FOG Tea

Tea is second only to water as mankind's favorite beverage, and its history can be traced back to 2737 B.C. The legend has it that the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was the first to discover tea when wild tea leaves fell into a pot of boiling water and he drank the resulting infusion. Ever since then, tea has been influencing art, literature, religion, and daily life all over the world. This page collects some interesting facts about the culture of tea around the world. If you are interested, we recommend reading James Norwood Pratt's entertaining and informative New Tea Lover's Treasury for a more complete history and guide to tea.

The word "tea" originated from the Chinese word tu. Today "tea" is almost a universal word that sounds similar in many different dialects and languages.

Lu Yu, an eighth-century Chinese scholar penned a three volume treatise Classic of Tea (Ch'a Ching). Topics covered include how to grow and cultivate tea plants, and the use of 25 different utensils for preparing and serving tea.

The Chinese proverb "The finest teas grow on mountainsides" was illustrated by legends of tea growing on such inaccessible slopes that monkeys had to be trained to harvest the leaves.

The Japanese tea ceremony, or cha-no-yu traces its origins to Zen meditation practices. Based on five principles: hygiene, harmony, humility, reverence and peace, the tea ceremony was designed as a means to discipline the mind. The ceremony can last up to four hours and use as many as 24 utensils.

Tea reached Europe from China and Japan in 1610 when Dutch traders brought leaves back as a luxury item alongside spices and silks.

The British were introduced to tea in 1662 when Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza included a chest of tea in her dowry when she married Charles II.

Tea imported to Russia in the 18th century arrived by camel caravan from China. In the early part of that century, only aristocrats could afford to buy tea, but by 1796 Russia was consuming over six thousand camel loads a year - over 3.5 million pounds of tea.

Tea drinking flourished in America until the Boston Tea Party in 1772, when patriots threw chestfuls of tea into the harbor in protest of British taxation.

Ceylon began producing tea in 1873, after a deadly fungus destroyed all the coffee plants on the island. Less than 60 years later, it was exporting 250,000,000 pounds of tea.

By the 19th century, the British Empire had helped make tea a daily drink as explorers and entrepreneurs set up tea plantations in India. In Britain, tea integrated into society at all levels, and was thought to have reduced urban disease and fuel the Industrial Revolution. Employers instituted a morning and afternoon tea break to compensate for long working hours.

In Morocco, a favorite beverage is a fragrant mint tea, in which mint leaves, sugar and sometimes green tea are infused in ornate silver teapots.

Forty to fifty kinds of tea are produced in China's Yunnan Province alone.

Barely a century and half after its first crop, India is the largest producer and consumer of tea today, with over two million people employed in the industry. 50% of all tea produced in India is grown in Assam. It is the largest black tea producing region in the world.

South Americans drink Mate tea, a blend of shoots and leaves infused in a calabaza gord and sipped through a straw.

In Turkey, tea is of such importance, that all brides-tobe must master the art of demilikacay, or tea preparation. The people of Turkey drink more tea than any other beverage, consuming about 160,000 tons of tea per year.

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