Why Johannesburg restaurants are full of teapots

UPON ARRIVAL at an expensive restaurant near Sandton, Johannesburg’s financial district, nothing feels unusual, at least in this age of covid-19. The maître-d’ zaps a temperature gun at patrons’ masked faces and spritzes their hands with sanitiser. Only when ushered into the dining room does something seem odd: every table has a pot of tea.South Africans like their rooibos, but the liquid in many tea-cups is a darker red—claret, even. On other tables there are cans of tonic next to teapots. Reality dawns when two young women are given shot glasses of Jägermeister inside their tea-cups.