Category World News

Other than water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage worldwide. It takes second and third place, behind only beer and coffee, respectively.

The United Nations designates May 21 as International Tea Day, honoring the beverage’s significance and value both globally, both economically and culturally.

In many societies, tea has a significant place. Tea is regarded as a calming and cordial substance, from Tibetan po cha to traditional English breakfast tea.

The UN has not yet determined where the tea’s exact origins are, but it is believed to have been found in northeast India, northern Myanmar, and southwest China. One of the oldest beverages in the world is tea, which is dated to 5, 000 years ago.

How to say tea all over the world

Nearly all of the world’s tea terms can be derived from the root words “cha” or “te” in the same way.

The term “tea” is derived from cha in many of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

• In Mandarin: 茶 (chá)
• In Arabic: شاي (shāy)
• Yay in Turkish:
• In Hindi: चाय (chāi)

Many nations in Western Europe make use of some form of te. As a result of trade routes in the East, “tea” was first introduced into the English language. The phrase “te” was derived from China and pronounced “te” in the Hokkien dialect.

• Tea in English
• The French phrase:
• Teja in Spanish:
• tee in English

Who produces the most tea globally?

The tea plant is typically grown in tropical and subtropical climates, where millions of people depend on their livelihoods from agriculture.

China produces nearly half of the world’s tea, according to the most recent data from the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal’s Global Tea Report. India accounts for 20% of global production, followed by Kenya (8%), Turkiye (4%), and Sri Lanka (3%).

Worldwide, there are 17 percent of tea productions in the rest of the world.

How much tea is consumed every day in the entire world?

World tea consumption increased by 6.5 million tonnes in 2022, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, surpassing previous years’ 6.5 million tonnes.

Tea is consumed by China, the nation with the highest tea consumption, 3 million tonnes in 2022, or 46% of global consumption.

In 2022, Turkiye, which is the second-largest consumer, had a share of nearly 18%, coming in at 1.16 million tonnes, Pakistan with 247, 000 tonnes, and Russia with 133, 000 tonnes.

Tea consumption increased by 2% in 2022 compared to 2021, and by 20% more in 2023, according to the FAO.

However, the war in Ukraine has had a negative impact on tea imports in countries like Europe and North America, while tea consumption has decreased as a result of stronger competition from other beverages.

Five strange teas from different parts of the world

Here are five distinctly unusual teas from around the world and how to prepare them for this year’s International Tea Day:

Po cha, butter tea

Found in: Tibet and other Himalayan regions

What’s strange about that? It is contained in the name. Butter tea is made with yak butter, black tea, and salt. According to legend, the host will refill your cup with butter tea until you decline or until they stop filling it, signaling that you need to leave.

Is it tea, or just Kombucha?

Found in Korea, Japan, and China.

What’s strange about that? Kombucha is regarded as a tea. A jelly-like SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) is the basis of this fermented tea. Kombucha fans frequently give their SCOBYs names, names, and pets as family heirlooms.

Butterfly pea flower tea

found in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand.

What’s strange about that? Because of its color, which turns purple when you add lemon juice, it is known as blue tea. It contains a concoction of floral petals from the blue pea flower, which is caffeine-free.

Baobab tea with leaf

Found in: Africa sub-Saharan.

What’s odd?: Baobab tea with leaf is traditionally used in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa as a mild herbal remedy and nutritional drink.

Baobab leaf tea has a mildly earthy or even mildly bitter flavor, similar to spinach water, unlike most herbal teas, which are frequently floral or fruity.

Guava leaf tea

Found in: Africa, Central America, and the Philippines.

What’s strange about that? Guava tree leaves, which have an earthy flavor, are used to make the tea. It is said to have medicinal properties in the culture of the Philippines for relieving stomach aches and minor cuts.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a “landmark deal” with the EU that lays the ground for closer collaboration with the bloc.

Nearly nine years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, the new agreement includes a new security and defence pact, fewer restrictions on British food exporters and visitors, and a controversial new fishing agreement.

Britain said the reset with its biggest trading partner would reduce red tape for agricultural producers, making food cheaper. The deal would also improve energy security and, by 2040, add nearly 9 billion pounds ($12.1bn) to the economy.

While Starmer sold the deal as a “win-win”, attacks immediately emerged from the opposition Conservative Party, which said the deal would make the UK a “rule-taker” from Brussels.

Nigel Farage, head of the hard-right, pro-Brexit Reform UK party, called the deal an “abject surrender”.

What are the terms of the deal?

As part of Monday’s defence-and-security agreement, the UK and the EU will work more closely on information sharing, maritime issues and cybersecurity.

Crucially for Britain, the bloc committed to exploring ways for the UK to access EU procurement defence funds.

British weapons manufacturers can now take part in a 150-billion-euro ($169bn) programme to rearm Europe – part of United States President Donald Trump’s push for Brussels to spend more on defence.

Meanwhile, both sides have agreed to work on a joint agrifood agreement to remove Brexit-era trade barriers like safety checks on animals, paperwork and bans on certain products.

In 2023, UK food and drink exports to the EU were worth 14 billion pounds ($18.7bn), accounting for 57 percent of all the sector’s overseas sales. Monday’s agreement should raise that.

In exchange, the UK will need to follow EU food standards – a system known as “dynamic alignment” – and accept the European Court of Justice’s oversight in this area.

There have been talks on linking up the UK and EU’s carbon markets (i.e., a tradable price on CO2 emission) and on a joint electricity market.

The deal also paves the way for the UK’s return to the Erasmus student exchange programme, as well as granting young people access to the EU through work and travel.

In a symbolic gesture to please tourists, Britons will be allowed to use border e-gates at most EU airports, reducing queues at passport controls.

Finally, the UK will grant EU fishers access to British waters for an additional 12 years, an eleventh-hour concession from the UK – three times longer than it had originally offered.

Does this amount to backtracking on Brexit?

Critics from the Conservative Party and Reform UK quickly denounced the deal as a betrayal of Brexit, arguing that the price of the trade agreement was excessive.

The fisheries deal drew fierce disapproval, with opposition politicians saying it meant handing over Britain’s fishing waters to European fishers for an extra decade.

Fishing is a key issue in the UK, despite making up just 0.04 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). And Starmer’s deal appears to have reignited tensions last seen during Brexit negotiations.

Offering “12 years access to British waters is three times longer than the govt wanted,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X. “We’re becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again.”

Reform’s leader, Farage, told Bloomberg that Starmer’s deal on fisheries “will be the end of the industry”. The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation called it a “horror show”.

Elsewhere, there were complaints about Britain having to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice on agrifood policies.

For their part, the Conservatives vowed to reverse all these changes if they got back into power.

Still, Starmer stuck firmly to his election promise of not re-joining the European single market (in which goods and people can move freely) or the customs union (which eliminates tariffs on goods traded between EU countries).

What were the costs of Brexit?

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Ministry of Finance’s independent forecaster, the UK’s decision to leave the EU will shrink trade flows by 15 percent.

The OBR also that calculated Brexit will lower GDP by 4 percent over the long term. That’s the equivalent of costing the economy 100 billion pounds ($134bn) per year.

For starters, Brexit involved erecting significant trade barriers with Europe. In 2024, UK goods exports to the EU were 18 percent below their 2019 level, in real terms.

The decision to leave the EU also triggered business uncertainty. Lacking clarity over the UK’s future economic relationship with the EU, business investment softened.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimates that business investment was 13 percent lower in 2023 than under a remain scenario.

Brexiteers promised that leaving the EU would allow Westminster to sign global free trade agreements and break away from the EU’s demanding regulatory regime.

“The argument was that doing business at home and abroad would be simplified,” says Gaurav Ganguly, head of EMEA Economic Research at Moody’s Analytics.

“And while the UK has signed several trade deals since 2020, Brexit has not unleashed the potential that was talked about [by its advocates].”

In recent weeks, the UK has signed up to trade agreements with India and the US. But Britain’s average GDP growth was just 0.64 percent between 2020 and 2024.

Elsewhere, public support for Brexit has fallen since the 52-48 percent leave vote in the 2016 referendum.

Earlier this year, polling by YouGov found only 30 percent of Britons now think it was right for the UK to vote to leave the EU, versus 55 percent who say it was wrong.

Roughly 60 percent of people believe Brexit has gone badly, including one-third of leave voters. A majority also believe that leaving the EU has damaged Britain’s economy.

Are the economic benefits from the new agreement?

Ever since last year’s election, the Labour government has pledged to improve Britain’s anaemic levels of growth. It sees lower trade barriers with the EU as crucial to that goal.

Acknowledging the damage inflicted to Britain’s trade by Brexit, Starmer said the deal to remove restrictions on food would give 9 billion pounds ($12bn) boost to the UK economy by 2040.

In a government briefing, Downing Street said it would redress the 21 percent drop in exports and 7 percent drop in imports seen since Brexit.

That said, 9 billion pounds ($12bn) would amount to just 0.2 percent of the UK’s national output. As such, this week’s agreement deal has dismantled only a fraction of the trade barriers erected post-Brexit.

“Yesterday’s deal may lift growth,” Ganguly told Al Jazeera. “But the UK economy continues to struggle from structural weaknesses, including low productivity and limited fiscal space.”

The Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, recently calculated that the UK-EU reset would boost Britain’s GDP by between 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent.

Ganguly said he is “not inclined to change my forecast in the short term”, adding “In addition, it’s clear that yesterday’s agreements won’t completely reverse the economic hit from Brexit.”