Guinness alert: The heartwarming reason this woman served 249 cups of tea in one hour

Meet Ingar Valentyn, a South African woman, who was one of the many people in her community to lose all her belongings in a wildfire in her hometown of Wupperthal in December 2018. The devastation was such that only a handful of buildings were left standing, leaving over 200 people homeless. Even the guest houses were destroyed in the town, according to the Guinness World Records site.
As a result, Ingar — who used to manage all the guest houses of Wupperthal as part of her tourism job — was left without work. But she did not lose hope.

Now four years later, to show solidarity with the residents of the place, Ingar attempted a unique Guinness World Record serving 249 cups of tea in one hour. For the same, she chose to make rooibos tea, a red herbal tea that comes from the leaves of the Aspalathus linearis shrub, a plant native to South Africa, and for which her hometown is known.
To show solidarity with the residents of the place, Ingar attempted a unique Guinness World Record serving 249 cups of tea in one hour (Source: Guinness World Records.com)
“Everyone lost everything,” Ingar told the Guinness site, speaking about her inspiration behind attempting the feat. “For me, to attempt the record will open many doors for the community, in terms of tourism and in terms of the rooibos tea, because we have many rooibos tea farmers,” she mentioned.
To achieve the record, Ingar had to prepare a minimum of 150 cups of tea within the hour. So, using three flavours of rooibos: original, vanilla, and strawberry, she put four teabags in each teapot which makes four cups of tea. The records site noted that to qualify as proper rooibos tea, each teabag needed to be steeped for at least two minutes. Additionally, to maximise efficiency, as soon as Ingar poured the first three teapots and added in the teabags, she quickly moved onto the next batch.

But, before each cup was served, it was examined official adjudicator Sofia Greenacre to ensure that it was filled to the minimum level of 142 ml (5 oz), the site read.
It was served to tea drinkers from the community. While she expected to make 170, she surpassed her expectations when it was revealed that she made 249 cups — four cups per minute. “Only one cup was disqualified for not being full enough,” the records site noted.
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