What Does the Teewurst Have to Do With Tea?

The exact origin of the name Teewurst can no longer be traced today. However, tea was never one of the ingredients of the spicy spreadable sausage. On the other hand, one explanatory model is that the sausage was originally served with tea in the afternoon. According to another tradition, the term “Teewurst” was also intended to evoke the English custom of afternoon tea, with which not only sweets but also small appetizers and sandwiches with hearty toppings are served.

Teewurst is available in coarse and fine versions. It is a spreadable raw sausage, in the production of which pork and bacon are ground in a meat grinder in a ratio of 2:1, seasoned, and smoked in the intestine over beech wood. The typical Teewurst taste is formed by the lactic acid fermentation during the seven to ten-day maturing period. The high spreadability of the sausage is mainly due to its fat content of around 30 to 40 percent.

This type of sausage was first produced at the end of the 19th century in the town of Rügenwalde in Eastern Pomerania, today’s Darlowo in Poland. This is where the spicy spreadable sausage is said to have been eaten for the first time for afternoon tea, which is how it got its name. After the Second World War, the sausage manufacturers who had fled the region brought the Teewurst recipe to the Federal Republic.