Despite millions of cups of tea being drank everyday in the UK(and of course the wider world) it would be fair to assume that not many people know a great deal about the delicious drink they are drinking- where does it come from, what is its origins are and how the likes of green tea and black tea are in fact from the same plant.
It could be summarized (at the most basic level) that tea is grown in Asia and shipped around the world in little, convenient tea bags which can be infused straight into boiled water and binned once brewed.
Although none of this is incorrect there is far more to tea than this.
Therefore, lets start with a brief history of the founding of tea and the exportation to Europe.
The first discovery of tea is not truly known, but there are many stories accounting the first time tea was drank.
One such story accounts of a Chinese emperor, Shen Nung, sitting beneath a tree boiling a pot of water when, unbeknownst to him, some leaves from a nearby Camellia Sinensis blew into the pot. Upon discovering the leaves in the pot, and as a keen herbalist, Shen Nung decided to not threw away the water but to taste it instead. It is hard to know if there is any merit in this story or if this is just a work of fiction. But it is a sweet, simple tale if true.
Although the origins are not clear, Tea did become a Chinese favourite during the Tang Dynasty (6th– 9th Century) and thus became the national drink. So much so that within this period the first book on tea was written, The Classic of Tea, authored by Lu Yu.
It was shortly after this tea was exported to Japan, by Buddhist monks returning from China, who wanted to spread the drinking of tea for health and spirituality purposes.
Tea and the west
It is reported that tea was first brought to Europe by Italian and Portuguese travellers in the 16th Century.
The transportation of Tea from China to Europe initially came by two main routes, over the sea in ships and by land (by caravan through Russia).
Transporting goods from East to the West by land has been around for centuries with the famous Silk Road dating back as far as the 2nd century BCE. The Great Tea Road of the 18th and 19th centuries spanned from Beijing, via Mongolia, to Moscow and from there throughout Europe.
The transportation of tea from the sea started around the 17th century as Europeans, most notably the British and Dutch, were trading regularly in the Far East as part of the spice trade and later tea trade. The Dutch East India Company first imported tea to Holland via Java. The British East India Company a few years later then started bringing Tea, along with spices, from the Far East to London.
Despite tea drinking being somewhat synonymous with Britain, when tea was first imported to Britain it was not a popular drink- not until 1662 when the marriage of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. Catherine, a Portuguese princess, was somewhat of a tea addict and brought loose leaf tea with her to Britain- tea drinking at this time was popular among the aristocracy of Portugal due to the country’s direct trade line to China via its colony in Macau.
There is a nice, although more than likely untrue story, regarding Catherine’s bringing of tea to England- supposedly the trunks she had filled with tea were marked with Transporte de Ervas Aromaticas (Transport of Aromatic Herbs) – which was later abbreviated to T.E.A, however etymologists believe the word ‘tea’ came from a transliteration of a Chinese character. From this day forth however tea became a Fashionable and high societal drink throughout Britain’s upper class.
Britain’s ‘reliance’ of tea grew further following the Opium Wars (between Britain and China in 1839)and free trade between the 2 two nations was threatened- in particular the trade of tea. So as to devoid the reliance of trade with China for tea and to eliminate any outside threats to British supply, the British looked at ways to become self-sufficient regarding tea production.
Around this time the British had identified another well-known variant of tea plants which grew in India and so the British began to create their own plantations in India. Following the establishment of these plantations, the cultivation of tea then spread to other countries: namely India and Sri Lanka by the British, Vietnam by the French and Indonesia by the Dutch.
Today tea is now drunk and enjoyed all over the World!
