The History of Tea: Ten Major Facts

by Rosanne O'Malley


The History of Tea: Ten Major Facts

For thousands of years, in many different countries, people have been drinking tea. This drink and the manner in which it is prepared has been the focus of rituals, the basis for social conventions and even the catalyst for a revolution. Today, tea is the second most popular beverage in the world after water. How tea became so important to the world's various societies is a fascinating but lengthy story. In brief, however, the history of tea can be condensed to ten major facts.

1. According to myth, the use of tea by humans started over 5,000 years ago in China. One day, the Emperor Shen Nung, a renowned scientist and herbalist, was traveling to a distant realm when he and his courtiers stopped to rest. As his servants were boiling their drinking water, leaves from a nearby bush fell into the pot. The emperor, his curiosity piqued by the resulting brown brew, tasted it and found it to be very refreshing.

2. Prior to 1000 BC, tea was used in China for medicinal purposes. Around the time of the Tang Dynasty, people began to drink tea for pleasure.

3. In 800 AD, Lu Yu wrote the Ch'a Ching, the first definitive book concerning the growth and processing of tea leaves and the best manner in which to prepare them for drinking.

4. Tea was brought to Japan by a Buddhist monk and was originally used in religious ceremonies. It became the drink of the royal class when Emperor Saga encouraged the cultivation of the tea plant.

5. The Japanese Tea Ceremony developed over several centuries under the influence of Zen Buddhist monks. By the sixteenth century, the "Way of the Tea" as it is known today was established.

6. The first European to personally taste tea was the Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Father Jasper de Cruz in 1560.

7. Tea use spread throughout Europe, initially among the French, the Dutch and the Russian. Charles II's queen consort, the Portuguese Princess Catherine de Branganca, introduced the drink to England around 1650.

8. Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch settler's of New Amsterdam colony introduced tea to America also around 1650. The English who later took over what came to be New York found the Dutch settlers there at the time drank more tea than all of England.

9. As every American school aged child know, the actions that took place during Boston Tea Party in 1773 were a major catalyst of the American Revolution. Revolutionaries dumped shiploads of tea into Boston Harbor in protest over England's taxing policies.

10. Anna, the Duchess of Bedford was credited with having developed the afternoon tea sometime during the early nineteenth century. Having experienced a "sinking feeling" in late afternoon, the duchess ordered her servants at Belvoir Castle to serve an additional meal around 5:00 p.m., to which she invited her friends. The custom became so popular that she continued holding afternoon teas on her return to London. Soon, other social hostesses adopted the practice.