Tea culture is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking, it includes aspects of: tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media issues.
Tea is commonly consumed at social events, and many cultures have created intricate formal ceremonies for these events. Western examples of these are afternoon tea and the tea party. Tea ceremonies, with its roots in the Chinese tea culture, differ among eastern countries, such as the Japanese or Korean tea ceremony. However, it may also differ in preparation, such as in Tibet, where tea is commonly brewed with salt and butter. Tea also plays an important role in some countries.
The British Empire spread its own interpretation of tea to its dominions and colonies including regions that today comprise the states of India, Hong Kong, and Pakistan which had existing tea customs, as well as, regions such as East Africa (modern day Kenya. Tanzania, and Uganda), which did not have existing tea customs.
Different regions also favor different varieties of tea, black, green, or oolong, and use different flavourings, such as milk, sugar or herbs. The temperature and strength of the tea likewise varies widely.
Famous quotes containing the words tea and/or culture:
“They were right. The Soviet régime is not the embodiment of evil as you think in the West. They have laws and I broke them. I hate tea and they love tea. Who is wrong?”
—Alexander Zinoviev (b. 1922)
“In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows, and deepens the soil,—not that which trusts to heating manures, and improved implements, and modes of culture only!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)