Tea the second most preferred beverage after water

Tea, was invented some 5000 years ago when a farmer while returning from his daily work saw some leaves falling into the ground which uttered some floral scents. To know more about this leaves, the farmer went home and boiled it in hot water. The aroma which filled the kitchen seemed soothing . And later it was used as a medicinal drink when one suffered from cold, cough or any other diseases.

The declaration of tea as the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, after water, has in fact a long history. First made in the article on ‘Tea’ by John McEwan in the Encyclopedia Britannica published in 1911 where he stated that ‘’next to water tea is the most preferred beverage widely used throughout the world with regard to the number of the total quantity of liquids consumed.

Tea , the second most widely consumed drink , after water, is a declaration made often by a wide variety of writers and organisations such as Alastair Hicks, Alan Macfarlane, The New York Times Newspaper, Wikipedia, CNN Traveller, The Economist, USA Today, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation few years back without any real evidence.

John McEwan, a scientist of London, wrote an essay entitled‘The Geography of Tea’ for the International Geographical Congress held at Berlin in 1899 where he said that ‘‘Today, next to water, tea is undoubtedly the most widely consumed drink.’’

But in reality no-one really knows how much water gets consumed daily by the world. But one thing remains logical and that is more water gets drunk than anything else, especially as it remains one of the most accessible and free liquids available to the greater mass on this planet earth. A lot of water is drunk daily to survive. That is nearly, one gallon of water needed daily for consumption.

But it has been proved from the market analysis that tea is the second most consumed drink after water. The market for hot tea was calculated to be around 40 billion US dollars per annum when compared with coffee which is about 20 billion US dollars.

The declaration of tea, the second most widely consumed drink in the world, after water means advertising its cultural centrality in each and every continent, even though the method of preparation differs from one place to another. More than in 90% of the households, tea seems more important than coffee.