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History of Tea
Europeans and particularly the British have been drinking
tea for more than 350 years, but tea was a popular form of refreshment
in the Asian region as far back as 2000 BC.
Here is a brief history of tea and how it came to be the world’s
favorite drink. The refreshing drink of choice for millions the world
over.
The first cup was an accident…
Our story begins over four and a half thousand years ago. According
to Chinese mythology, in 2737 BC the Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung, scholar
and herbalist, was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled
drinking water. A leaf from the tree dropped into the water and Shen
Nung decided to try the brew. A new drink was discovered.
Tea gets its name
From the earliest times tea was renowned for its properties as a healthy,
refreshing drink. By the third century AD many stories were being
told and some written about tea and the benefits of tea drinking,
but it was not until the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 906 AD) that tea became
China's national drink and the word ch'a was used to describe tea.
The modern term "tea" derives from early Chinese dialect
words - such as Tchai, Cha and Tay - used both to describe the beverage
and the leaf.
Tea drinking catches
on
Both Indian and Japanese folklore credit the popularization of tea
to Bodhidharma the devout Buddhist priest who founded Zen Buddhism.
The Indian legend tells how in the fifth year of a seven year sleepless
contemplation of Buddha he began to feel drowsy. He immediately plucked
a few leaves from a nearby bush and chewed them, thus dispelling his
tiredness. The bush was a wild tea tree.
The first mention of tea outside China and Japan is said to be by
the Arabs in 850 AD and it was they who were responsible for introducing
tea to Europe. However, it is the Portuguese and Dutch who claim the
credit of bringing tea and tea drinking to Europe.
The Portuguese opened up the sea routes to China, some say as early
as 1515. Jesuit priests traveling on the ships brought the tea drinking
habit back to Portugal, while the sailors manning the ships encouraged
the Dutch merchants to enter the trade. Subsequently a regular shipment
of tea to ports in France, Holland and the Baltic coast was set up
early in the 17th century. England entered the trade via the East
India Company, or the John Company as it was known, in the mid to
late 17th Century.
The birth of
Ceylon tea (and the death of coffee)
Sri Lanka or the then Ceylon, was a coffee state. The plantation
industry in Ceylon began in 1825 with widespread planting of coffee.
However in 1839 the head of the botanical gardens in Culcutta India
sent several Assam tea plants to the Peradeniya estates in the Kandy
district. It is this Assam variety of tea which is now grown on every
estate in Sri Lanka.
Tea only received an opportunity due to a leaf disease which spread
widely across the country in 1869, thus putting and end to the booming
coffee industry in the island. During the next 20 years, planters
in Ceylon converted the decimated estates to tea plantations. It is
probably due to the experience and knowledge of Indian tea planters
and the efforts of the father of tea in Sri Lanka James Taylor that
paved the way for Sri Lanka to be in the forefront of tea production
today. |
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