History of tea

History of tea

During a long day spent roaming the forest in search of edible grains and herbs,the farmer Shennong accidently poisoned himself 72 times.But before the poisons could end his life,a leaf drifted into his mouth. .He chewed on it and it revived him,and that is how we discovered tea.But it is only a legend.Tea doesn’t treat poisoning,but the story of Shennong,the mythical Chinese inventor of agriculture,shows how the tea important for ancient China. Archaeological data suggests tea was first grown there about 6,000 years ago or 1,500 years before the pharaons built the Great Pyramids of Giza.Firstly it was eaten as a vegetable or cooked with grain porridge. Tea only shifted from food to drink 1,500 years ago. After hundreds of years of variations of preparation method,tea began to pack into cakes, grind it into powder,mix with hot water and create a beverage called “ Muo cha” or “Matcha”. Matcha became so popular and it was the favorite drink of emperors.Artists draw pictures in the foam of the tea, like the espresso art.

In the 9^th century during the Tang Dynasty,a Japanese monk brought the first tea plant to Japan.Japanes create their own tea ceremony.In the 14^th century during the Ming Dynasty,the Chinese emperor changed the standart of preparation tea from pressed into cakes to loose leaf tea.Tea was one of three essential Chinese export goods,along with porcelain and silk.This gave China a great power as tea drinking spread around the world.In the 1600 years Dutch traders brought tea to Europe in large quantities. Portuguese noble woman, Queen Catherine of Braganza made tea popular with the English aristocracy when she married King Charles II in 1661. At first,Britain paid for all this Chinese tea with silver.It was too expensive and they suggested trading tea for another substance,opium.After that, Chinese people people became addicted to the drug.So in 1839 started the First Opium War between the two nations and it continued by 1842.British won in this war.Lately Britain sent botain Robert Fortune to steal tea from China.And they achieved it. Today, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water.