It’s a sad fact that Britain’s reputation as a nation of tea-drinkers is founded more on the quantity of our consumption than on the quality. Restauants and cafes tend to select their teas on the basis of whatever’s discounted at the local cash’n’carry, and the resulting slop is generally served without care or finesse. Even those establishments that aspire to offer something more than just a generic cuppa seldom look beyond the ubiquitous Twinings variety pak. We have lost our race memory of just how special and revered a place tea used to have in our lives.

Germany boasts Europe’s third highest tea consumption rate per capita, so one might imagine that German tea drinkers are just as blasé as Brits about the quality of their brew, but on a recent fact-finding trip to Berlin I discovered that this was not the case. Tea has not been commoditised to the same extent as it has in the UK, and  the customary German efficiency and attention to detail pretty much guarantees a satisfactory tea-drinking experience, wherever it’s served.

British visitors are likely to marvel at the sheer magnitude of German tea-bags. They are typically the size of gym socks and attached to a cardboard tag that slips over the handle of the pot so that the bag can be removed when the desired strength has been attained. The voluminous nature of the bags means that they yeild a brew equal in quality to loose-leaf tea. Even the much-vaunted PG tips pyramid bag is little better than a second hand Vauxhall Corsa in comparison to Fritz’s V-12 Mercedes AMG. Germany, therefore, is an excellent destination for jaded British tea-drinkers who wish to rediscover their love and respect for our ‘national drink’.

The Tea Caddy says ‘well done, Jerry’.