The Wallendorfer Story 'n Koppke Tee (one cup of tea)    by Kent A. Melcher

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If there is any one thing that people think of as being typically Osfriesen, most likely it's tea. When eating a meal, entertaining guests, or just taking a break at home or work, Ostfriesens are more likely to have tea in the cup than coffee.  Tea is referred to as Ostfriesland's national drink.  Ostfriesens drink more tea per capita than anyone else.  Throughout the centuries, a whole culture and ritual has developed around Ostfriesen tea.  The tea is prepared according to time-honored traditions and served in a typically Ostrfriesen manner.  Even the porce- lain that the tea is served in plays an important role.           As in other sea-faring lands, tea originally found it's way to Ostfriesland from China.  By the 17th century, the Chinese were not only delivering the tea itself, but the cups and teapots to go with it.  The cups were small and formed out of very thin porcelain that was rippled on the outside, but smooth on the inside.  No handle was attached.  Typically Chinese hand-painted designs of stylized roses or blue flowers were common.           In 1708 in Dresden, Johann Friedrich Boettger became the first European to discover the secret of making "white-gold," as porcelain was called.  Soon other porcelain manufacturers sprung up in Germany.  One of these manu- facturers, the Wallendorfer porcelain factory lacated in the Thuringen area of  Germany, set out to meet the needs of the Ostfriesens by sending traveling salesmen throughout Ostfriesland during the summer to sell the porcelain wares that had been produced in Wallendorf during the winter.  By the ing of the 18th century, Wallendorfer porcelain was considered to be the Ostfriesen tea porcelain.

At first, the Wallendorfer tea sets were very much like those from China which the Ostfriesens had been using.  Soon handles were added to the cups, though, and they were set in deep saucers, as Ostfriesens preferred to drink their national drink, by pouring the hot tea from the cup into the saucer and then slurping it slowly and loudly.  A couple of designs were commonplace through- out Ostfriesland.           The "Rot Dresmer" (Ostfriesische Rose) design featured a purplish-red rose, with either a stylized open rose or a more abstract rose that looks somewhat like a peony flower.  The more elegant "Blau Dresmer" design featured delicate            draping blue lines decorated with little blue                   flowers.  The cups themselves were                         rather small and made from the                              whitest of  porcelain.  The rippled                       outside and smooth inside of the                        pieces continued to be a hallmark to                     the Wallendorfer tea sets common               through Ostfriesland.           Unfortunately, when Germany was divided into the eastern and western sectors following World War II, the Thuringen area was in the eastern sector controlled by the Soviets.  Ost- friesens were cut off from their beloved Wallen- dorfer porcelain,and the factory at Wallendorf soon shut down completely.  Other porcelain manufacturers stepped in to fill the gap with imitations that were mass-produced in the Far East.  Soon after the iron curtain fell in1989, some tea-drinking Ostfriesens set about to reopen the porcelain factory at Wallendorf and to begin producing their beloved Wallendorfer porcelain using the historical molds.  So once again, the Ostfriesens can drink their tea as it was meant to be enjoyed -out of porcelain from Wallendorf.