard­ing wine as a “sib­ling” are also part of the port­fo­lio of the European Tea Cul­ture Insti­tute recog­niz­ing the hol­ist­ic approach of tea.