Ostfriesentee mit Kluntje

Ostfriesentee belongs to East Frisia, up on the North Sea, where tea is not a little pause but a proper table habit. Weekday, Sunday, visitor at the door, it all comes to the same tray: strong black tea, Kluntje, the big rock sugar crystal, and cream. Three cups are the minimum. Drei ist Ostfriesenrecht, three is East Frisian law.

Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. The north has its tea table; Nordfriesland hides rum under cream in the Pharisäer, and the south is more likely to argue over coffee, wine, or a summer Bowle, a wine-and-fruit punch. This is not a national German tea. It is East Frisian, and it has rules because the rules make the drink.

The deciding move is the cream. Pour the hot tea over the Kluntje first, so the sugar cracks and starts melting at the bottom. Then slide the cream down the inside of the cup, or over a small spoon, and leave it alone. Stir it and you've made sweet milky tea. Don't stir, and you drink three layers: cool cream first, strong tea in the middle, sweet sugar at the end. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.

Use loose tea, not a bag with dust in it. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from a packet that smells tired. The blend wants strength, mostly Assam, with enough leaf to stand up to cream. Das braucht seine Zeit, but not much: a warmed pot, boiling water, five minutes, then the tray goes out.