Page 11 - Preparation of Tea Brochure

The discovery of tea was something of an accident. According to legend, the year was 2737 B.C., and Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was boiling drinking water over an open re, a regimen he followed because he believed those who drank boiled water were healthier. A few leaves from the burning branches of a Camellia Sinensis plant fell into the pot of water. The emperor, known as the “Divine Healer,” drank the mixture and from then on, declared it gave one “vigor of body, contentment of mind, and determination of purpose.”
And thus, the belief in tea’s mysterious healing powers was established, and tea became popularly known, as it is today, as a healthy, soothing beverage for all occasions.
The rst documented reference to tea came in 350 A.D. when Chinese scholar Kuo P’o wrote about “k’ut’u,” a medicinal beverage “made from the leaves by boiling.” By the fth century A.D., tea became a major bartering tool for China, along with vinegar, rice, noodles, cabbage, fruits, and dried meats.
It also became a popular social custom for China’s elite, with the imperial house and Buddhist priests enjoying royal blends and coveting a special “white” tea, considered the rarest and most delicate of teas.
The original site of tea cultivation has been debated for years, but it is generally agreed that the rst tea garden was in the monsoon region of southeast Asia, then unclaimed by any nation, and now lying in an area that includes both China and India.
By the 8th Century, commercial cultivation of tea had spread throughout the Chinese provinces and, thereafter, into Japan. As in China, tea was rst the exclusive domain of Japan’s nobility and holy men. During the T’ang Dynasty (A.D. 620-907) its popularity spread to the common folk.
But it was nearly 1,000 years more before the pleasures of tea were introduced to the Western world. In the early 17th Century, Dutch traders brought tea from China and Japan to Europe.
By the mid-1600’s, tea had been introduced to Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, Russia and America. Tea’s popularity has been credited as playing a major role in opening the Orient to Occidental commerce.
While the Dutch held a near monopoly on trading for some time, it wasn’t long before Britain muscled its way into the importation of what would become that nation’s most popular beverage of ALL time.
After much bloodshed and some compromises, the British East India Trading Company wrested control of much of the tea trade from the Dutch and began importing enough
tea that Britain’s public had access to the delicious new drink. Before that, tea was limited to the upper class and consumed at only the most elite gatherings, costing six to ten British pounds per pound of tea.
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