History of Tea Written by Rob Nunally
More tea is drunk around the world than any other beverage, and behind this everyday brew, beyond the caddies on the tea-store shelves, lies a colorful and fascinating story that weaves its way through the social and cultural history of many nations.
According to Chinese legend, this intriguing story had its origins in the discovery of tea’s beneficial qualities by the Emperor Shen Nung – a scholar and herbalist who, for the sake of hygiene, drank only boiled water. It is said that one day, in the year 2737 B.C., when Shen Nung was resting under a wild tea tree, a slight breeze stirred the branches and caused a few leaves to drift gently down into the shimmering water that he was preparing. He found the resulting brew deliciously refreshing and revitalizing, and so, tea was “discovered”.
It is impossible to know if Shen Nung really existed or whether he is simply the mythical embodiment of the agricultural, herbal and cultural developments of ancient China. China was not unified as an empire until the third century B.C. and it is therefore, somewhat unlikely that an emperor existed as far back as 2737 B.C. But, whatever the origins of the beverage, it is an accepted fact among scholars that tea was indeed popular in China all those years ago.
There is, however, no written reference to the leaf until the third century B.C. when a famous Chinese surgeon recommended it for increasing concentration and alertness and an army general wrote to a nephew asking him to send some “real tea” because he was feeling old and depressed.
But even the appearance of tea’s name, tu, in ancient records causes confusion, since the same Chinese character was used for both tea and sow thistles, the only distinction being made by a variation in pronunciation after an emperor of the Han Dynasty, some time between 206 B.C. and A.D. 220, ruled that when referring to tea, the character should be pronounced cha. From the eighth century A.D. onward, the tracing of tea’s history became somewhat simpler when one vertical strike of the character disappeared and tea acquired its own individual character.
Until the third century A.D., the beverage was prepared as a medicine or tonic with some fresh green leaves gathered from wild tea trees. To match supply to an increasing demand and guarantee a regular crop, farmers began to cultivate tea bushes on their smallholdings, and a system of drying and processing was gradually developed.
Tea’s popularity throughout China grew rapidly during the fourth and fifth centuries and new hill plantations were established along the Yangtze River valley. Tea began to be presented as a gift to emperors, to appear in taverns, wine stores, noodle houses and is recorded as having been used (in the form of compressed cakes made from steamed green leaves) in barter trade with the Turkish people in A.D. 476. Tea merchants grew rich and potters, silver traders and goldsmiths started to manufacture expensive, elegant tea wares that carried their own significance in terms of wealth and status of their owners.
The colorful years of the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-906) are often referred to as the “golden age” of tea. Tea was no longer drunk simply as a medicinal tonic but was taken as much for pleasure as for its restorative powers. The preparation and service of the liquor developed into an elaborate ceremony, while the cultivation and processing of the leaf were tightly controlled by rigid rules as to who should pluck the crop, when and how it should be gathered, how the freshly picked leaves should be handled, and the personal hygiene and diet of the young female pluckers. Garlic, onions, and strong spices were strictly forbidden in case and odor on their fingertips should contaminate the delicate leaves.
Tea became important enough during this period for a group of merchants to commission the writer, Lu Yu (A.D. 733-804), to compile the first ever book about tea. His Cha Chang, known as the Classic of Tea, describes all possible aspects, including the plant’s origins and characteristics, different varieties, the processing of the leaf and the tools needed, the brewing of the beverage, tea equipage, the qualities of water in different locations, tea’s medicinal qualities, and tea drinking traditions.
During the Tang Dynasty, the young leaves, once picked, were steamed, crushed, and then mixed into a paste with plum juice which acted as a natural glue to bind the particles firmly together. The paste was then poured into molds, compressed into cakes and baked until dry. To brew a cup of tea, the cake was roasted in the fire until it softened enough to be crushed to a powder which was then boiled in water. In some parts of China, salt was added, giving the tea a bitter aftertaste, while the most common flavorings were sweet onions, ginger, orange peel, cloves, and peppermint—added to the water before boiling with the tea thrown in afterward.
Later, under the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279), the compressed tea cake was ground to a very fine powder and whisked into boiling water to produce a frothy liquid. After drinking the first cup, more boiling water was added to the powdered tea, whisked again, and the liquor drunk. This was repeated up to seven times using the same tea. The spicy additions of the Tang Dynasty were rejected in favor of more subtle flavorings such as essential oils of jasmine, lotus, and chrysanthemum flowers.
Until the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644), all tea produced in China was green tea. The compressed tea cakes of the previous empires had kept well and traveled unharmed as currency for trade in far flung places. Ming tea, however, was not formed into cakes but left as loose, steamed, and dried leaf which did not keep well but quickly lost its aroma and flavor. As foreign trade increased and tea had to retain its qualities during journeys as far as Europe, the profit-conscious Chinese growers developed two new types of tea, black tea and flower scented tea. At one time, it was believed that green tea and black tea were the products of different plants, but all types start as the green leaves from the tea bush. Ming producers discovered that they could preserve the leaves by first fermenting them in air until they turned a copper red color and then halting the natural decomposition by baking. So it was that, although Europe’s first imports of tea from China were of green loose leaf tea, the fashion gradually changed as Ming tea growers adapted their methods of production to suit the market.
From China to Japan
Japanese history records that in A.D. 729, the emperor, Shomu, served tea to one hundred Buddhist monks at his palace. Since no tea was grown in Japan at that time, the processed leaves must have come from China. The first seeds for cultivation are thought to have been taken to Japan by Dengyo Daishi, a monk who spent two years from A.D. 803 to 805, studying in China. He returned home, planted the seeds in the grounds of his monastery and when he served tea made from his first planting to the Emperor Saga five years later, it is said that Saga enjoyed the new beverage so much that he ordered tea cultivation to be established in five provinces near the capital.
Between the end of the ninth and eleventh centuries, Chinese-Japanese relations deteriorated and so tea, being a Chinese commodity, fell from favor and was no longer drunk at Court. However, Japanese Buddhist monks continued to drink tea to help them stay awake and to concentrate during periods of meditation. In the early twelfth century, the situation between the two nations improved and a Japanese monk by the name of Eisai was the first to pay a visit to China. He returned with more tea seeds and with the new Chinese custom of drinking powdered green tea. He also brought back an understanding of the teachings of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist sect.
The tea drinking and the Buddhist beliefs developed alongside each other and whereas the rituals associated with tea drinking in ancient China have died out, the Japanese developed them into a complicated and unique ceremony. Still today, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, cha-no-yu, involves a precise pattern of behavior designed to create a quiet interlude during which the host and guests strive for spiritual refreshment and harmony with the universe. In 1906, Okakura Kakuzo wrote, in his Book of Tea, “Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.”
The Tea Ceremony captures all the essential elements of Japanese philosophy and artistic beauty, and interweaves four principles – harmony (with people and nature), respect (for others), purity (of heart and mind), and tranquility. Ad Kakuzo wrote, “Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking, it is a religion of the art of life.” The ceremony, which can last for up to four hours, may be performed at home, in a special room set aside for the purpose, or in a tea house.
Tea Reaches Europe
It is not clear whether it was the Dutch or the Portuguese who were responsible for bringing ashore Europe’s first tea in the early seventeenth century since both nations were by that time trading in the China Seas – the Portuguese from a base at Macao on the Chinese mainland and the Dutch from the island of Java. Trade was initially in silks, brocades, and spices, but cargos soon also included tea. The Portuguese shipped China teas to Lisbon and from there, the Dutch East India Company carried goods on to Holland, France, and the Baltic ports.
The Dutch transported mainly Japanese teas from Java from around 1610 but, in 1637, the company’s directors wrote to their Governor General, “As tea begins to come into use by some of the people, we expect some jars of Chinese as well as Japanese teas with each ship.”
The popularity of tea among all social classes in Holland grew and Dutch companies re-exported supplies to Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal.
Although the French and Germans showed an interest in tea for a short time when it first arrived in Europe they never really took to it as an everyday drink except in the northern region of Germany known as East Friesland (where it is still extremely popular today) and among the higher classes in France. Madame de Sevigne described in one of her letters how her friend, the Marquise de la Sabliere, took her tea with milk and that Racine drank tea with his breakfast every day.
But, by the end of the seventeenth century, coffee had become the most popular beverage in both Germany and France, and it was only in Russia and England that the market for tea was growing. The first tea reached Russia as a gift from the Chinese to Tsar Alexis in 1618. A trade agreement in 1689 marked the beginning of regular commerce and caravans of 200 – 300 camels trekked to the border at Usk Kayakhta, laden with furs that were exchanged for tea.
Each camel carried four chests (about 600 pounds) of tea and so progress back to Moscow was slow – the journey from Chinese grower to Russian consumer taking about 16 to 18 months. Until the early eighteenth century the smoky black tea favored by the Russians (a blend still sold today by many tea companies as Russian caravan) was expensive and therefore a drink for aristocrats. But supplies became increasingly plentiful and by 1906, Russians were drinking more than the 6000 camel loads of tea every year. The caravan trade continued until the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1903 which allowed Chinese teas, silks, and porcelain to be transported direct to Russia in just over a week.
Britain Discovers Tea
Undoubtedly, some people on Britain must have heard about tea well before the first recorded date of its appearance in London in 1658. Thomas Garraway, a general merchant with a store in Exchange Alley in London was the first to advertise the new commodity for sale by auction in 1658. Tea’s fate in Britain took a lucky turn in 1662 when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess, Catharine of Braganza. Britains new queen was a confirmed tea drinker long before she arrived for her wedding and she brought with her, as part of her dowry, a chest of China tea.
She started serving it to her aristocratic friends at Court, word spread of the new beverage and more and more people wished to try it for themselves. But with high prices it remained, in those early days, a drink for the rich and fashionable.
The high cost of tea was due to a heavy tax imposed by Charles II. However demand for tea continued to grow and a black market developed with smuggled tea from Holland. During the eighteenth century, tea became Britains most popular drink, surpassing ale for breakfast and gin at any other time of day.
Tea in North America
It was inevitable that tea would find its way to North America with colonizing groups from Europe. Early on good quality drinking water was not readily available so special water pumps were installed around Manhattan. In other cities, tea drinking took on the same elegant fashion as in Europe. The Boston Tea Party ended America’s liking for both the British and their tea. The origins of the trouble lay in the passing of an Act of Parliament in 1767 which attempted to tax the American colonies.
Two cents in the pound of duty on tea was supposed to go in support of the army and government officials in the colonies and, since the only tea that could legally be imported and purchased in America was from the British East India Company, there seemed no way out of paying the new levy. Within two years of the passing of the act, most American ports were refusing to allow any dutiable goods ashore, and when the British sent seven shiploads of tea from London, feelings ran high.
In New York and Philadelphia demonstrations forced the ships to turn back, while in Charleston, customs officials seized the cargo. In Boston, general unrest over several weeks was followed by the boarding of the Dartmouth by a band of men disguised as Native Americans, to cries of “Boston harbor a teapot tonight” and “the Mohawks are coming.” IN the course of the next three hours, they threw 340 chests of tea overboard. The British closure of Boston harbor followed by the arrival of British troops on American soil marked the beginning of the War of Independence and also the start of American’s coffee drinking tradition.
** The Tea Companion, author Jane Pettigrew
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