02/23/2014
Tea has a rich history around the world dating back for centuries. Where did it originally come from?
No one knows exactly how tea came to be discovered but we do know that it originated in the Yunnan Province of China before the year 1000BC! There is a Chinese legend that goes along with the birth of tea.
The Legend:
The first tea happened with the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong in 2737BC. One day while the Emperor was in his garden enjoying his habitual boiled water to drink, the wind blew up and some tea leaves from a near by tea tree fell into his boiled water. The Emperor was intrigued by the colour changing water and the pleasing aroma that had just been concocted right before him, so he tried drinking it. He loved the taste and the refreshing and energizing properties that the beverage had to offer. Tea was then born as the Emperor ordered that tea bushes were to be planted around his property.
Tea was originally called “Kia” in China. "Ki" derives from meaning arise or come up out of or rising up, “a” stands for Asia. So “Kia” is roughly translated as “arise or come up out of Asia or Rising out of Asia”. However, it was during the 6th century AD that the name had slowly evolved into “Cha” a word made for “Tea” and then when it later hit the Western world we translated the meaning to the name “Té” which came to be and now as we know it “Tea”.
When tea was first circulated around China, it was used as a medical drink, not a drink for pleasure. It wasn’t until the Tang Dynasty around 618AD that tea had really found any large popularity in its tradition. Tea remained a Chinese healing beverage until around this time of being introduced by tea bricks to Japan. Also as navigators, sailors and missionaries from around the world started discovering and seeking out China for it’s treasures, the custom of taking and consuming tea slowly became a social etiquette and was carried on back home and spread through the Western civilizations and societies.
Tea bricks? Yep, tea was processed into tea bricks for the first couple hundreds of years, before it was used as “tea leaves”. In fact before the tea tradition of infusing leaves as a drink came into practice, indigenous tribes in the mountains southwest of China used to chew tea leaves for medicinal purposes. In Thailand the leaves were boiled or steamed and then were seasoned with garlic and salt and served with foods like dried fish or pork. Today tea is the second most consumed beverage in the WORLD, following behind water!
