All About Tea

All About Tea

The History of Tea

China: 2737 BC – Tea’s generally accepted humble beginning date. Facts are woven with legend with regard to the discovery, cultivation, and consumption so it sometimes difficult to untangle the two. Over the centuries, the journey from Asia across the globe to nearly every continent is a fascinating one.

Scholars agree that Shen Nung, emperor, scholar, and herbalist was the first to recognize the benefits and delicious taste “when a few stray leaves drifted down from an overhanging tree one day and fell by chance into the cauldron of water that he was boiling.” {Pettigrew}

Early in its history, tea was used as a tonic herb, taken internally as a digestive aid and applied topically in ointments for skin issues and rheumatism. It wasn’t until 206 AD that tea became more popular. Trees were felled for easier harvesting, and plantations were created for commercial interests.

By the end of the 3rd century AD, tea was China’s national drink. During the fourth and fifth centuries, additional plantations sprang up along the Yangtze River valley and was being enjoyed for pleasure, not just as medicinal.

Over three hundred years, from AD 618-906, a code of tea etiquette evolved, and a professional class called Tea Masters held roles of importance in society, employed by the emperor and wealthy mandarins. Tea houses entered Chinese social life.

Then came LuYu, considered the “patron saint of tea.” He worked for twenty years to produce his Cha

Chang (Classic of Tea) which became the standard by which tea was measured and understood. The work covers cultivation, manufacture, brewing, benefits, and rituals of tea drinking. By this time the Chinese were trading their tea to Tibet, the Arab countries, the Turks, and tribes in the Himalayas, as well as along the “Silk Road,” the trade route from India to Macedonia.

It would be another seven hundred years before trade would commence with Europe.

In 1559, Italian Giambattista Ramusio wrote about a Persian traveler who had told him about Chai Catai, an herb used in the Szechwan Province of China as medicine for stomach-aches and gout. By 1606 the Dutch had heard about tea and sent the first shipment from their trading base in Bantam, Java to Amsterdam. It would be another twenty-five years before the drink grew in popularity among the general public.

The Dutch were soon importing tea to Portugal, Germany, and France. The British discovered tea when

Catherine of Braganza, daughter of John IV of Portugal, came to England to marry King Charles II.

Russia received its first tea as a gift to Tsar Michael Fedorovich from Mongolian ruler, Altyun-Khan.

As various groups immigrated to North America, they brought tea with them. Peter Stuyvesant carried tea with him in 1650 to the newly established colony of New Amsterdam. Trade wasn’t established until the 1720s, by which time tea had become highly popular in Boston and Philadelphia. Tea and “tea equipage” were now items found regularly on shipping manifests. Taxation on tea came and went, prompting a healthy black market. It is said that George Washington was an avid tea drinker, but he and the other Sons of Liberty eschewed the beverage when relations heated up with the mother country. After 342 chests of tea, weighing 92,000 pounds and worth over $1.5 million in today’s money, were dumped into Boston Harbor, all colonists loyal to the cause of independence turned to other drinks such as coffee.

Shortly before the U.S. Civil War, tea once again gained popularity, and American tea merchants set

about to meet the need, arranging transportation from China on the “clippers” that raced across the oceans. The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair housed multiple exhibits by tea merchants from all over the globe, one of whom, Richard Blechynden, introduced iced tea that would become a staple in the American South. The tea bag was invented accidentally in 1908 when merchant Thomas Sullivan created a hand-sewn silk bag to issue samples.

Prohibition in the 1920s brought on a preponderance of tea houses, but by the 1950s they were dying out because of the rise of coffee bars and cafes. In the recent decades, there has been a resurgence of interest in tea as the public has become cognizant of the healthful benefits and number of options available.

Cooking with tea

Teatime Recipes

Brew the Perfect Cup

Types of Tea

 

Infusions and Tisanes

British vs. American Tea

Sources:

The New Tea Companion, Jane Pettigrew, Benjamin Press, Kentucky, 2008
https://www.tea.co.uk/history-of-tea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea
https://marktwendell.com/pages/historyoftea

Photo Credits: Pixabay
Teacup with Daisy: Conger Design

Clipper Ship: Hans Toom
China Map: Lucas Wendt

Cooking with Tea: Couleur
Teatime Recipes: Pexels
Brew the Perfect Cup: Yangjoy999
Types of Tea: Lynn Greyling
British vs. American Tea: Jorono/Kiona Geta/mesotoday
Infusions and Tisanes: GloboxR

Photo Credits: Other

Statue of LuYu: Public Domain

Catherine of Braganza: By Peter Lely - Royal Collection, Public Domain