Tea
is the most widely consumed beverage
in the world. The tea plant
Camellia sinensis is an evergreen bush which
is indigenous to China. The plant
has smooth, pointed leaves. If not
pruned,it can grow into a small tree
and reach a height of 15 feet.
According to Chinese
legend, in 2737 BC the second emperor
Sheen Nung, who for the sake of hygiene
drank only boiled water, was resting
under a wild tea tree. A few leaves
from the tree fell into water that
was being prepared for the Emperor.
When served the resulting brew, Shen
Nung loved it and tea was discovered.
Whatever the origins
of tea, or "tu" in ancient Chinese,
scholars believe that it has been
consumed in China since well before
the third century B.C., when the
first written reference to the leaf
was made by a Chinese doctor.
Tea was initially
consumed by the Chinese as a medicinal
drink. It was made from green leaves
gathered from wild plants. As tea
became more popular during the Han
Dynasty, farmers began to cultivate
tea bushes and soon developed a process
to dry the leaves. Tea plantations
were soon established along the Yangtze
River. At this time, the cultivation
and processing of tea were tightly
controlled.
Tea leaves were
picked (by young female pickers),
steamed, crushed and mixed into a
paste with plum juice. The juice
acted as glue and the mixture was
then formed into tea cakes and baked
until dry. The dried tea cakes were
crushed into a fine powder. The Chinese
used the powder to brew green tea.
Since the tea cakes traveled well,
they were used to barter for other
goods with some of China's neighbors.
It was these dried tea cakes that
were probably first brought to Japan
sometime around 700 A.D.
During the Tang
Dynasty (A.D. 618 - 906) the Chinese
began flavoring their tea with ginger,
cloves, orange peel and peppermint
leaves. These were added before the
water was boiled. Later jasmine,
lotus and chrysanthemum flowers and
essences were added to tea as well.
The chinese began producing beautiful
ceramics with dark blue, brown and
black gloves.
All the tea consumed
in China was powdered green tea,
until the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644).
The Ming did not form tea cakes,
but preferred steamed and dried loose
tea leaves. Loose leaves, however,
did not travel as well as the traditional
cakes and quickly lost their aroma
and flavor. Since by now, tea was
a lucrative trade commodity and was
available in the Middle East and
even parts of Europe, Chinese tea
merchants soon developed the process
to produce Black Tea.
The Chinese discovered
they could preserve loose tea's flavor
and aroma if they fermented the leaves
in the air and then baked the leaves
to arrest the natural decomposition.
While the process to produce Black
Tea is now automated, the method
is largely unchanged today.
Tea was first brought
to Europe in the seventeenth century
by either the Portuguese, or the
Dutch, both of whom were trading
with China. While trade with the
Chinese was initially limited to
silks and spices, jars of tea were
soon a part of every cargo reaching
Europe. Tea became very popular in
Holland and the Dutch began exporting
it to Germany, Italy and France.
Tea first reached
Russia, from China in the early 17
th century. It became popular with
the nobility and by the later part
of the century, large caravans laden
with furs, regularly trekked to China;
where the furs were exchanged for
tea, porcelain and silks. The Russians
preferred a smoky black tea and this
blend is still sold today by some
companies as Russian Caravan tea.
Tea came to England
sometime in the 17 th century. In
1662 King Charles II married the
Portuguese princess, Catherine of
Braganza. A tea drinker, she brought
tea to the English Court and made
it fashionable among the aristocrats
and the very wealth.
In the 17 th century
the coffee houses were popular meeting
places for England's merchants. Merchants
from a specific trade, or industry
would meet at the same coffee house
to conduct business. The insurance
giant Lloyds of London actually derived
its name from Edward Lloyds coffee
house in London. By the late 17th
century the coffee houses also began
to serve tea.
Even though tea
was very expensive a pound cost more
than a week's wages; the consumption
of tea began to grow among both the
rich and the poor. By the middle
of the century tea had become England's
most popular drink. In 1705 consumption
of tea was approximately 800,000
pounds a year. By 1781 it had grown
to over 4,000,000 pounds per year.
This was partially a result of a
dramatic decrease in the taxes on
tea.
Tea was initially
consumed by the English at any time
of day. The tradition of afternoon
tea began in the nineteenth century,
when Anna the seventh Duchess of
Bedford, began to drink tea in the
afternoon to satisfy her hunger pains
between her light lunch and late
evening meal. She enjoyed her afternoon
tea and was soon inviting other fashionable
women to join her to drink tea, enjoy
little sandwiches and cakes and exchange
gossip.
While England's
treasury was generating huge sums
from the taxation of tea and a few
tea merchants were getting rich,
it was also a huge cost to the English
economy as a result of the large
trade imbalanced between the England
and China. The English had little,
besides cotton, which the Chinese
wanted to import.
Unfortunately in
1776, the English soon realized the
Chinese wanted opium which they could
easily supply from India. Despite
a law in China banning its importation,
the British sold the opium to the
Chinese for silver. This silver was
then used to purchase tea from the
Chinese. To discourage the trade,
the Chinese government imposed severe
penalties on those using and selling
opium. Soon the English and Chinese
were fighting and in 1839, Britain
declared war on China. In retaliation,
the Chinese Emperor banned the export
of tea and closed all of China's
ports to foreign resells. The "Opium
War" Which lasted until 1842 forced
England's tea merchants to develop
alternate sources of supply for tea. |
