Of all the nations on Earth, which one drinks the most tea?
You might guess Ireland—and you’d be partly right—but the full answer is a bit more complex.
China, for instance, is the largest total consumer of tea, drinking roughly 1.6 billion pounds annually. This is not surprising, given that it is also the world’s leading tea-producing country, followed by India.
Amgoorie tea factory helping supply global tea demand
However, total consumption can be misleading when comparing countries with vastly different populations.
When adjusted on a per capita basis, China drops significantly in the rankings.
So which country drinks the most tea per person?
That honor goes to Turkey, where individuals consume nearly seven pounds of tea per year on average—well ahead of Ireland, which ranks second.
The United Kingdom takes third place, followed by Russia, where the samovar became an iconic part of tea culture.
The rest of the top ten includes Morocco, New Zealand, Egypt, Poland, Japan, and Saudi Arabia—an unexpectedly diverse list.
India, despite being a major tea producer, ranks much lower in per capita consumption, while the United States sits even further down, averaging only about half a pound per person annually.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Mexico, where tea consumption is extremely low.
You can explore the rankings in detail in
this interactive overview of global tea consumption by country from The Atlantic
.
Tea vs. Coffee Around the World
For comparison, it’s also interesting to look at coffee consumption patterns.
For example,
this analysis of global coffee consumption by country
shows that the United States does not rank among the top ten coffee-drinking nations either.
Instead, Scandinavian countries dominate coffee consumption, with the Netherlands leading the list.
Interestingly, Poland appears among the top ten consumers of both tea and coffee.
For additional background on worldwide tea consumption, see
this earlier article examining how many people drink tea globally
.
See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles
on the tea blog author archive page
.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Excerpts allowed with proper credit.
Leave a Reply