Ingar Valentyn, a South African national, has set the world record for making the most cups of tea in one hour, according to the Guinness World Records. Ms Valentyn made 249 cups of rooibos tea, a red herbal tea that comes from the leaves of the Aspalathus linearis shrub, a plant native to South Africa.
To achieve the feat, a minimum of 150 cups of tea were required to be made within the hour. She used three flavours of rooibos - original, vanilla and strawberry.
Ms Valentyn worked with a clear strategy in mind. According to Guinness World Records, she put four tea bags in each teapot, which made four cups of tea. To qualify as proper rooibos tea, each tea bag needed to be steeped for at least two minutes. As soon as she poured the first three teapots and added in the teabags, she quickly moved onto the next batch.
Guinness World Records also made sure their policy of no-waste was implemented during her attempt. A group of tea drinkers, comprising of local students and community members were present to consume the tea.
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Twenty minutes into the competition, Ms Valentyn was left with no clean cups. The students came to her aid by washing the tea cups they drank from.
Within an hour, Ms Valentyn was confident she had set the record. "I think I've done 170," she told Guinness World Records. However, she had surpassed her own prediction after it was revealed that she had made 249 cups of tea in total - over four per minute. One cup was disqualified for not fulfilling the quantity criteria.
Ms Valentyn attempted to set the record to boost tourism and celebrate the resilience of the Wupperthal community after a wildfire destroyed the mountain village in 2018. She said, "I'm very excited about the record and for our community of Wupperthal."
