Wow, there's nothing like a few days of below zero temperatures to make you appreciate normal winter weather. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for some 40 degree temperatures and the sun. Let's not forget about that.
As I enjoyed my spiced tea today, I started wondering about the beginning of tea. How did someone decide to put a leaf in water and drink it? So I did a little research and boy was I surprised. The history of tea involves espionage, wars, ceding of land, drugs and of course the Boston Tea Party.
The legend about how tea began starts in China about 6,000 years ago. A servant was carrying boiling hot water and some leaves from a tree fell into it. His master drank it and liked it. The leaf was from camellia sinensis, now known as a tea tree.
So tea began in China and when a Japanese monk took a tree back to Japan. Guess what. Japanese monks started drinking tea and growing their own tea farms at the monasteries. They even began their own tea ceremony. During this time tea leaves were compressed together into a brick, then grounded into a powder to put in water. It was during the Ming Dynasty that tea leaves were dried and rolled to place directly into the water.
Tea first hit Europe, not with the English, but with the Dutch. Coffee houses had already formed in Europe by the 1500s. In 1610 the first shipment of tea came to Holland. Of course everything new is so darn expensive and tea was no exception. So who was drinking it? The very wealthy people, of course. About mid 1600s the British were starting to consider drinking tea instead of coffee. But when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, things began to change. She was addicted to tea and even started tea time at the court.
From here you've got the British East India Tea Company holding a tight monopoly of the tea imported from China. They played a big part in the taxation of tea, which was really high. At one point the British were trading opium for tea. I'm thinking those Brits have got a real hankering for tea. They got so tired of relying on China for those leaves, that they sent a spy over there disguised as a Chinese merchant. He would visit those tea plantations, ask a bunch of questions, steal a few plants and even some tea experts. The East India Tea Company decided to start their own tea farms in India. It was also around this time that the tea wars began with China. I never knew this was how Britain got control of Hong Kong for so many years.
Because of the high taxes on tea in Britain, illegal smuggling of tea flourished. Yes, I'm talking about organized crime. This reminds me of prohibition times in the US. Can you imagine tea was in such demand, but so expensive that people would resort to buying it illegally? Tea is something special! I could tell you some of the crappy things these opportunists would put in the tea because it wasn't regulated, but I don't want to spoil your tea.
Anyway, somehow politicians in Britain decided they better do something about the underground tea. So they dropped the enormous taxes on it and gave it a reasonable tax. And practically overnight the illegal tea syndicate vanished.
Iced tea was an invention of the United States, along with teabags. At the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis a tea seller from overseas set up to give out samples of hot tea. Well, I guess it was pretty hot at the fair and no one wanted hot tea. The tea guy went over to an ice cream stand and got some ice. He dumped it in the tea and served iced tea. What a story! Teabags began with artisans crafting each bag. That sounds expensive. I'm glad they finally made disposable teabags.
I know I gave you a condensed version of the history of tea. But I found it interesting. I hope you did, too. Did I miss anything important in the history of tea? Do you have an interesting tea story. Please share in the comments. Until next time...
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