Hi Everyone.
I would like to try East Frisian Tea and hope to get to the very north western region of Germany to Leer and Norden as mentioned in this article I will link. After finishing my Germany trip in Hamburg, I will have to go to Amsterdam to fly home so I thought maybe I could detour on the way to these places. But if I’m short on time and can’t get to them, does anyone know of a place in Hamburg that might serve it? I realize Hamburg is not in East Frisia, but thought. would ask here just in case someone knows. I did a couple web searches and found tea places in Hamburg, but there was no mention of that specific tea style being on the menu.
Thanks, Greg
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240725-europes-under-the-radar-region-thats-home-to-the-undisputed-tea-world-champions
Posted by
66 posts
I must confess I was a little surprised that it was not really working even when I was searching in my native German. I assume you are looking for the full experience, not just the blend (which is called Ostfriesentee as well just to make things more interesting)?
The closest I could find something was near Oldenburg. How are you getting from Hamburg to Amsterdam? This or something else might be on the way…
Posted by
OP
Edmonton Alberta Canada
138 posts
Hi l-b_m.
Yes, I was looking for the full experience, not just the blend. So I guess it’s the specific blend, poured over the rock candy, and then the cream. I will be taking the train from Hamburg to Amsterdam.
Thanks, Greg
Posted by
66 posts
Hi Greg,
Yep, that is the full process. I was not able to figure out if a place that offers „Ostfriesischen Tee“ is going for the full experience or just the blend, unfortunately. Maybe somebody else does know a place where it is definitely the full experience.
I could find some places that look like you might at least try an email to ask.
https://witthus.de/
https://www.luehmanns-teestube.de/
https://www.cafeammichel.de/
Stopping by enroute is unfortunately not going to work out with a train, I fear…
Posted by
OP
Edmonton Alberta Canada
138 posts
Thanks l-b_m.
I like driving and I’m not against driving if no trains pass where I want to go. It’s more about the cost, as the Canadian dollar does very poorly against the major currencies like the Euro, the Pound, or the US Dollar. Plus the insurance add ons then basically double the cost of the actual rental cat. Or at least that was my experience two years ago in England when I had to rent a car for some remote places.
Posted by
Germany (mostly)
10 posts
Finally de-lurking for this one.
My searches in German also didn't turn up much, a bit to my surprise (I'm just past Ostfriesland and had assumed there'd be something in Hamburg).
You can get to Schipol from Hamburg via Leer by train (I've done it and variations thereof) but with a two hour stop in Leer for tea you're looking at 8-10 hours, changing in Bremen and Groningen and with a bus on the Leer-Groningen leg. As much as I love Ostfriesentee, that's a lot... Though this route does at least go all the way to the airport, and the changes are easy.
That said, depending on your travel dates, there may be trackwork on the line to the coast which would make it impossible. See https://www.bahn.de/service/fahrplaene/bccfa644-270f-4ed9-85fa-d5e14eab0835
I haven't spotted anything in Bremen either (to be fair, it's a coffee city) - the Teestube in the Schnoor might do it, but you'd have to check.
It's a bit of a pain to get to Ostfriesland by public transport from Hamburg at the best of times since
you can't avoid going through Bremen. But if you go as far as Ammerland (e.g. Oldenburg / Bad Zwischenahn) on your tea hunt (where there are options), there's at least a Flixbus from Oldenburg to Amsterdam.
Posted by
66 posts
Hi Greg,
I completely understand - in particular going over borders will drive the price up. I tried asking my sister who has been living in Hamburg for about nine years, but she had no direct recommendation either. She mentioned
https://wasserschloss.de/gastronomie.html
They seem to offer all the ingredients in their cafe (blend, cream, rock sugar), so you only need to know the order.
If nothing else works, you find none and you can’t make it to Ostfriesland, the only idea I can offer besides is to by the ingredients (that at least should be easy in Hamburg - the blend is popular, as is rock candy sugar) and make it yourself. The recipe is special, but not that complicated…
Posted by
Germany (mostly)
10 posts
For what it's worth, Wasserschloss was the recommendation I got from a friend as well. :-) No personal experience, though.
If you make it yourself, don't try to substitute milk for the cream, and try to find a tea warmer - you want to be able to top up your cup for the full effect with the rock sugar.
Posted by
OP
Edmonton Alberta Canada
138 posts
Hi snoozy- Thank you for the advice. I’m hoping to have a few days left after Hamburg if all goes well. That would mean I could break up the Hamburg to Amsterdam train ride and maybe stay a day or so in Leer, even though I might have do some train transferring. If not, I hope in the future to do a Netherlands/Holland and Belgium trip so I could maybe get to Leer then.
Posted by
Germany (mostly)
10 posts
Well, if you have time to split the journey it's easy and quite inexpensive, as you can do Hamburg-Bremen-Leer(-Norden) on a regional ticket for maximum flexibility. There's a special agreement for the sector from Bremen to the coast that allows you to use regional tickets on the IC trains too.
(And if you end up doing this at a later date the much-delayed train track between Leer and Groningen may even have reopened. It's been almost a decade since the bridge vs freighter incident that originally took it out... )