Gebrüder Wollenhaupt GmbH The history of tea Sources and bibliographical note: The following information is derived in part from the book "The Connoisseur's Guide to Tea" by Jane Pettigrew. Origin: According to the Chinese, it was the Emperor Sheng-Nung who discovered tea in 2737 BC. Legend has it that he drank only boiled water for hygienic reasons. One spring evening as Sheng-Nung was resting under a tree, the wind blew some leaves into the boiling water. The drink suddenly turned a wonderful colour and tasted highly refreshing. This was the birth of tea. This is only one of many stories about the origins of tea. One thing is certain, however: tea was already known in China from the earliest times. The earliest written references to it date back to the 3rd century BC. At this time, the drink was mostly prescribed as a medicine or tonic. However, demand grew rapidly and tea came to be drunk increasingly for enjoyment, being considered a gift even worthy of emperors. Tea merchants of the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD) were people of wealth and affluence. It was around this time that the tea brick developed as a means of exchange. Tea is thought to have reached Japan in the 9th century AD via the monk Dengyo Daishi, who brought tea seeds from his experiments in China and planted them in the garden of a Japanese monastery. Following the deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations between the 9th and 11th centuries, tea was no longer drunk except by Buddhist monks to maintain concentration and alertness during meditation. In time the tea rituals began to die out in China, while the Japanese recovered and developed a veritable tea cult which is still rooted in the famous Japanese tea ceremony. Arrival in Europe: In the 16th century, tea came to Europe via the Dutch and Portuguese colonies. Following the initial trade with silk, brocade and spices, tea soon also began to feature prominently in the trade between both worlds. Through the Netherlands, the tea was distributed in Italy, Portugal, Germany and France. The drink became increasingly popular in all social classes, but was still unable to compete with coffee in Germany and France. When the Portuguese princess Catharine of Braganza married the English king Charles II in 1662, she brought with her as part of her dowry a chest of more or less randomly produced black, Chinese tea. In this way, the fermented drink was introduced to England's aristocracy, who were the only ones able to afford it for a long time due to its high price. The development of black tea was due not least to the better keeping qualities of the fermented leaves, which had to withstand long journeys to Europe. Its high price was partly the result of the heavy taxes levied on semi-luxury goods. A flourishing black market developed around tea smuggled from the Netherlands, and whole communities took care of the organisation, distribution and storage of the merchandise. In the 18th century, tea consumption in England boomed; smuggling was now punished with heavy fines and imprisonment. In 1823, the thea assamica plant was discovered in the North Indian jungle, and the idea of cultivating tea in countries other than China was born. Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) also switched from coffee to tea growing in around 1870 and Ceylon tea became a major export. The Boston Tea Party: Tea reached North America via immigrants who brought their tea-drinking tradition with them to their new home, quickly sparking off a new trend. In Boston and Philadelphia in particular, tea was drunk in an elegant ritual from expensive silver and porcelain crockery. In well-to-do families, tea drinking was regarded as a mark of respectability and good breeding, until the drastic tightening of the tax laws in 1767 in order to support the army and colonial government led to an American boycott of all English imports. At that time, tea was imported exclusively by the British East India Company. In 1773, when 7 tea ships from London reached America, a bitter war began with the Boston Tea Party: New York and Philadelphia forced the landing ships to turn back, civil servants from Charleston upturned the cargo and in Boston the Dartmouth was stormed by Americans dressed as Red Indians. Vowing to turn Boston harbour into a huge "tea pot", they threw all 340 tea chests overboard in the space of three hours. This ultimately led to the beginning of the American War of Independence. The tea clippers: The British ships took 12-15 months to sail from India to England. In 1845, the first clipper to be launched from New York completed the voyage in less than 8 months. Special, yacht-style clippers were built to keep pace with the competition. These ships achieved record speeds and boasted over £1 million worth of loading capacity. In England, a tradition of races to London developed. The first cargo to arrive sold at top prices and the crews won high premiums. This led to increasingly fast deliveries across the Atlantic. With the invention of steamships and the opening of the Suez canal, the tea clipper races began to die out. 1869 saw the construction of the Suez canal and a gradual phasing-out of the competitions and high tea clipper premiums. The last race took place in 1871.