World Cup 2014 – Tea Style

In our house, my passion for tea may only be rivaled by my husband’s passion for soccer. It is unavoidable then that there would be a great deal of talk about the opening of this year’s World Cup. Brackets have been passed around the house and kids and adults alike are making their picks.

It won’t take long snooping online to find many suggestions about how to make your game predictions. You can complete brackets based on population, favorite uniform colors, or careful analysis of team rosters. Maybe tea lovers need their own approach.

Tea Biz would like to present a 2014 World Cup bracket, completed tea style. For each country we’ve highlighted a type of tea or flavor profile or cuisine that is popular in each country. Argentina was a given with Yerba Mate as was a spicy chocolate profile for Mexico. In some cases we went with a traditional choice like Greek Mountain tea for Greece and matcha for Japan. For Cameroon and Spain we considered popular foods and added a tea spin. In Croatia we highlighted the beautiful flavors of the produce in local markets and in the Netherlands we paired tea with the incomparable Dutch cheeses.

To play, in each group rank the countries 1-4 and then complete the rest of your brackets. Make your tea picks and let us know who you think the World Cup Champion will be. We’ll provide an update before the round of 16 and maybe add another tea twist.