That's a question that had been on my mind. How do countries differ in the age at which children start drinking tea in tea-drinking cultures such as Britain, Turkey, Morocco, Russia and Japan. I also wondered whether tea was usually available at school in these countries.
For the British, tea is far more than a drink — it is a social institution, a comfort ritual, and a near-constant presence in daily life. The country consumes around 100 million cups of tea per day, and most British people would be hard-pressed to imagine a morning, an afternoon break, or a difficult conversation without one.
British children are typically introduced to tea between the ages of 2 and 5, usually in the form of a very weak, heavily milked brew — sometimes barely more than warm milk with a faint tea flavour. It is common for toddlers to sip from a parent's mug or be given a small portion in a sippy cup. Some parents introduce it even earlier: one survey found a child given a milky tea at just eight months old. A poll of over 1,400 parents found that age 5 was the most popular threshold for allowing a child to drink tea, though many started sooner in practice. Child nutritionists generally consider weak, unsweetened tea safe from around age 4, noting that its caffeine content is considerably lower than that of coffee.
By the time most British children reach ages 8 to 12, regular tea drinking has often become a household habit, absorbed through daily family routines. If someone puts the kettle on, everyone gets a cup — and children are rarely excluded. The shift from "child who occasionally has tea" to "person who automatically makes tea" tends to happen gradually during the early teenage years.
At school, however, the picture is more restrictive. Tea is almost never served to primary school children (ages 5–11), partly due to caffeine concerns and partly because UK government nutritional guidance for schools emphasises water and milk as the primary drinks for younger children. In secondary schools, availability is inconsistent and often limited to older students. Sixth-form students (ages 16–18) are the most likely to have access to tea during the school day, typically through a dedicated common room café. There was even a proposal in 2008 to formally ban tea and coffee sales to under-16s in school canteens, though no blanket national rule was ever enacted. In short, while the British tea habit is deeply cultural, it is largely a home-formed one.
Japan has one of the world's most nuanced tea cultures, encompassing everything from the meditative formality of the traditional tea ceremony (chado) to the simple everyday habit of drinking green tea with every meal. Tea is not just a beverage in Japan — it carries philosophical, aesthetic, and social weight that few other cultures attach to a drink.
Of all five countries covered here, Japan introduces children to tea the earliest and most systematically. Parents commonly offer hojicha (roasted green tea, very low in caffeine) or mugicha (roasted barley tea, entirely caffeine-free) to babies and toddlers from infancy — sometimes as early as six months. Both teas come commercially packaged specifically for young children in Japan and are widely regarded as safe, healthful drinks for all ages. The roasting process that produces hojicha significantly reduces its caffeine content compared to regular green tea, making it an ideal introduction for small children. General guidance in Japan suggests that children can drink tea with moderation from around age 5, but exposure to these gentle varieties typically starts far earlier.
When it comes to schools, Japan stands apart from all the other countries discussed here. Tea is a genuine, formal part of the school day. The national school lunch programme — kyushoku — is served to virtually all primary school children and many secondary pupils across Japan, and it regularly includes a hot cup of green tea or hojicha alongside rice, soup, fish, and milk. In tea-producing regions, the connection is even more direct: schools in Shizuoka, Japan's most famous green tea-growing prefecture, have been known to pipe green tea through drinking water faucets, encouraging children to rinse their mouths with it after lunch for its antibacterial properties. Schools in the Ujitawara area of Kyoto — another legendary tea region — incorporate green tea into rice dishes and soups. Beyond meals, many secondary schools have formal tea ceremony clubs (chado-bu), where students learn to prepare and serve matcha according to centuries-old rituals, treating tea as both art and philosophy.
Morocco's relationship with tea is one of extraordinary intimacy. The national drink — atay, a deeply sweet brew of gunpowder green tea steeped with fresh spearmint and poured from a great height to create a froth — is not merely a beverage but a cornerstone of social life, hospitality, and daily rhythm. To be offered tea in Morocco is to be welcomed; to refuse it is considered impolite.
Moroccan children encounter mint tea almost from birth. It is present at every family gathering, every meal, every moment of hospitality, and every ordinary morning. Children are commonly given their first taste as young as 18 months, and by toddler age many are drinking it regularly alongside adults. The tea is always heavily sweetened — often with several tablespoons of sugar per glass — which makes it naturally appealing to young palates. There is no strong cultural hesitation around children drinking it; rather, sharing tea is one of the primary ways family bonds and social ties are reinforced across generations.
Preparing tea is itself a skill passed down intentionally to children, particularly to young men, who are traditionally expected to master the pouring technique. Children learn to handle the tall silver teapot, steep the leaves correctly, and pour the tea in that characteristic high arc to aerate it and produce the prized foam on the surface. This means that in Morocco, tea is not just consumed from a young age — it is actively taught as a cultural practice.
Formal school meals with tea are not a feature of the Moroccan system in the way they are in Japan or Russia. Tea is not typically served during school hours as part of a structured lunch programme. Instead, the tradition is carried almost entirely through home life: most Moroccan children will have tea as part of the household morning ritual before school, and again when they return home in the afternoon.
No country on earth drinks more tea per capita than Turkey. Turks consume an estimated 3.5 to 4 kilograms of dry tea per person per year — more than double the consumption of the United Kingdom and far exceeding even Japan. The signature drink is çay: strong black tea brewed in a double-stacked kettle (çaydanlık), served in small tulip-shaped glasses without milk, and drunk in enormous quantities throughout the day.
Turkish children are introduced to tea at a young age, though there is a recognised cultural progression. Very young children are typically given a weak, heavily diluted pour — barely more than coloured hot water — or more commonly elma çayı (apple tea), which is caffeine-free, sweet, and fruit-flavoured. As children grow older, they graduate to açık (light) tea, then to sweeter versions with several sugar cubes, and finally to the strong, plain glass that defines adult Turkish tea drinking. There is even a semi-formal rite of passage associated with this progression: the transition to plain, unsweetened black tea is seen as a marker of growing up.
Tea in Turkey is inseparable from social life at every age. It is served when guests arrive, during business negotiations, between lessons at university, at every meal, and at virtually every çay bahçesi (tea garden) — outdoor spaces that function as communal living rooms for people of all ages. Secondary school students in Turkey often frequent tea houses near their schools and would consider it completely normal to drink two or three glasses between classes.
Formally, tea is not a standard part of the Turkish school meal system in the way it is in Japan or Russia. The 2019 Turkish regulations on school canteen food focused on banning unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks, but did not specifically address tea. In practice, younger primary school children are unlikely to have tea during school hours, but the habit is so deeply embedded in home and social life that older students rarely go a full day without it.
Russia's tea culture is one of the oldest and most deeply rooted in this list. Tea was introduced to Russia in the 17th century via trade caravans from China, and it gradually displaced kvass and other traditional drinks to become the undisputed national beverage. The Russian relationship with tea is warm, domestic, and deeply tied to ideas of home, comfort, and hospitality — sitting around the table with a glass of tea (stakan chaya) is practically synonymous with being at ease.
Russian health guidance draws relatively clear distinctions by age. Herbal teas — chamomile, linden blossom, rosehip — are considered safe and even beneficial for infants and are commonly given to young babies for their soothing properties. Weak black tea is considered appropriate from around age 2 to 3, when it is served very diluted and lightly sweetened. Stronger black tea is generally introduced from around age 7, while green tea, with its higher tannin and caffeine content, is typically held off until ages 10 to 11. In practice, many Russian families follow these guidelines loosely, with grandmothers (babushki) being well known for pressing sweet, milky tea on children of all ages as a cure for nearly everything.
Russia is also one of the most formalised countries when it comes to tea at school. Tea is a standard component of the Russian school meal (shkolnoye pitaniye), regularly served as the hot drink alongside breakfast or lunch in school canteens. This is not incidental — by presidential decree, all primary school children in Russia are entitled to at least one free hot meal per school day, and the typical canteen menu includes tea, compote (a fruit drink), or occasionally cocoa as the accompanying beverage. School canteen reform programmes in several Russian cities have actively worked to improve the quality and variety of meals, including the hot drinks on offer.
What is striking when looking at these five countries side by side is how much cultural context shapes something as simple as when a child first drinks tea, and how that habit is supported — or not — by the school system.
Japan and Morocco introduce tea the earliest, with infants and toddlers routinely drinking appropriate varieties at home. Russia and Turkey follow close behind, with most children drinking tea in some form by toddler or early childhood age. The UK is comparatively the latest, with the habit typically forming between ages 2 and 12 and being driven almost entirely by domestic rather than institutional exposure.
When it comes to schools, Japan and Russia are clearly the most structured: tea is a formal, regular part of the school day. Turkey and Morocco rely almost entirely on home culture to keep the tradition alive, with schools playing little formal role. The UK sits somewhere in between — technically permitting tea in secondary schools but rarely making it a meaningful part of school life for most students.
Tea Around the World: At What Age Do Children Start Drinking — and Is It Served at School?
Tea is one of the most consumed beverages on the planet, second only to water. Yet for all its universality, the role it plays in childhood — when children first taste it, how it is introduced, and whether schools serve it — differs dramatically from one culture to the next. In some countries, tea is practically given at birth; in others, it is a habit that develops gradually during the teenage years. Here is a detailed look at five nations with some of the world's deepest tea traditions: the United Kingdom, Japan, Morocco, Turkey, and Russia.
United Kingdom
For the British, tea is far more than a drink — it is a social institution, a comfort ritual, and a near-constant presence in daily life. The country consumes around 100 million cups of tea per day, and most British people would be hard-pressed to imagine a morning, an afternoon break, or a difficult conversation without one.
British children are typically introduced to tea between the ages of 2 and 5, usually in the form of a very weak, heavily milked brew — sometimes barely more than warm milk with a faint tea flavour. It is common for toddlers to sip from a parent's mug or be given a small portion in a sippy cup. Some parents introduce it even earlier: one survey found a child given a milky tea at just eight months old. A poll of over 1,400 parents found that age 5 was the most popular threshold for allowing a child to drink tea, though many started sooner in practice. Child nutritionists generally consider weak, unsweetened tea safe from around age 4, noting that its caffeine content is considerably lower than that of coffee.
By the time most British children reach ages 8 to 12, regular tea drinking has often become a household habit, absorbed through daily family routines. If someone puts the kettle on, everyone gets a cup — and children are rarely excluded. The shift from "child who occasionally has tea" to "person who automatically makes tea" tends to happen gradually during the early teenage years.
At school, however, the picture is more restrictive. Tea is almost never served to primary school children (ages 5–11), partly due to caffeine concerns and partly because UK government nutritional guidance for schools emphasises water and milk as the primary drinks for younger children. In secondary schools, availability is inconsistent and often limited to older students. Sixth-form students (ages 16–18) are the most likely to have access to tea during the school day, typically through a dedicated common room café. There was even a proposal in 2008 to formally ban tea and coffee sales to under-16s in school canteens, though no blanket national rule was ever enacted. In short, while the British tea habit is deeply cultural, it is largely a home-formed one.
Japan
Japan has one of the world's most nuanced tea cultures, encompassing everything from the meditative formality of the traditional tea ceremony (chado) to the simple everyday habit of drinking green tea with every meal. Tea is not just a beverage in Japan — it carries philosophical, aesthetic, and social weight that few other cultures attach to a drink.
Of all five countries covered here, Japan introduces children to tea the earliest and most systematically. Parents commonly offer hojicha (roasted green tea, very low in caffeine) or mugicha (roasted barley tea, entirely caffeine-free) to babies and toddlers from infancy — sometimes as early as six months. Both teas come commercially packaged specifically for young children in Japan and are widely regarded as safe, healthful drinks for all ages. The roasting process that produces hojicha significantly reduces its caffeine content compared to regular green tea, making it an ideal introduction for small children. General guidance in Japan suggests that children can drink tea with moderation from around age 5, but exposure to these gentle varieties typically starts far earlier.
When it comes to schools, Japan stands apart from all the other countries discussed here. Tea is a genuine, formal part of the school day. The national school lunch programme — kyushoku — is served to virtually all primary school children and many secondary pupils across Japan, and it regularly includes a hot cup of green tea or hojicha alongside rice, soup, fish, and milk. In tea-producing regions, the connection is even more direct: schools in Shizuoka, Japan's most famous green tea-growing prefecture, have been known to pipe green tea through drinking water faucets, encouraging children to rinse their mouths with it after lunch for its antibacterial properties. Schools in the Ujitawara area of Kyoto — another legendary tea region — incorporate green tea into rice dishes and soups. Beyond meals, many secondary schools have formal tea ceremony clubs (chado-bu), where students learn to prepare and serve matcha according to centuries-old rituals, treating tea as both art and philosophy.
Morocco
Morocco's relationship with tea is one of extraordinary intimacy. The national drink — atay, a deeply sweet brew of gunpowder green tea steeped with fresh spearmint and poured from a great height to create a froth — is not merely a beverage but a cornerstone of social life, hospitality, and daily rhythm. To be offered tea in Morocco is to be welcomed; to refuse it is considered impolite.
Moroccan children encounter mint tea almost from birth. It is present at every family gathering, every meal, every moment of hospitality, and every ordinary morning. Children are commonly given their first taste as young as 18 months, and by toddler age many are drinking it regularly alongside adults. The tea is always heavily sweetened — often with several tablespoons of sugar per glass — which makes it naturally appealing to young palates. There is no strong cultural hesitation around children drinking it; rather, sharing tea is one of the primary ways family bonds and social ties are reinforced across generations.
Preparing tea is itself a skill passed down intentionally to children, particularly to young men, who are traditionally expected to master the pouring technique. Children learn to handle the tall silver teapot, steep the leaves correctly, and pour the tea in that characteristic high arc to aerate it and produce the prized foam on the surface. This means that in Morocco, tea is not just consumed from a young age — it is actively taught as a cultural practice.
Formal school meals with tea are not a feature of the Moroccan system in the way they are in Japan or Russia. Tea is not typically served during school hours as part of a structured lunch programme. Instead, the tradition is carried almost entirely through home life: most Moroccan children will have tea as part of the household morning ritual before school, and again when they return home in the afternoon.
Turkey
No country on earth drinks more tea per capita than Turkey. Turks consume an estimated 3.5 to 4 kilograms of dry tea per person per year — more than double the consumption of the United Kingdom and far exceeding even Japan. The signature drink is çay: strong black tea brewed in a double-stacked kettle (çaydanlık), served in small tulip-shaped glasses without milk, and drunk in enormous quantities throughout the day.
Turkish children are introduced to tea at a young age, though there is a recognised cultural progression. Very young children are typically given a weak, heavily diluted pour — barely more than coloured hot water — or more commonly elma çayı (apple tea), which is caffeine-free, sweet, and fruit-flavoured. As children grow older, they graduate to açık (light) tea, then to sweeter versions with several sugar cubes, and finally to the strong, plain glass that defines adult Turkish tea drinking. There is even a semi-formal rite of passage associated with this progression: the transition to plain, unsweetened black tea is seen as a marker of growing up.
Tea in Turkey is inseparable from social life at every age. It is served when guests arrive, during business negotiations, between lessons at university, at every meal, and at virtually every çay bahçesi (tea garden) — outdoor spaces that function as communal living rooms for people of all ages. Secondary school students in Turkey often frequent tea houses near their schools and would consider it completely normal to drink two or three glasses between classes.
Formally, tea is not a standard part of the Turkish school meal system in the way it is in Japan or Russia. The 2019 Turkish regulations on school canteen food focused on banning unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks, but did not specifically address tea. In practice, younger primary school children are unlikely to have tea during school hours, but the habit is so deeply embedded in home and social life that older students rarely go a full day without it.
Russia
Russia's tea culture is one of the oldest and most deeply rooted in this list. Tea was introduced to Russia in the 17th century via trade caravans from China, and it gradually displaced kvass and other traditional drinks to become the undisputed national beverage. The Russian relationship with tea is warm, domestic, and deeply tied to ideas of home, comfort, and hospitality — sitting around the table with a glass of tea (stakan chaya) is practically synonymous with being at ease.
Russian health guidance draws relatively clear distinctions by age. Herbal teas — chamomile, linden blossom, rosehip — are considered safe and even beneficial for infants and are commonly given to young babies for their soothing properties. Weak black tea is considered appropriate from around age 2 to 3, when it is served very diluted and lightly sweetened. Stronger black tea is generally introduced from around age 7, while green tea, with its higher tannin and caffeine content, is typically held off until ages 10 to 11. In practice, many Russian families follow these guidelines loosely, with grandmothers (babushki) being well known for pressing sweet, milky tea on children of all ages as a cure for nearly everything.
Russia is also one of the most formalised countries when it comes to tea at school. Tea is a standard component of the Russian school meal (shkolnoye pitaniye), regularly served as the hot drink alongside breakfast or lunch in school canteens. This is not incidental — by presidential decree, all primary school children in Russia are entitled to at least one free hot meal per school day, and the typical canteen menu includes tea, compote (a fruit drink), or occasionally cocoa as the accompanying beverage. School canteen reform programmes in several Russian cities have actively worked to improve the quality and variety of meals, including the hot drinks on offer.
Putting It All Together
What is striking when looking at these five countries side by side is how much cultural context shapes something as simple as when a child first drinks tea, and how that habit is supported — or not — by the school system.
| UK | Japan | Morocco | Turkey | Russia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical first exposure | ~2–5 years old | Infancy (babies) | ~18 months | Toddler age | 2–3 years old |
| Common first tea | Weak, milky black tea | Hojicha or mugicha | Sweet mint tea | Weak çay or apple tea | Weak black tea or herbal |
| Tea at primary school | Rarely, if ever | Yes — part of kyushoku | No — home tradition only | No — home tradition only | Yes — standard canteen drink |
| Tea at secondary school | Varies; mainly sixth form | Yes — meals and tea clubs | No — home tradition only | Social habit near school | Yes — standard canteen drink |
| Cultural framing | Comfort habit, social ritual | Daily staple, health drink, ceremonial art | Hospitality, family bond, cultural skill | National obsession, social glue | Domestic comfort, hospitality |
Japan and Morocco introduce tea the earliest, with infants and toddlers routinely drinking appropriate varieties at home. Russia and Turkey follow close behind, with most children drinking tea in some form by toddler or early childhood age. The UK is comparatively the latest, with the habit typically forming between ages 2 and 12 and being driven almost entirely by domestic rather than institutional exposure.
When it comes to schools, Japan and Russia are clearly the most structured: tea is a formal, regular part of the school day. Turkey and Morocco rely almost entirely on home culture to keep the tradition alive, with schools playing little formal role. The UK sits somewhere in between — technically permitting tea in secondary schools but rarely making it a meaningful part of school life for most students.
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Poland
Iran
India
China