It might come as a surprise to many Americans, but tea is the second-most-consumed drink in the world after water. I have no trouble believing that, having lived for two years in Mali, where tea taking is a treasured social ritual. Brits are known to dearly love their tea, too. And they show it by drinking more than 35 billion cups a year. Tea is a staple beverage in India and China, the world’s two most populous countries by a whopping margin.
When the day’s work was finished in Mali, I regularly got together with friends to take tea. Several hours were spent talking while the tea brewed and was shared. The tea of choice there looked more like shotgun pellets than leaves before being boiled in a softball-sized kettle. Custom dictated that there were always three rounds. The first was rich and bitter despite ample amounts of added sugar. Refilling the kettle with water and returning it to a boil produced a second round in the Goldilocks zone, bronze in color, not too bitter, not too sw…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to More Verb Than Noun to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.