不是只有下午茶！Ash 談英國飲茶文化

No doubt you have seen (and more than likely own) one of those mugs that has written on it in bold print: “Keep calm, and carry on”. Well, there is a reason it is on a mug: English people believe that almost anything can be solved with a cup of tea. However, in England, even though on the tea boxes at the supermarket is may say “loose tea”, it isn’t whole leaf, like many Taiwanese sold teas.

English tea really became popular and highly valued in the rule of Queen Elizabeth 1st reign, which ended in early 1600. Tea was imported from India through the British East India Company like nothing else that had been imported before. English people held tea in such high esteem that it was only really available to the higher class, with both the middle and lower class having to be content with purchasing illegally smuggled tea.

In fact, one thing that a lot of people do not realise, is that the English used to really enjoy coffee before the days of tea. In the early days, cafes were scattered throughout the capital selling coffee, cakes, cookies etc. But, with the influx of imported tea and the fact that it was such a highly valued commodity, this later turned the cafes from coffee sellers, to tea sellers.

I remember when I was growing up, that tea played a huge social role between households and friends. Coffee is for the morning, but tea is for the rest of the day.

A typical tea drinking schedule: 11:00 1st cup of the day (providing you had coffee, not tea, for breakfast), 14:00 2nd cup of the day (perfect afternoon tea time, often accompanied by a scone with jam, a slice of fruit loaf or some biscuits – known as cookies to most Americans), 18:00 3rd cup of the day (often had whilst watching some TV or relaxing with a book) and the final 4th cup of the day had at around 20:00.

I guess you could say, that on average, English people drink 3-5 cups of tea per day. For some people, tea making is as simple as putting a tea bag in a mug, leaving it for 2-3mins, adding some milk and adding some sugar (although the addition of sugar is often scoffed at). But, for other people, tea making is a relaxing time and something done with pride. For those people, the process is as follows: boil a kettle and use the water just before it boils to rinse the teapot, let the kettle finish the boil whilst adding loose tea to the hot rinsed tea pot, put the lid on the teapot and stick a tea cosy on top to keep it warm whilst brewing for 3-5mins (depending on preferred strength), after such a time there is a real sticking point with the next step: add the milk to the mug first OR pour the tea into your mug and then add the milk.

Milk adding is often a disputed subject in households with many people choosing differently. Personally, whilst I do not think it affects flavour much at all, I choose to add the milk after pouring the tea because I like to see the milk swirl in the mug when I stir it…

And, there you have it. You now know how to pour tea like the English do!

But, what I didn’t realise at all on first arriving in Taiwan, is quite how much tea is held in high regard here, too! You can walk in any city, in any county, throughout Taiwan and find specialist tea shops who import tea from a variety of local and foreign locations around Taiwan, China, Japan, India etc. You can walk into any convenience store and buy black (red, here) tea, Oolong tea, green tea or milk tea for less than $25TWD.

Whilst studying Chinese, I tried to take every opportunity to speak with local Taiwanese people who couldn’t speak English. Why? Because, if I don’t understand the mandarin that’s being spoken to me, then I don’t want it explained in English. I want it explained in Chinese, forcing me to learn. So, for me, I spent a lot of time in tea shops. I have a love for tea, the ceremony and the social aspect of it, too. And, it really is just ok to sit with customers and drink tea inside these tea selling shops. The Taiwanese really are a friendly bunch! I have sat for countless numbers of hours in tea shops all over Taiwan, soaking in the atmosphere, drinking tea, talking about similarities between English tea, Indian tea, Taiwanese tea etc and trying all of the different grades and types of tea I could get my hands on. Not only do I enjoy doing it for this social reason, but it led me to buy a tea set of my own for my home, brewing regularly whilst watching TV or relaxing at the weekend. I would say that my favourite tea to date is too difficult to pin down, but a couple of my favourites have been a high mountain oolong from LiShan (Pear mountain) in TaiChung, TieGuanYin ‘Iron buddha’ tea from the WenShan area of Taipei, and the incredibly special Green tea with the Jasmine flour inside that opens up when brewed from FuJian province, China.

The tea available in Taiwan is enough to rival any other world class tea out there, but it’s not about who has the ‘best’ tea, because that’s totally subjective. With that being said, I think it is difficult to overlook what Taiwan has to offer with regards to tea. If you are living in Taiwan and haven’t done it yet, then go and sit in a tea shop and relax with the local Taiwanese. If you’re visiting, then go and visit the MaoKong area in the WenShan District of Taipei and sit enjoying your favourite brew with a view of Taipei City whilst watching the sunset. But, please, don’t come here and ignore the tea, it really is quite special!