15 March 2010 [Monday] @ March 15, 2010 edit
Irish Tea Traditions?
  • My neice has asked my help in writing a one and a half to two minute paper on Irish Tea and its traditions. She will be preforming this to others her age, for the National Charity League, we have tried to search for things on the internet, but havent had much luck. She would like to know:

    What they wore?
    How many times a day they have tea?
    How much pounds(or something) they have per year?
    The food they eat along with tea?
    What kinds of tea?

    And anything else you think would be helpful!!


  • I don't know how helpful any of this is, but as somebody who has lived in Ireland all her life, these are the things that spring to mind when you mention tea:

    There are two main tea manufacturers in Ireland: Lyons and Barrys. (We have other teas, and import lots of British brands as well, but these two are tea giants in Ireland.) The Barrys vs Lyons argument is always a popular one. I've linked to both websites below - they both have information on tea-drinking in Ireland.

    Culturally, it's almost universal when visiting somebody's home in Ireland to be offered a cup of tea. Have you ever seen the character of Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, whose tag-line is "WIll you have a cup of tea? Ah, go on. Go on, go on, go on, go on." The reason that plays so well in Ireland is because the offer of tea is so much a part of daily life here.

    Obviously, how much tea a person drinks per day varies. (I average about four cups). I'm seeing a lot of different figures floating around as to how much we actually drink. The Global Market Information Database puts it at 1.5kg per person per year. (Link below.) That seems a bit low to me though. Other articles on Google put it closer to 3kg.

    We drink tea with or after any meals, but also as a break in its own right. Like the British, sitting down for a cup of tea often means having a biscuit or two as well. Traditional biscuits eaten with tea are things like Digestive Biscuits, Bourbon Creams, Ginger Nut Biscuits, Rich Tea, Fig Rolls or Jammy Dodgers.

    I'm not entirely sure you mean by "what they wore". Tea-drinking has been part of Irish food culture in various ways since the mid-nineteenth century, so there's no one particular fashion associated with it.







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