Sankt Nikolaus - Saint Nicolas - Santa Claus

Red tea from Yunnan 2012

Santa Claus is like tea: a previously local tradition that has morphed into a worldwide phenomenon! Sankt Nikolaus used to be a bearded priest who rewarded good kids and punished the naughty ones in Germany and in the East of France. Then, Thomas Nast, a German immigrant cartoonist in the USA, used this figure to draw the modern Santa Claus with red cloths and a white beard.

In this spirit, I brewed a red Qingxin Oolong grown in the high mountains of Yunnan, China. This cultivar comes from Taiwan, but its origin can actually be traced to the Aijiao Oolong cultivar in Fujian! Tea and Christmas traditions are internationally connected. And did you know that by 2030 China will become the largest Christian country in the world? Tea and Christmas will have more and more things in common!