Up to six tea times are part of everyday life for many East Frisians. For a tea ceremony, in addition to the copper-red black tea and cream, you also need a piece of rock candy – but that of all things is now scarce.
Leer – Black tea is considered the national drink in East Friesland – but not without the so-called Kluntje. This is a piece of white rock candy over which East Frisians pour their tea into thin porcelain cups.
But this Kluntje of all people is now missing in many places in East Friesland. As the “Ostfriesen-Zeitung” first reported, some supermarkets in the region recently reported empty shelves for a certain variety, the so-called “Lüttje Kluntje”, i.e. the packs with smaller pieces of rock candy – actually a niche product, and yet the East Frisians with theirs Centuries-old tea tradition extremely popular.
However, the bottleneck is not with the small pieces of sugar themselves, as a spokeswoman for the Cologne sugar manufacturer Pfeifer and Langen said when asked by dpa and the “Ostfriesen-Zeitung”. “We have enough beet sugar there.” Rather, there is a lack of suitable paper packaging material to fill the small sugar and bring it to the shops. Overall, packing material is currently difficult to obtain, said the spokeswoman. The company also obtains this from various suppliers.
But a remedy is in sight: From the beginning of March, the filling of the popular candy variety at Pfeifer and Langen, according to their own statements the industry leader in candy sugar production in Germany, should start again and then probably be available again from the middle of the month. One very much regrets that there is now a bottleneck with the “Lüttje Kluntje”, which is coveted in East Friesland, said the spokeswoman. The special interest in this type of sugar also shows how important it is in the region.
The East Frisian tea culture has been recognized by Unesco as an intangible cultural heritage since 2016. Last year, the East Frisians were also recognized as world champions in drinking tea. The record institute for Germany determined that the East Frisians drink an average of 300 liters of tea per capita per year. The nationwide average is just 28 liters per capita and year. dpa
