International Tea Day Celebrations in 2019

International Tea Day Celebrations For the first time in Ipswich, we celebrated this day in a quiet environment with a Ceylon Tea ceremony in 2019. A tea trailing option was advertised in Discover Ipswich where cafes in the city served speciality tea to any tea adventurer who walked in.

You may wonder what the fuss is about? It is all about the cuppa that we enjoy at every occasion over 3 centuries in the world.

I think it is fair to say that UK promoted this drink to Europe and other parts of the world though it was always a daily drink in China, Southeast Asia and countries around

the silk route.

Then in 2005 tea producing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda, and Tanzania started celebrating this day as a special day mainly to draw global attention of governments and citizens, to the impact of the global tea trade on workers/ growers and show the importance of fair trade which we all are passionate about...

On this day all tea growing countries get together to discuss important issues such as:

Protection of housing rights for workers Increased wages for tea workers Improved sanitation and clean, potable water on tea plantations Medical care for tea workers in rural areas . Education for Women who constitute more than 50 percent of the workforce in tea plantations and often do not have access to education.

For me it is a day to celebrate the most popular drink in the world which is only second to water in consumption according to statistics. It is a day to celebrate this amazing drink that connect the world and stop to think of these important issues close to my heart !!