This guide to who calls it tea (and who doesn’t) will blow your mind
You’ll need a strong cuppa after you read this.
If tea spread to your country by sea, you call it ‘tea’. If by land, you call it chai.
(*This is because the ports of Fujian and Taiwan use the coastal pronunciation ‘te’, whereas Mandarin uses chá.) pic.twitter.com/HQsesNik9d— Pádraig Belton (@PadraigBelton) January 12, 2018
We weren’t the only ones impressed by it, the map shared more than 25,000 times on Twitter at the time of writing and liked another 40,000 times more.
Here are some of our favourite responses online.
1.
The Polish word is "herbata"… Judging from the map, probably because they couldn't decide which word origin to go with.
— Flah (@MatZebrowski) January 12, 2018
Ah! From Latin Herba thea…
— Pádraig Belton (@PadraigBelton) January 13, 2018
Mind… blown!
— Flah (@MatZebrowski) January 13, 2018
2.
if it spreads to your country by starbucks, then you call it chai tea latte.
— the dude (@canermann) January 13, 2018
Which would translate as tea tea latte pic.twitter.com/9znA8b9b3Z
— zedster (@z3dster) January 13, 2018
3.
Very, very cool factoid!
— Laura Kate #FBPE (@cakeylaura) January 12, 2018
A factoid was actually meant to refer to something that is presented as fact, but not actually true…
— Kyle Hoker (@khoker) January 12, 2018
Wow. Could you also clarify for me the meaning of the word ‘pedant’?
— Laura Kate #FBPE (@cakeylaura) January 12, 2018
4.
Top cultural geography. Reminds me of something in my dissertation reading: LA hip hop is bass-heavy cos ppl use cars to travel, could have big sound systems. NY more sample-focused cos ppl listen w/headphones on subway, can’t appreciate the bass.
— David Osborn (@david_osborn) January 13, 2018
5.
Many people in my childhood(60 yrs+) said:"love a cup of cha" And it was commonly called té in rural Ireland. Actually I still say "sling the kettle" as was commonly used too even though the open fire with hooks "to sling" kettles&pots were largely gone
— Constance Short (@constan63686548) January 13, 2018
6.
And then there are Russia and Australia. pic.twitter.com/MOH3CGjyZ9
— Ammar Rizki (@kangammar) January 13, 2018