Currency That You Can Drink

In Siberia up until the 19th century, solid blocks of tea were used as a form of edible currency, serving in two different ways.

The importance of the tea around the world is unquestionable as it is the second most consumed beverage in the world, standing second only to water. Legend has it, that tea was originated well over 5000 years back in China. Since then it has infiltrated almost every culture in the world.

An average of three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide, but an even more astonishing fact regarding tea is not its abundance of usage, but in the way it is used. In 

medieval times, tea bricks were used in China, Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia as a form of currency because of its high value. Later, nomadic tribes preferred tea bricks over metallic coins but that was the approach of medieval times. Many would find this a whole lot more exciting. Solid blocks of tea were used up until the 19th century!

Even during the World War 2, tea bricks were used as money in Siberia and this wasn’t the only place where tea bricks were used as currency; Tibet had similar customs. In Tibet the brick of tea was produced in five different qualities and it was the third quality of brick which was used as currency. Tibetans named this quality of tea brick as “brgyad pa” and they even set an exchange rate for the tea brick: a single tea brick was worth eight Tibetan tangkas (standard silver coin of Tibet which weighs about 5.4 grams).