These recipes show how tea is made differently around the world
Is tea the same as tea? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! There are countless variants and recipes of the hot drink, which originally came from China. You may be familiar with tea preparations such as English Earl Gray, Japanese Matcha Tea, or Chinese Oolong, but there are many more traditional things to discover in the world of tea. Almost every country and region offers its own variations and traditional tea recipes. These are just waiting to be discovered and tried out by you.
Table of Contents
Make your own Tibetan butter tea “Po cha”
If you are familiar with Bulletproof Coffee, butter in hot drinks may not be all that new to you. While coffee is the basis of the Bulletproof, tea, as the name suggests, is used for butter tea, namely black tea. The fact that the so-called “Po cha” is so popular in Tibet as well as with Tibetan communities in India and Nepal is probably due to the low temperatures in the high altitudes of these countries. A butter tea provides cozy warmth.
Find out how the Tibetan butter tea is made!
Ingredients (for 2 cups):
- 2 cups of hot water
- a heaped teaspoon or a tea bag of black tea
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp butter (traditionally yak butter)
- 1/4 cup milk
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Recipe:
- Bring the water to a boil.
- Add the tea bag or loose tea in the tea strainer to the water.
- Simmer for a few minutes and add the salt.
- Take the tea off the stove and add milk and butter.
- Mix everything for 2 to 3 minutes with a shaker or mixer and serve hot.
We recommend these black teas:
- Twinings Pure Darjeeling
- Teahouse Exclusives TE Luxury Earl Gray
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Traditional tea recipes from Morocco: green tea with mint
If you take a closer look, it is not at all surprising that in particularly hot and dry regions of the world, less cold and instead more hot drinks are enjoyed. The advantage: The drink itself, often tea varieties, quench thirst and the drinking temperature ensures that the body does not have to raise the drink to body temperature first. This entails both heat production and unnecessary energy consumption.
Traditional tea recipes can also be found in the Maghreb (“place of sunset”), the north-west African region to which Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco belong. Mint tea is specially drunk there. The basis is green tea, to which sugar and mint are added. This is traditionally prepared and enjoyed in social gatherings, and a true tea ceremony has developed over the centuries.
If you too would like to enjoy this North African delicacy, simply try the following recipe.
Ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons of green tea, preferably “Gunpowder” (loose)
- 1.2 liters of water
- about 10 sugar cubes or 30g sugar
- some sprigs of nano mint (or another type of mint)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Recipe:
- Put the loose tea leaves in a teapot and boil for several minutes with two glasses of water.
- Then pour off the water, the tea leaves remain.
- Add the mint and add the rest of the hot (not boiling!) Water.
- Add sugar and let steep for another three minutes.
These teas are best:
- Kusmi Tea Green Tea Nana Mint
- Pure Tea Dao Ren Feng Superior Green
- Tree of Life Green Tea
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Prepared with the “Samovar” tea accessory: Black tea in Russia
Tea has a long tradition in Russia and has not only been reserved for the nobility since the 19th century, but rather the hot drink of an entire nation. Traditional tea recipes use the so-called “ samovar ”, a combination of kettle and tea maker, which also keeps the finished tea warm. Fired in the classic way with charcoal, modern versions with a power connection are now common.
But don’t worry: if you don’t have a samovar and don’t want to buy one, we have just the right recipe for you. All you need is a teapot or vacuum jug, for example from Eva Solo or Alfi.
Typically Russian tea is black and intense and is therefore refined with sugar or something else.
Ingredients:
- 20-25g black tea
- 1 liter of water
- Sugar, milk and / or lemon depending on taste, sugar alternatives or syrup can also be used
Preparation time: 7 minutes
Recipe:
- Heat the water to just below the boiling point.
- Pour the black tea into the teapot and fill halfway with the water.
- Wait 3 to 4 minutes and then add the remaining water.
- Then you can serve the tea.
- Traditional tea recipes recommend letting a spoonful of sugar melt in your mouth and then drinking the intense black tea. You can also simply add your choice of sugar, milk or lemon to the cup of tea and then enjoy.
We recommend these types of tea:
- Kusmi Tea Earl Gray
- Ronnefeldt Tea Couture Earl Gray
- Dammann Tee Quatre fruits rouges
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South African rooibos tea
Did you know that all real rooibos tea comes from South Africa? This is because the rooibos only thrive in the Cedar Mountains, north of Cape Town. The special microclimate with hot, dry summers and wet winter months, in which even snow falls can provide the perfect conditions for this plant. The Cederberg Mountains rise up to over 2,000 meters and represent a region of over 70,000 hectares in which Rooibos tea is cultivated on large plantations.
Incidentally, rooibos differs from other types of tea such as black or green tea in that rooibos does not come from the “tea plant” Camellia Sinensis, but is obtained from the bush “Aspalathus linearis” and is therefore similar to herbal tea.
The preparation is very simple, the most important thing is the steeping time.
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon or 1 tea bag of rooibos per cup
- water
Preparation time: 8 minutes
Recipe:
- boil water
- Put the loose rooibos tea in the tea strainer or the tea bag in the water
- Let it steep for 7 to 8 minutes
Read more:
Conclusion
Tea is consumed almost all over the world, but how it is done differs from country to country. Regardless of whether green tea, black tea, rooibos tea or other types of tea serve as the basis – the various tea recipes show the variety of preparation. Making tea yourself is an interesting and tasty way to get a glimpse into the culture of a nation and to get to know the subtleties of tea enjoyment.
With the helpful recipes and tips as well as suitable high-quality tea accessories, there is nothing left to go on a culinary journey of discovery into traditional tea preparation!
