History of Tea

Legend has it that, in 2737 BC, Chinese emperor Shen Nong was boiling water to purify it, when some tea leaves fell into his pot. He liked the resulting infusion so much, that it quickly spread throughout the country. Four millennia later, a Japanese Buddhist monk, returning from studying in China, introduced Chinese tea into Japan. India, today’s largest producer of tea, has its own legends about the origins of tea.

For the last four hundred years, fine teas from Asia have been highly coveted in Europe and, later, in the New World. Trade routes were opened with China and India to supply the rapidly growing demand. And now, Japan supplies its own uniquely delicious teas to the world.

Picture if you will the excitement in places like London or Amsterdam when a China Trader docked in the harbour with its precious cargo of tea from the Orient. Fine Asian tea was prized so highly in Europe for the calm and serenity that seemed to descend on all those who drank it. Serving Asian teas quickly became a symbol of hospitality among those who truly appreciated the finer things of life.

Japanese Tea

In 727 A.D., the Tang Court of China offered some tea plants to the Japanese Emperor Shomu as a gift. About six decades later, cultivation of tea was initiated in the Imperial Gardens of Kyoto, where it became the drink of Emperors. In the thirteenth century, it was introduced to the general population of Japan, and quickly became the national drink. It was during this period that teahouses began to flourish and the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Chanoyu, emerged from Buddhist spiritual philosophy.

Up until the seventeenth century, tea was dried and powdered, and then whisked into a frothy brew in hot water. During this period, a Chinese Monk introduced a new form of tea to Japan while on a spiritual visit there. This method involved rolling the leaves, drying them, and then roasting them in an iron wok. Preparation of the drink simply involved soaking the roasted leaves in hot water. This became the popular form for brewing tea, and it persisted into the eighteenth century, until Nagatani Soen, a Kyoto tea merchant, invented a new method of steaming, drying, and rolling tea. This method of processing, uniquely Japanese, led to a tea known as Sencha, the everyday tea in Japan to this day.