“Don’t drink tea! Be patriotic and drink more beer!”

- [paraphrasing of what 18th century politicians told the people of East Frisia]

The wikipedia article about East Frisian tea culture is a gem. It’s German, so here are some highlights:

• The average tea consumption of an East Frisian was 290 litres/year in 2008, that is 12 times the average of regular Germans.
• Before tea, they mostly drank beer. Tea was cheaper though so when tea started to get popular, authorities tried to suppress tea consumption.
• Potatoes and tea arrived at approx. the same time in Europe, making being alive back then much more worthwhile.
• Friedrich II tried to break the East Frisians’ habit of tea drinking.
• People in East Frisia reacted with civil disobedience, the smuggling tea and SECRET TEADRINKING!
• Friedrich II eventually gave in and allowed the continuous consumption of the “Chinese dragon poison”.
• Like pretty much everything else tea was rationed in and immediately after WWII. To get to their tea, East Frisians travelled to the Ruhrpott [300 km south, Germany’s mining centre] to exchange bacon, eggs or butter for the “heavy worker tea bonus” many people there got.
• The whole ceremony is too complicated to explain but there are a lot of great Low German words used.
• East Frisian tea is one of the very best things in North Germany. That is not from wikipedia but a fact and the source for that fact is me.