Cheers with a cup of tea. Traditionally, a glass of wine would be the best, but limited in some reasons there is no conveniences to drink wine, so tea would be the best substitute.

Let's toast with tea instead of liquor. 以: 用 代: 代替

when somebody say 以茶代酒 on the table , and that means he or she doesn't wanna drink wine to express his/her happiness ,maybe he is allergic to the wine ,or maybe he thinks that wine will be detrimental to his health or even maybe after the dinner he needs to drive ,so he cannot drink the wine ,but he also doesn't ruin all the fun ,so he choose the tea to replace the wine to express his emotion,you know ,when we wanna express some kind of emotion ,we often choose the wine

In china, if we respect someone, we will make a toast to him.but if you are not good at drinking.you can also drink tea instead of liquor.it can also show your admire to him.

It means u respect to someone if u toast to him in China ,but for some reasons ,u can't or u r incapable drink liquor.so u use tea,to pay their respects 就是说 ,我虽然不能喝酒，但我还是要用茶来谢谢你、 不知道你听懂了没