East Frisian Tea: The German Tea Culture You’ve Never Heard Of

Did you know that tea is the most popular drink in the world after water? Some people love tea more than others: While Germans drink an average of 27.8 liters a year, there is one region of the country where people drink ten times that amount! We introduce you to these tea champions and reveal a few secrets about their tea culture.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:42 East Frisian tea culture
03:34 How tea came to Europe
04:42 Tea and colonialization
05:19 Trading and testing tea
06:03 Characteristics of East Frisian tea
06:47 East Frisian water
07:21 Outro

CREDITS
Report: Gönna Ketels
Camera: Marco Borowski
Edit: Frederik Willmann
Supervising editor: Ruben Kalus

#dweuromaxx #tea #history

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[GreyPhoenix]

I am not east Frisian. I am from west Germany. I had a Frisian pen pal. On a visit I got my first Frisian tea. My pen pals mother explained the three sips like that: with everything in life, when you begin something, it is nice (and creamy). Then I gets hard and bitter, but only after the bitter part, you get the sweetness.

That really stuck with me!

[VainoOtsonen]

I'm a French exchange student who has been in Spiekeroog, an Island in East Frisia, for half a year, and the thing I miss the most from there is the tea. Everytime I go in Ostfriesland again, I buy true East Frisian tea and kluntje.

[Frisiansorg]

So happy to see that there is more attention for the Frisian cultures. I myself come from Friesland (the Dutch Friesland) and am and feel a true Frisian. Our culture is one of the oldest (Germanic) cultures in Europe, even during the era of the Romans and the Vikings we already made ourselves heard, even though we were a small but respected region. And you can only be proud of that. I have enormous respect for our East Frisian friends and I hope that they can continue to exist forever in their norms and values. Leaver dea as slaef (rather dead than slave).

[cuxietube]

Moin moin aus Texas. I grew up in Ostfriesland and the daily tea times always brightened up my days no matter how lousy the weather, school, or work. Left Germany over 40 years ago and gave up a lot in terms of food, traditions, customs, etc. but what I will never give up is my Ostfriesentee, even in the blistering 45 degree C (115F) desert heat. There have been times when it was a little difficult to find a source for my ‘elixir of life and happiness’ here in the USA but, fortunately, throughout the years I’ve always managed to fulfill my annual 300 liter quota😊

[rogerwilco]

I wish she would speak more in the local dialect.
As a Dutch person, it was fun when she spoke words that were very familiar to me.

[Intrepid_Insomniac]

I am in the USA but the elders in my family spoke low German when I was growing up. They are all passed away now. It was very nice to hear the language again. 🥰❤️

[SRPiROYAL]

Me as an eastfrisian myself, just have to give you a lot of credits for this short documentary about our tea! it's on the point accurate and i realy have to admit that you drink at least 3 times a day your three cups of tea, some days you drink up to 5 times a day your three cups, haha :D but what matters the most is the social aspect about drinking your tea with friends and family... i everytime think about my gone grandparents while drinking and i think thats so beatiful! :) thank you for this !

[TheZzzleep...]

Glad to see Frisian culture and language are alive and well.

[ReyOfLight]

I'm Swedish, it's 03:30 as I'm watching this and am about to go to sleep. Now I want to make a cup of tea!

[freagle]

North German here, I live in Emsland in a town right on the "border" of East Frisia, we speak Low German just like the East Frisians and also drink tea. I'm happy to see how our culture is being given attention.
Thanks for the video.

[XxKamaelxX]

I am from Frisia / Friesland (Dutch part) myself and I'm delighted to hear and see other Frisian cultures speak and do their thing ❤ Fun to hear this algamation of Dutch and German language.

[JSty-wiht]

Moooiiin, I moved to Marseille earlier this year to study there, safe to say that tea and my teapot were part of my luggage! One of my favorite moments since I arrived in the south of France (as backwards as it might sound) was a dim grey morning, with rain. I sat next to the open window in my appartment and had my Friesentee. It was beautiful!

[abhishekdatta]

Very informative video. I'm from India, and I must confess that I had no idea that a certain German province has such a unique Tea culture. However, I'm very much surprised by the graphics at 3:29 that India doesn't feature among the top tea drinking nations. Apart from parts of Peninsular India where Coffee may be more popular, Tea is an integral part of Indian culinary culture. Serving Tea to any guest who comes to your house is almost a universal practice in India. Whichever part of India one may visit, you will never be far from a Tea shop. That's how prevalent Tea drinking is over here. We have 3 prominent Tea growing regions in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiris, and each region produces Tea with unique attributes.
Anyways, feels good to know that there exists such a passionate tea drinking population in mainland Europe also..!!

[eastfrisian_]

My homeland!! These days I mostly drink coffee, but as a child, I spent two years at my grandmother's house during the day, and there we had tea at least four times a day. As a child, I drank a lot of tea because of this, always with rock sugar (Kluntje), though over time the cream was replaced with milk (except when we had visitors!). Until recently, I even had an East Frisian tea set for six people and donated it to charity, because it wasn't used for a long time. My mother has lived in deepest Bavaria for many years, almost at the Austrian border, and every year I send her Bünting tea by package. Now even her neighbor (who once borrowed tea from my mother) asks about it, and her best friend in Linz/Austria asked if I could send my mother Bünting-Tea for her. She tried the tea at my mother's house and was thrilled. Important: The common tea found in almost every German supermarket labeled "Ostfriesenmischung" (East Frisian Blend) is not the best - it must be tea from Bünting, Thiele, or Onno Behrends, which are from this region. Only these are genuine East Frisian tea with its strong character! I always have Bünting tea at home; in winter or when sick, brewed strong, it's a delight, although unfortunately, for health reasons, I have to use sweetener instead of rock sugar.

[dirkakkermann]

I am from East Frisia.
Happy to see our culture here❤

[hablin]

I am from Ireland but for the past 45 years I have lived on Norderney an East Frisian island it’s a big thing here tea bags are a big no no 🤣🤣🤣🤣 on the island 15.30 is tea time without fail it’s 11 utje is mostly on Sunday that’s to say it’s usually tea and Schnaps 🥰

[Sheila-phjs]

One per person and one for the pot is exactly what we say in England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[SuzanneU]

It's so true that the water strongly influences the flavour of the tea!

[andreasarnoalthofsobottka]

They forgot to mention the 'Kluntjeknieper', a pair of pincers used to split pieces of rock suggar which are too big.

[missdenisebee]

I’m not usually a tea drinker, but this makes me want to go digging through my cabinets for some tea😅