Top 10 Tea Facts

Top 10 Tea Facts.

Tea is drunk the world over, in fact it is second behind water as the most consumed beverage on the planet with a massive 165 million cups drank in the UK alone! That is the equivalent to over 20 Olympic sized swimming pools! We don’t expect you to try and drink your share, in fact moderation is key and a healthy portion is considered at 3 to 4 cups per day. Here at The UK loose Leaf Tea Company, we love tea and thought we would share our top ten facts about tea.

1. We mentioned above that the UK drinks over 165 million cups per day, and yet we are only the third highest tea drinkers in the world per capita, with Turkey being number one and Ireland number two.
2. Black tea in China is known as red tea.
3. Tea has its own national day which is April 21^st every year, tea drinkers celebrate it by drinking tea.
4. 1660 was the first recorded date of an Englishman enjoying a cup of tea, and this was noted in Samuel Pepys’ diary. To quote, “afterwards I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which I never drank before”.
5. Of all the teas available, black tea is the most popular.
6. Tasseography is the term for fortune telling by reading tea leaves
7. Since 2004 tea has become more than 15 times more popular, and people are now trying different flavours, types and mixes, in fact 80% of households have some form of tea in their cupboard/caddy.
8. It is claimed the humble teabag came about in 1904 when a tea merchant sent out samples in little silk pouches tied with a ribbon, meant to be emptied out, some of the recipients ‘dunked’ them and the teabag was born.
9. Tea DOES contain caffeine and in fact can be more than some coffees, however for those who want to avoid this, there are plenty of decaffeinated teas available on the market today.
10. ‘All the Tea in China’ This is a lot as China produces a whopping 2,414,802 tonnes per year and is the biggest tea producer in the world.