Tea and Other Good Things: Origins and Myths of the Mystic Tea

The history of tea is around 5000 years old, so its beginnings are steeped in legend. The most prominent one being about the Chinese emporer and herbalist Sheng Nung. Worshipped as a god for the many gifts he gave to China, the discovery of tea is attributed to him and dated to 2737 B.C.He was apparently sitting near a tree shrub, boiling his drinking water, when leaves from the shrub fell into his water and he enjoyed the resulting 'brew'.

Laozi (ca. 600-517 BC), the classical Chinese philosopher, described tea as "the froth of the liquid jade" and named it an indispensable ingredient to the elixir of life.By the third century, the Chinese had the symbol "ch'a" for tea, so it's popularity was growing. Another legend is about Prince Bodhidharma from India who lived during the sixth century. A converted Buddhist, he traveled to China and started chewing tea leaves to keep himself awake during meditation and prayer. Another story has the Bodhidharma cutting off his eyelids because of his frustration of falling asleep during meditation - and, you've guessed it - the discarded eyelids grew into the first tea plant! The Chinese and later the Japanese developed many traditions around their green tea - including the famous tea ceremony.

Catherine of Braganza brought tea to Britain when she married Charles II. Now the history of tea took another route. The British soon loved their tea, which was by then fermented black tea. It was ridiculously expensive though, so the rich enjoyed it 'black', the middle class added milk (which was cheap), and the poor had a dash of tea in a cup of milk. As the British conquered much of the world, their taste for tea went with them and many of these countries in the British Empire began drinking tea. The Boston Tea Party is a tribute to how much Britain valued their tea - insisting on imposing tea taxes to the American colonies. As we know, this resulted in the 'new Americans' throwing chests of tea from British freighters into the Boston harbor.

So whilst today, the British still love their cuppa, the Americans are basically coffee drinkers but iced tea being popular (particularly in the south). The Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans all enjoy tea. Indeed it is the second most popular drink on the planet - the first being water.