Legend has it that tea was discovered by Chinese emperor Shen Nong. Here’s a fascinating article about an exhibit at UCLA about the history of tea:
A little background makes the significance of tea in world history even more remarkable. Like salt in ancient times, tea, because of its exclusive botany and particular climate and soil requirements, became an invaluable necessity and a desirable trading commodity.
Tea comes from a single plant, camellia sinensis, native to southeastern Asia. The Chinese multiple-stem shrub (var. sinensis) has small leaves that protect it against cold weather, while the Indian single-stem plant (var. assamica) thrives in subtropical and rainy regions. The difference in color’black, green, oolong, yellow, red or white’depends on the varying levels of oxidation. Black teas are fully oxidized, white teas are nonoxidized. Chamomile, rooibos and herbal beverages are derived from other plants; they are infusions, not teas.
While we may be accustomed to drinking loose-leaf tea stored in a tin or a bag, tea may also be compressed or powdered. During the Tang dynasty (619-907), tea was molded into bricks and then shaved and boiled in a cauldron. The custom of grinding tea into powder to form cakes or whisk with hot water in a tea bowl followed. The first teapots specifically designed for brewing loose-leaf tea were created in the 1500s. These early, unglazed vessels were designed and produced in Yixing, in eastern China. They were never washed, simply rinsed out with cold water, which resulted in the interior of the pot developing a residual layer of tea.
The father of tea, according to legend, was the Chinese emperor Shen Nong, who tasted tea accidentally one summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm. He and his servants stopped to rest, and in accordance of the emperor’s ruling that drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution, he awaited his servants’ preparations. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water and a brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, Shen Nong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical and poisonous herbs by personally testing their properties. Tea, which acts as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some 70 herbs, was an important discovery indeed.
Tea found its way to Japan along with Buddhism during the Heian period (794-1185) by monks who had traveled to China to study Zen and believed the beverage enhanced religious meditation. The custom spread to the royal court and was given imperial sponsorship, which elevated it to an art form and the creation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, known as chanoyu (‘hot water for tea’).
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