I had a few discussions and mail exchanges with @Lahikmajoe about the German tea culture and its importance mostly in Northern Germany.
According to him, one of the reasons behind it is that this area is the hinterland of the port of Hamburg.
This was coherent with other things I had read about the importance of Hamburg for the importations of coffee in the whole Europe.
So I decided to try to find a little more information on this and asked the Port of Hamburg Authority about this.
I must say that their staff was really friendly and sent me quickly some data.
According to the German Tea Association, 76.778 tons of tea were handled in Germany.
This figure includes the 50.838 tonnes imported of which about half (25.940 tonnes) were re-exported (probably after some blending and/or repackaging).
About 75% of these tonnages went through the Port of Hamburg, making of it according to the Port of Hamburg Authority the most important European hub for tea trade.
However what I found most fascinating is the data provided to them by the German Tea Association regarding imports and re exports.
When you look at them, you can see two interesting changes over time:
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the sudden increase from 1988 on of the imported tonnages,
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the rise of re-exportation (a little over 50% of the imported tonnes in 2010).
This prompted me to look at the few figures I have one more time and to drop the re-exportations to see what is really consumed in Germany.
Now, we have a completely different picture.
The 1988 increase is still there but after that, it seems that the importations are more or less flat (in terms of tonnage, value being another interesting indicator to look at).
Is Germany a country famous for its teas? Perhaps or the reason could be different as I read in my Tea Lover’s Guide that Hamburg is home to a certain number of large tea brokers that supply almost all the European “importers” of a certain standing but the problem is that the figures don’t really support that.
For now, the set of data I have is not huge enough to allow me to go further into that direction but my next task is to gather more data and to see with the German Tea Association if they have any ideas on the reasons behind these figures .
So far, I didn’t receive any answer from them but I won’t let them run away with it.
After all, I have all the time in the world as long as I have my tea cup near me.
There should also be a relative large amount of tea being transported into Germany by plane (the term “Flugtee” for early arrival Darjeelings is an omnipresent marketing hype in Germany in April/May every year). While these amounts aren’t the big tonnages that tea-bag teas amount to, they might contain some of the increase from 1999 to 2010.
Thanks for the comment and the Flugtee thing.
I still need more data before being able to say anything but I will keep your explanation in mind.
That is quite fascinating. Could it be that Hamburg is an important hub because of its somewhat-centralized location in mainland Europe? Or maybe because of its close(-ish?) proximity to the Netherlands – the territory known for bringing tea consumption to the West?
Thanks for the comment.
Interesting hypothesis. I will have to think a little about them…
Done but remember those are just what I think and perhaps I will find later that I was wrong.
– Central location: perhaps but most countries in Europe have/had their specialised colonial port and the European construction is a rather modern thing.
– Being close to the Netherlands: yes but for centuries (heading back to the Hansa) the Netherlands and Hamburg have been competitors so I don’t see it.
And I looked at it and Germany had no Indian Company (even Danemark had one) that could have imported tea to smuggle it in the United Kingdom.
I will keep your ideas in mind if I ever find more info/details.
This is interesting to read…I have a pretty strong impression that Germany currently has a more active / vibrant tea culture (given its smaller size) than the U.S., but I did not realize that this growth is primarily in recent years.
Thanks. I am not sure if the tea culture is really a recent one. I talked with @lahikmajoe regarding this and we have no real answer to it.
Perhaps I should check with the info I gathered for my next post.