International Tea Day
Next: May 21, 2027
Put the kettle on for someone.
The story
Where it comes from
International Tea Day began as a proposal from India at the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea in October 2015. China carried it forward, and at the group's meeting in Hangzhou in May 2018 members settled on 21 May, because May is the season of quality tea-making in most producing countries. The UN General Assembly proclaimed the day on 19 December 2019. Tea is thought to have first grown where northeast India, northern Myanmar and southwest China meet, and there is evidence it was drunk in China about 5,000 years ago.
How it's celebrated
FAO and tea-growing countries use the day to talk about the people who grow the leaf, most of them smallholders, and about keeping tea sustainable 'from field to cup'. For everyone else it is a day to brew a proper pot and share it: teh tarik pulled between two jugs at a mamak stall, oolong with dim sum, matcha whisked in a bowl, or a strong cup of builder's tea.
Did you know
- After water, tea is the most consumed drink in the world.
- Smallholder farmers grow about 60 per cent of the world's tea.
- Malaysia's first highland tea garden was planted in 1929 in the Sungei Boh valley of the Cameron Highlands.
Coming up next
- International Day for Biological Diversity · May 22, 2027
- World Turtle Day · May 23, 2027
- International Day of the Markhor · May 24, 2027
- World Football Day · May 25, 2027
- Africa Day · May 25, 2027
- World Lindy Hop Day · May 26, 2027