The first written record of tea appears in the Chinese language from approximately the 4th century AD. Tea, as a beverage however, had been in existence long before that. It is fabled that the Emperor Shen Nung discovered this drink in 2737 BCE. He had the habit of boiling his water before drinking it. On one of his journeys, he sat under a tea tree to boil his water and some leaves fell into the pot creating a fragrant and refreshing beverage. Thus, the story of tea began.

Brewing methods have evolved over the centuries. Early on, the leaves were boiled fresh. Then, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), they were steamed, dried, pressed into cakes and baked until hard. The drink was made by softening the cake over a fire, breaking off a piece, rubbing it into a powder, and adding it to gently boiling water. When the water reached full-boil, a ladleful of cold water was added to the brew and the tea was served. This method of brewing tea, along with detailed descriptions of every aspect of tea cultivation and production, was described in the first treatise on tea, the Ch’a Ching (Way of Tea) written by Lu Yu (715-803), who is known as the first Sage of tea.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the brewing method changed. The dried tea leaves were crushed into a powder and whipped with boiled water and drunk as such. During this period, Japan developed a taste for the drink as well, and began cultivating tea gardens. They soon devised their own set of rituals and national philosophy for tea. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) saw the advent of the tradition of steeping the dried leaves in hot water. This method is still used today in most parts of the world. The Japanese however, continue to prefer the powdered tea for their tea ceremony.

Trade with the West began during the Ming Dynasty and Europeans came to know and love this strange and stimulating Chinese drink. It was first bought by Portuguese and Dutch traders who had set up a trading base in Macao, China. In 1657, Thomas Garway’s shop in London was the first purveyor of tea in England. Then in 1660, after King Charles II’s return to England and the restoration of the English monarchy, the British East India Company (which had received its charter from Elizabeth I, and would eventually become the largest tea exporter in the world) purchased a chest of the “Chinese herb” from the Dutch as a gift to the Crown. King Charles’ wife, Catherine de Braganza of Portugal, loved tea and the couple would serve it to their guests. Tea soon became a very desirable commodity and a status symbol for the wealthy as initially, it was very expensive.

Tea soon caught on and England wanted as much as it could get. China, being distrustful of westerners, heavily guarded their secrets about tea and how it was produced. It wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that the English realized that green and black tea came from the same plant. By the early 1800’s, it became apparent that a great amount of English silver was being paid to China, but China was not purchasing any products in return. With the desire to decrease their reliance on China for tea, the British East India Company began looking into other areas for tea cultivation. They also needed something to correct the trade imbalance in the meanwhile. The East India Company began selling opium at auction in Calcutta, as they had a monopoly on its production. They limited its sale to those traders who traded with China, and would agree to sell it for silver; the same silver used to buy tea for England. The desire for opium quickly spread through many regions of China and thus a monetary balance was achieved, but not without repercussions. Opium devastated the Chinese, and China attempted to close its ports to England. This proved difficult. The number of corrupt Chinese officials on the take from the opium traders, and the persistence with which the traders actively expanded their market, made it impossible to curtail the flow of opium into China. The opium wars began in 1840 and ended in 1842 with China agreeing to accept “free trade” with the West. By the late 1800’s, a large segment of China’s populace was almost crippled by opium addiction. In 1908 opium was finally outlawed in China.

The discovery of tea trees in Assam, India in 1820, and the smuggling of thousands of tea plants out of China by English and Dutch explorers, also aided the effort to lessen Western dependence on China for tea. One explorer in particular, Robert Fortune, returned to India from a lengthy and clandestine journey through China with 12,000 plants and experienced Chinese tea makers. Few believed the native Assam tea plants (Camellia sinensis assamica) could yield drinkable tea, so the Chinese varieties were cultivated there instead. They were, however, totally unsuccessful. After much trial and error, it became apparent that the Assam variety would yield good tea. Presently, it is the most widely grown variety of tea outside of China. The Chinese varieties that were smuggled out have been successfully cultivated only in the foothills of the Himalaya in Nepal, and the Indian regions of Darjeeling and Sikkim.

By 1844 the English were importing about fifty million pounds of tea annually from China. Chinese world tea exports peaked in 1886 and then it rapidly declined. Assam began producing a marketable product by the 1850’s. The island of Ceylon became the next major tea producing region. First famous for its coffee production, Ceylon suffered a blight from 1869 to 1909 which wiped out every coffee plant on the island. Land was selling for pennies on the dollar, and Sir Thomas Lipton, the millionaire English grocer, traveled to the island in 1890 to buy all the real estate he could. He was able to successfully cultivate Assam tea in Ceylon, thus proving that it could be produced in more places than was previously believed. Tea plantations sprang up all over India. European colonies and other countries planted Assam tea wherever they thought it would grow. It was planted in S. Africa, Java, Kenya, Uganda, Russian Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Malawi, Tanzania, and Cameroon. By 1938 Chinese tea was no longer available at auction in London due to expanding tea production outside China, as well as the socio-political instability inside China. It wasn’t until 1958 that The People’s Republic of China began auctioning tea again in England.

Today, tea is grown in every continent except Antarctica. Such diverse tea producing locales include Argentina, The U.S.A. (South Carolina), Papua New Guinea, Australia and Taiwan. Although very close to China, Taiwan only began producing tea at the turn of the last century. Grown on small family owned farms, the Taiwanese produce millions of pounds of Oolong tea each year. Only about 20% of its tea harvest is slated for export. Taiwan is now famous for its most delightful Oolongs.

Throughout its history, tea has played an important role in both art and culture. Chinese and Japanese poetry, literature, religion and art have been immeasurably inspired by this elixir. When tea was first introduced to Europe, it was said to lift the spirits without inebriating the mind. The most common drink of the time was ale. They say that Queen Elizabeth herself drank a gallon of ale a day. Coffee, Tea and Chocolate houses sprang up all over London and became places where men could smoke, talk about politics and still make it back home without falling into a ditch. The culture of Afternoon Tea was unknowingly invented in England by Anna, Duchess of Bedford, around 1840. She began calling for cakes and little sandwiches to be served with tea at 4:00 to ward off “that sinking feeling” she experienced during the long hours between lunch and dinner. Not long after her unintended meal creation, it became custom for the merchant and noble class families to have an Afternoon Tea prepared for afternoon social calls. Tea rooms and Tea Gardens opened up in Europe and the Americas to serve Afternoon Tea. Soon it was acceptable for respectable women to be seen unescorted in these public places. At the turn of the last century, European and American women hosted private tea parties and a new fashion statement was made. Corsets were discarded, and the hostess and guests were expected to attend in long, flowing, comfortable tea gowns.

1904 and 1908 saw two major innovations in the tea trade which made the drink even more accessible to the general population. This first came about as a result of an effort to promote Indian tea in America by a group of exporters. They set up a display at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. As it was summertime in the Mid-West, very few people, if any, were interested in sampling a hot drink. The supervisor of the tea group, Richard Blechynden, began pouring the tea over ice to see if he could get people to drink it. And drink it they did. At present, Americans drink over 50 billion glasses of iced tea each year. The second innovation of that time came in 1908 when a New York tea importer had the idea of sending out tea samples in hand-sewn silk bags. After sampling the “tea bags” his customers responded by ordering the tea. When they received the orders, they expressed dissatisfaction at finding loose tea in the boxes. It turned out that what they had really wanted was for all the tea they had ordered to come in the silk tea sachets. Tea bags were developed and became the norm in Europe and the Americas shortly thereafter.

Today tea is second only to water as the most widely drunk beverage in the world. Tea is experiencing a rebirth everywhere, and specialty teas in particular are gaining in popularity. Tearooms have sprung up in almost every major city and some small towns as well. Hundreds of online tea shops have opened in the last two decades, and U.S tea sales have more than quadrupled in the last 10 years. Recent scientific research demonstrating the benefits tea may have on human health is also helping to boost interest in tea worldwide.

Tea is, and always has been, more than just a drink. For many, it is a way of viewing the world around us and a way of relating to people. This sentiment is best expressed in Okakura Kakuzo’s summation of fifteenth century Japanese tea philosophy, “Teaism…” is “…founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life." (The Book of Tea, 1906)

Sources

Chow, Kit & Kramer, Ione. All the Tea in China. China Books and Periodicals, Inc. 1990.

Kakuzo, Okakura. The Book of Tea. Tokyo& Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. 1956 (Originally published in 1906).

Pettigrew, Jane. A Social History of Tea. London: National Trust Enterprises Ltd. 2001.

Pratt, James Norwood. New Tea Lovers Treasury: The Classic True Story of Tea. San Francisco: Tea Society. 1999.

Sen Soshitsu XV, translated by Dixon Morris. The Japanese Way Of Tea: From Its Origins in China to Sen Rikyu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.1998

Sen’o Tanaka. The Tea Ceremony. Tokyo, New York & San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd. 1973.