Page 101 - #61 English

Currently, Turkey’s tea plantation area is up to
75,000 hectares, with an annual tea production of
300,000 tons, ranking 5th place in the world in the
highest tea production countries list. Nationwide,
Turkey has 200,000 tea production families, which
is nearly 1,000,000 people. Tea industry brings 300
million USD every year. It is the pillar industry of the
Eastern Black sea coast. It provides career opportu-
nities for local citizens, improves their income and
prevents the labor migration. Thus, tea industry is the
major source of economic revenue for 1 million peo-
ple in agricultural areas. Turkey is not only a major tea
producing country, but also a tea consuming country.
Its average tea consumption per capita is the highest
in the world, about 4 kg per year per one person. In
Turkey, 100 out of 96 people drink tea every day, and
national tea consumption is 245 million cups per day.

The most outstanding is summer Dajiling whole leaf tea,
which is called the champagne tea for its floral fragrance.
United Kingdom is not the tea-producing country, the
IRELAND (Average annual tea consumption tea it consumes is all imported. In the 1950s, the highest
per capita: 4.831pounds) record of yearly imported amount of tea is 250,000 tons. Al-
though the popularity of tea was influenced by the competi-
Ireland seems not to be a country famous for its tion with coffee and other soft drinks, as well as the change of
tea culture, one example is the typical Irish tea – high tea consumption pattern, the import volume and consump-
tea, which is always confused with English afternoon tion volume of tea declined a little in the 70s. However, tea
tea. In fact, the origin of high tea comes from enjoying occupies the first place in UK drinking market all the time.
meal while standing by a pretty high table. Time for According to the survey in 2002, for the population above 10
enjoying high tea is close to dinner time, so it is often years old, 71.3% of them has a habit of drinking tea every day.
seen as a dinner tea. After a whole day of work, people In average, daily tea consumption per capita is 2.78 cups, and
enjoy food by pairing it with tea. The leaves for high tea occupies 37% of daily drinks.
tea is a blend of black tea leaves from India, Sri Lanka
and Kenya, it tastes much stronger than English black
tea. The big difference from afternoon tea, which is a
kind of social activity of upper class, high tea is a part
of working class dinner. However, it does not mean RUSSIA (Average annual tea consumption
that Irish people do not know high-end tea. per capita: 3.051 pounds)
NO.3 as the presents to Russian Ambassador from Mongol Khans.
Tea was officially introduced to Russia in Ming Dynasty

UNITED KINGDOM (Average annual tea In the 17th century, Moscow businessmen started to import
tea from China. Due to the remote distance and inconvenient
consumption per capita: 4.281pounds) transportation, tea was regarded as luxury, consumed only by
upper class in Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Until the
Tea was firstly introduced to the United Kingdom 19th century, when tea culture was available to every class.
at 17th century, it was brought from East Indian Com- Russians think tea has a function of relaxing and comforting
pany. The afternoon tea with scones, sandwiches and people, refreshing people’s mind, balancing spirits and di-
fruits filled the gap between lunch and dinner perfectly. verting oneself from boredom. It can also relieve fatigue dur-
After Indian tea-producing areas developed, and were a ing working breaks. Russia is the big tea consuming country
part of British colonies, since prices for pure high quality since a long time, 95% of its citizens have habit of drinking
tea was expensive, more and more people preferred to tea. The tea market is increasing at a speed of over 5,000 tons
drink blends of Assam tea. The whole leaf tea from single every year, with annual consumption at 200,000 ton, valuing
farm of Dajiling Area is also very popular. Unlike broken more than 200 million dollars; 99% of tea consumed is from
black tea characterized by strong taste and perfect pair- other countries, amid black tea has the highest market share.
ing with sugar and milk, the whole leaf tea from single It is mainly imported from India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangla-
farm of Dajiling is featured on fresh fruity fragrance. desh, Indonesia, China etc.

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