Tea is an aromatic beverage which is made by soaking the dried leaves or flowers of the plant Camellia sinensis in hot water.
The evergreen shrub is native to Asia.
According to Chinese legend, the history of tea began in 2737 BC when the mythical Emperor Shen Nong accidentally discovered the hot drink. Some tea leaves blew from a wild tea tree he was sitting underneath into a pot of boiling water. Shen Nong found that the unintentional brew made a refreshing drink and had a restorative effect upon him.
Tea was originally used as a medicinal drink. It was later popularized as a recreational hot drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, as the people found it to be a beverage that was far safer than water, which may be contaminated and could make the drinker ill if not boiled.
The ancient Chinese made the drink by rolling tea leaves by hand, drying them and grinding them into a powder. This powder was mixed in a dark bowl with boiling water and whipped into a froth. The resulting beverage was drunk directly from the bowl.
Chinese author Lu Yu wrote the first comprehensive text on the subject of tea, the three volume Ch'a Ching (The Classic of Tea) between 760 AD and 762 AD. Raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China's finest monasteries, in mid-life, he retreated for five years into seclusion. Drawing from his vast memory of observed events and places, Ch'a Ching's comprehensive guide to the drink covered its growth through to its making and drinking, as well as covering a historical summary and prominent early tea plantations. The vast definitive nature of his work projected Ch'a Ching into near sainthood.
Tea was introduced to Japan as a medicine in the early 9th century when the Buddhist priest Saicho, spent three years visiting Chinese Buddhist temples, and returned to his home country with tea.
Portuguese explorers visiting Japan became the first Europeans to encounter tea in the mid 16th century. Italian traveler Giovanni Battista Ramusio's 1555 Voyages and Travels, contained the first European reference to tea, which he called "Chai Catai"; his accounts were based on second-hand reports.
By 1630 traders were importing tea to Europe where it was especially popular amongst the aristocracy in France and the Netherlands. However the new drink was so expensive that it had to be kept in locked wooden boxes.
The public sale of tea began in London in 1657. Hoping that it would add variety to the menu at his London coffeehouse, Thomas Garway started importing tea to Britain.
The ships of the British East India Company developed a tea route between Europe and Asia. The commercial company sold tea as a remedy for catarrh, colic, consumption, drowsiness, epilepsy, gallstones, lethargy, migraine, paralysis, and vertigo.
Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that he had tried a new drink from China which he called "Tee".
King Charles II of England grew up in exile in the Netherlands, where tea was already popular. Consequently, both he and his Portuguese queen Catherine Da Braganza were confirmed tea drinkers and Catherine brought chests of the drink with her when she came to England to marry the king in 1662. She introduced to the London court this new continental fad.
Tea continued to be a popular drink in the Netherlands and by 1680 Dutch taverns were supplying the first restaurant service of tea. Inn owners provided guests with a portable tea set complete with a heating unit. The guest then took the set outside to the tavern's garden and prepared tea for himself and his friends there.
In France King Louis XIV took tea made in a golden teapot given to him by the Siamese Ambassador to prevent vertigo.
English colonists in Boston first became aware of tea in 1670. By 1690, it was publicly available for sale in New England. Many people, not knowing what to do with the stuff, served the tea leaves with sugar or syrup and threw away the water the leaves had been boiled in.
By the early 18th century, tea mania was sweeping across the upper class homes of England as it had earlier spread throughout France and Holland. Tea importation rose from 40,000 pounds (about 18,100kgs) in 1699 to an annual average of 240,000 pounds (about 110,000 kgs) in 1708. However the import duty of five shillings (forty cents) a pound made the beverage tea too costly for all but the wealthiest Englishmen.
Because the English were concerned that the hot tea might crack the fragile china cups it was served in, they took up the habit first adopted in France of cooling it down by first putting cold milk into the cup.
In 1717 Thomas Twining, who had been running Tom's Coffee Shop in London for ten years, converted it into the first ever tea shop and renamed it "The Golden Lyon".
The UK Parliament passed the Tea Act on April 27, 1773, to try to save East India Co. from bankruptcy. The Act granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
The 'Boston Tea Party' was the first in a series of events that set off the American Revolution. The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonists, who would have to pay the British duty on it. Before the Act, the Company could only sell its tea in Britain.
Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.
By the late 18th century, the popularity of coffee-houses in Britain was declining as tea-drinking became more fashionable and affordable due to the decrease on tax on tea. All levels of English society were now drinking tea and it had replaced ale as the national drink.
Cashing in on the popularity of the new hot drink, some unscrupulous British shopkeepers started selling counterfeit tea. A chemistry professor Frederick Accum revealed in his 1820 book Adulteration of Foods and Culinary Poisons how fake China tea can be made with a mixture of ash and dried elder leaves, or alternatively dried thorn leaves colored with the poisonous green coating of cupric carbonate.
An English Quaker, John Horniman introduced the first tea to be retailed in sealed packages under a brand name in 1826. His secured, lead-lined packs of tea were designed in part to protect the drink from adulteration.
Earl Grey tea gained its name when a Chinese official, who was seeking to influence trade relations, gave the British Prime Minister, the second Earl Grey, the recipe for his brew. A smoky tea with a hint of sweetness to it, this early form of Earl Grey tea was made with unsteamed China black tea infused with bergamot oil.
A Scottish botanist broke China's monopoly on tea in the 1840's by disguising himself as a Chinese noble "from beyond the Great Wall", and requesting tours of tea plantations, where he learned the secrets of tea production.
The evergreen shrub is native to Asia.
HISTORY OF TEA
According to Chinese legend, the history of tea began in 2737 BC when the mythical Emperor Shen Nong accidentally discovered the hot drink. Some tea leaves blew from a wild tea tree he was sitting underneath into a pot of boiling water. Shen Nong found that the unintentional brew made a refreshing drink and had a restorative effect upon him.
Tea was originally used as a medicinal drink. It was later popularized as a recreational hot drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, as the people found it to be a beverage that was far safer than water, which may be contaminated and could make the drinker ill if not boiled.
The ancient Chinese made the drink by rolling tea leaves by hand, drying them and grinding them into a powder. This powder was mixed in a dark bowl with boiling water and whipped into a froth. The resulting beverage was drunk directly from the bowl.
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| Tasting tea |
Chinese author Lu Yu wrote the first comprehensive text on the subject of tea, the three volume Ch'a Ching (The Classic of Tea) between 760 AD and 762 AD. Raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China's finest monasteries, in mid-life, he retreated for five years into seclusion. Drawing from his vast memory of observed events and places, Ch'a Ching's comprehensive guide to the drink covered its growth through to its making and drinking, as well as covering a historical summary and prominent early tea plantations. The vast definitive nature of his work projected Ch'a Ching into near sainthood.
Tea was introduced to Japan as a medicine in the early 9th century when the Buddhist priest Saicho, spent three years visiting Chinese Buddhist temples, and returned to his home country with tea.
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| Ancient Tea Urns used by merchants to store tea. By Sanjay Acharya |
Portuguese explorers visiting Japan became the first Europeans to encounter tea in the mid 16th century. Italian traveler Giovanni Battista Ramusio's 1555 Voyages and Travels, contained the first European reference to tea, which he called "Chai Catai"; his accounts were based on second-hand reports.
By 1630 traders were importing tea to Europe where it was especially popular amongst the aristocracy in France and the Netherlands. However the new drink was so expensive that it had to be kept in locked wooden boxes.
The public sale of tea began in London in 1657. Hoping that it would add variety to the menu at his London coffeehouse, Thomas Garway started importing tea to Britain.
The ships of the British East India Company developed a tea route between Europe and Asia. The commercial company sold tea as a remedy for catarrh, colic, consumption, drowsiness, epilepsy, gallstones, lethargy, migraine, paralysis, and vertigo.
 |
| Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, 'A treatise on the novelties and curiosities of coffee, tea and chocolate', c. 1671 |
Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that he had tried a new drink from China which he called "Tee".
King Charles II of England grew up in exile in the Netherlands, where tea was already popular. Consequently, both he and his Portuguese queen Catherine Da Braganza were confirmed tea drinkers and Catherine brought chests of the drink with her when she came to England to marry the king in 1662. She introduced to the London court this new continental fad.
Tea continued to be a popular drink in the Netherlands and by 1680 Dutch taverns were supplying the first restaurant service of tea. Inn owners provided guests with a portable tea set complete with a heating unit. The guest then took the set outside to the tavern's garden and prepared tea for himself and his friends there.
In France King Louis XIV took tea made in a golden teapot given to him by the Siamese Ambassador to prevent vertigo.
English colonists in Boston first became aware of tea in 1670. By 1690, it was publicly available for sale in New England. Many people, not knowing what to do with the stuff, served the tea leaves with sugar or syrup and threw away the water the leaves had been boiled in.
By the early 18th century, tea mania was sweeping across the upper class homes of England as it had earlier spread throughout France and Holland. Tea importation rose from 40,000 pounds (about 18,100kgs) in 1699 to an annual average of 240,000 pounds (about 110,000 kgs) in 1708. However the import duty of five shillings (forty cents) a pound made the beverage tea too costly for all but the wealthiest Englishmen.
 |
| Lady drinking tea by Niclas Lafrensen |
Because the English were concerned that the hot tea might crack the fragile china cups it was served in, they took up the habit first adopted in France of cooling it down by first putting cold milk into the cup.
In 1717 Thomas Twining, who had been running Tom's Coffee Shop in London for ten years, converted it into the first ever tea shop and renamed it "The Golden Lyon".
The UK Parliament passed the Tea Act on April 27, 1773, to try to save East India Co. from bankruptcy. The Act granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
The 'Boston Tea Party' was the first in a series of events that set off the American Revolution. The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonists, who would have to pay the British duty on it. Before the Act, the Company could only sell its tea in Britain.
 |
| Advertisement of a Boston tea shop in 1811 listing teas for sale |
Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.
By the late 18th century, the popularity of coffee-houses in Britain was declining as tea-drinking became more fashionable and affordable due to the decrease on tax on tea. All levels of English society were now drinking tea and it had replaced ale as the national drink.
Cashing in on the popularity of the new hot drink, some unscrupulous British shopkeepers started selling counterfeit tea. A chemistry professor Frederick Accum revealed in his 1820 book Adulteration of Foods and Culinary Poisons how fake China tea can be made with a mixture of ash and dried elder leaves, or alternatively dried thorn leaves colored with the poisonous green coating of cupric carbonate.
An English Quaker, John Horniman introduced the first tea to be retailed in sealed packages under a brand name in 1826. His secured, lead-lined packs of tea were designed in part to protect the drink from adulteration.
Earl Grey tea gained its name when a Chinese official, who was seeking to influence trade relations, gave the British Prime Minister, the second Earl Grey, the recipe for his brew. A smoky tea with a hint of sweetness to it, this early form of Earl Grey tea was made with unsteamed China black tea infused with bergamot oil.
A Scottish botanist broke China's monopoly on tea in the 1840's by disguising himself as a Chinese noble "from beyond the Great Wall", and requesting tours of tea plantations, where he learned the secrets of tea production.
In the late 19th century, men with facial hair commonly drank tea out of ‘moustache cups’, designed to keep their whiskers dry.
Typhoo Tipps first went on sale in 1903. It was the first brand of tea sold pre-packaged, rather than loose over the counter.
Hand-sewn muslin teabags date back to 1903. Teabags became commercially available in 1904.
Iced tea was first served during a heatwave at the St Louis World Fair in 1904.
Ty.Phoo Tea was founded by Birmingham grocer John Sumner as Ty.Phoo-Tipps in 1905: the first word is Chinese for doctor and the second a misspelt indication that what the customer was getting was the tips of tea instead of the full leaf. The tea was sold in packets, and the fact that it didn't contain any of the tannin-rich stalk meant it could also be sold through chemists for the relief of indigestion
PG Tips tea was launched in the 1930s as Pre-Gest-Tee, suggesting it was drunk as an aid to digestion before meals. Grocers and salesmen abbreviated it to PG, then the word 'tips' was added to highlight it is made from only the top two leaves and bud of each plant.
From 1897 until 1996 the US federal government had a board of tea testers whose job was to make sure that imported tea was good enough to be sold in America.
Expenditure on coffee in Britain first overtook the amount spent on tea in 1998.
TEA FUN FACTS
Nearly the entire world uses one of two forms to say tea, basically derived from the Chinese words 'te' (ie Spanish and English) and 'cha' (ie Hindi and Russian), because of the way tea spread around the world from China. 'Cha' is used in places where tea came by land and 'te' where imported over water.
Official figures reported an estimated 37 people injured by tea cosies in 1999 in the UK.
Tea contains half the amount of caffeine found in coffee.
Tea has a less jittery and more calming caffeine experience than coffee because the amino acid L-theanine and high antioxidants have a calming effect.
The British Royal Society of Chemistry recommends adding tea to milk, and not the other way around, as adding milk to tea results in "significant denaturation" of the milk, adversely affecting flavor.
The world's most avid tea drinkers are from Turkey, where the average per capita annual consumption is 3.157 kg (about 7 lb). They are followed by Ireland (2.191 kg or 4.83 lb) and the UK (9.436 kg or 4.28 lb).
Rize tea is the most popular black tea in Turkey. It’s often served with beet sugar crystals around the rim.
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| Turkish tea. By Sandstein |
China, with 1.7 million tons a year, is the world's biggest tea producer followed by India with one million tons.
Chinese tea Da Hong Pao costs more than $10,000 a pot because the leaves come from a single group of nearly extinct wild "mother trees."
Black tea and green tea come from the same plant. The only difference is black tea is fermented.
Sources Daily Express, Radio Times
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