Coming Fall 2008
History of Tea
5000 years of history and a significant effect on the course of world events is the legacy of a drink many take for granted today. Since its discovery by humans, tea has been at the center of multiple controversies, tragedies, and remarkable events. The following is a brief overview of the history of tea.
The Origins of Tea
In 2737, according to Chinese legend Emperor Sheng Nun, a scientist called the ‘Divine Healer’, discovered tea when a leaf drifted into his pot of boiling water. The emperor felt invigorated and refreshed by the drink and was impressed by the taste and aroma of the tea. He was inspired to do further research and found that tea had medicinal properties. This serendipitous legend, unfortunately, cannot be verified by any written record. Historians agree that the first written description of tea is found in a dictionary written by Kuo P’u, the Duke of Chou, in 350 A.D. where tea is described as a medicinal beverage made by boiling leaves.
The Chinese character for tea first appeared in 725 A.D. It is said that the Chinese associate the adoption of tea with the introduction of Buddhism from India. Some believe that a Buddhist Monk, Gan Lu (Sweet Dew) who was in India on a pilgrimage, brought tea back to China in the first century. The seven “fairy tea trees” he planted can still be seen on Mengding in Sichuan. Another legend claims that the tea plant sprouted from the eyelids of Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen. After coming to China from India, he sat down to meditate for nine years. Near the end of his meditation, he briefly fell asleep. Upon awakening, he was so upset with himself that he sliced off his eyelids. The first tea plants emerged from the ground where his eyelids landed and were meant to honor his sacrifice and to assist others on the path of enlightenment. This tale is frequently associated with the Japanese character for tea, which is the same as eyelids.
Whatever legend one associates with the origin and discovery of tea, Buddhism and tea have a strong relationship. As Buddhist priests started to move around China and Japan, the spread of tea cultivation and tea drinking followed them. Most teas are named after the mountains that held monasteries as well as tea. Monks have been responsible for innovations in growing, processing, and using tea. Preparing tea became a ritual for the monks as it was used to aid in meditation and for ceremonies.
Outside of the monasteries, tea was used medicinally until the 5th century when propagation and trading began. Once tea became a recognized and valuable commodity, it was used as currency by rural populations. Finally, in the 7th century tea became known as China’s national drink and the growing popularity of tea as refreshment resulted in a government imposed tea tax.
Tea’s popularity in China can be partially attributed to Lu Wu, an orphan come scholar, and his work Ch’a Ching or The Classic of Tea. The emerging tea industry in 780 A.D. hired Lu Wu to write a book that would spread the popularity of tea. Lu Wu wrote the first ever book about tea, which was as technical as it was romantic and popular. It provided valuable and cultural information about tea and made Lu Wu a celebrity.
The Spread of Tea
In the 9th century, tea made its way across the sea to Japan with a Japanese Buddhist Monk who had been introduced to tea while studying in China. As more monks returned to Japan with tea and tea seeds, small tea plantations began growing around monasteries throughout the country. Because there was a break in relations between China and Japan, many years passed before, a Japanese monk called Eisai reintroduced tea to Japan in the form of a book called A Record of Tea Drinking for Good Health. Since its inception, tea has played a variety of important roles in Japan. Tea has been used for medicinal, ceremonial, and social purposes. The Japanese transformed the tea ceremony into an event that embraces harmony and purity and has affected art, landscape, and architecture.
Around the 9th century, references are made in Arab trade documents that imply that tea had spread west. Tea was being traded throughout China, and it may have passed through to Central Asia and the Middle East. Marco Polo alluded to tea in his travel writings, and it was the Arabs who are rumored to have first brought tea to Europe via Venice the in the 1500s. However, it is the Portuguese and Dutch who take the credit for bringing tea and tea drinking to Europe.
In 1557, the Portuguese, after much effort, convinced the Chinese to open up to trade. The emperor finally granted them the peninsula of Macao and limited trade began. For years, Europeans had heard rumors of tea. In 1610, the Dutch East India Company finally delivered the first shipments of Chinese and Japanese tea to Europe. At around the same time, tea was flowing into Russia via the Silk Road. Initially, because of its high cost, tea was only consumed by the royal classes and aristocrats. By the end of the century the fashionable tea trend had ended on the European continent and while tea remained an available beverage, most people returned to their traditional drinks. In England, however, the popularity of tea was growing.
In the late 1500s, the English became aware of the growing wealth of their European neighbors through trade with far-off lands. As a result, England entered the trade via the East India Company, or the John Company as it was known, on the last day of the year 1600. Tea finally arrived in England in September of 1658. Because of the aggressive trade practices and political power of the John Company, England overcame its competitors by 1700 with a strong hold in India and significant trade with China.
When tea arrived, coffee was the beverage of choice in England. The Portuguese Princess, Catherine de Braganza, married Charles the II in 1662. The Princess was a tea lover and introduced the court to the concept of tea time. However, tea had not quite caught on in the general population and coffee houses were a popular male-only location for smoking, reading, and conversing. Tea was introduced in coffee houses, but didn’t take off until 1714 when Thomas Twining transformed his coffee house into an establishment that and sold to both men and women. Tea sales outstripped coffee sales and new social customs emerged. Tea gardens, tea parties, and porcelain from China would become a significant part of English culture.
Opium Wars
The Chinese government never welcomed foreign traders and placed strict regulations on the whole enterprise of trading. Because China was unknown and appeared to have many interesting commodities, the outside world was anxious to trade. The British didn’t have much to offer in trade, and the Chinese demanded silver as payment. In order to get around this, the British began selling India’s opium harvest at auction in India knowing that it would go directly through traders to China. In 1800 when widespread abuse of the drug became a problem, the emperor made it illegal to import opium. The British illegally traded drugs for tea and made huge profits from the growing number of Chinese addicts.
In 1839, after years of looking the other way, the Chinese authorities in Canton finally acted against the smugglers and confiscated and burned an opium shipment. The British occupied positions around Canton and used opium as the conflict to force increased trade rights. The British forces were superior to the Chinese, so in 1842 China was forced to agree to the Treaty of Nanking. The treaty required that China open to free trade and that Hong Kong be leased to the British. The tea for opium trade continued and by 1844 the British were importing 53 million pounds of tea year.
Tea in India
When China was forced to open up to trade, The East India Company’s monopoly was over. The British were drinking huge amounts of tea and the John Company was accustomed to making a great deal of money from tea. Not only was China the only supplier of tea in the world, but the methods of tea cultivation and manufacture had been kept secret. Tea production was a state secret in China and the cost of revealing it was one’s life. In 1834, when the monopoly was lost, the Tea Committee was appointed to make sure the British continued to get their tea. They sent a botanist, Robert Fortune, undercover into China to collect secrets about farming and processing and to bring back samples. These samples were the beginning of experimentation with Chinese tea in India.
What the Tea Council didn’t know was that they already had possession of tea, a different type of tea, but tea just the same. Ten years before the Tea Committee was appointed, a Scottish adventurer named Robert Bruce had come across tea in Assam, a remote area between India and Burma, while living with the indigenous people. This was not the Camilla Sinensis of the mountains of China, but another type. It was the Camilla Assamica, plant that thrives at lower altitudes in jungle type conditions. It was not what the British were looking for, so they missed it. After Robert’s death, his brother Charles sent branches to the tea committee. It wasn’t until they received seeds, live plants, and manufactured tea that they agreed that Camilla Assamica was indeed tea. This began a new chapter in the history of tea. India had a new industry and the British would continue to have an abundance of tea.
Tea in America
The Dutch brought tea to their colony New Amsterdam in the 1600s where it was very popular particularly with the women and wealthy colonists. When the English took over the colony they renamed it New York, and continued to supply tea. The tea, however, was taxed. The John Company needed to boost their financial position, and so convinced the English Parliament to enact the Tea Act which allowed shipments of tea duty-free directly from the company to the colonists. It excluded colonial merchants and placed a tax on the tea. The colonists were annoyed, to say the least, to be taxed without having representatives in parliament. In 1773, they refused all shipments of tea. The most popular revolt was the Boston Tea Party. Colonists, dressed as Native Americans, dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The rebellion was copied in ports all over the east coast. Tea was sent back to England, dumped, or burned. The colonists renounced tea, and sent a message to England. Independence was close at hand.
In the 1800s tea was fashionable again; tea parties and afternoon tea played significant roles in American society. In 1904, at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, ice tea was invented and became an American tradition. Richard Blechynden, a tea merchant from India, came to the fair to promote tea drinking. It was a hot summer day and there was no interest in his hot tea. In order to boost sales, he added ice to his tea and created iced tea, one of America’s favorite drinks. A few years later in 1908, another innovative salesman would inadvertently change the world of tea. In order to cut back on costs, but still get samples of tea to prospective retailers, tea importer Thomas Sullivan sent out small silk bags full of tea for potential customers to sample . Without instruction, the retailers brewed the tea within the silk bags. When Sullivan received requests for more bags, he realized he had stumbled onto something significant. He changed the bags to gauze and made a nice profit. While the pre-measured, self-straining bags have become the most common way to make tea, the tea used in bags is typically of the lowest quality.
Tea has a long and complex history. Enlightenment, art, war, oppression, and revolution are just a few aspects of human history that are closely linked with the most popular drink on earth.
The Duchess Of Bedford
Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford, is reputed to have originated the idea of afternoon tea in the early 1800s. She conceived the idea of having tea around four or five in the afternoon to ward off the hunger pangs between lunch and dinner. Some time earlier, the Earl of Sandwich had the idea of putting a filling between two slices of bread. These habits soon became a good reason for social gatherings, and started a trend that is still very much a part of British life. Her vision is the inspiration of our wonderful traditional teas.
