Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.
I'm your host Benjamin Boster,
And today's episode is about the history of tea.
Thank you,
Heather Lamora,
For sponsoring today's episode.
The history of tea spreads across many cultures throughout thousands of years.
The tea plant Camellia sinensis is both native and probably originated in the borderlands of China and northern Myanmar.
One of the earliest accounts of tea drinking is dated back to China's Shang Dynasty,
In which tea was consumed in a medicinal concoction.
One traditional method of preparing tea involves steeping loose tea leaves in a teapot and straining them into a cup.
A practice that became common in Europe following the introduction of tea by Chinese traders.
An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo.
It first became known to the Western world through Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the early 16th century.
Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century.
To compete with the Chinese monopoly on tea,
The British East India Company introduced commercial tea production to British India.
Tea consumption likely began in Yunnan province during the 2nd millennium BC as a medicinal concoction.
From there the use spread to Sichuan,
And it is believed that there,
For the first time,
People began to boil tea leaves for consumption.
Into a concentrated liquid without the addition of other leaves or herbs,
Thereby using tea as a bitter,
Yet stimulating drink,
Rather than as a medicinal concoction.
In Chinese legend,
Sometime around 2737 BCE,
Emperor Shennong was drinking a bowl of just boiled water because of a decree that his subjects must boil water before drinking it.
A few leaves were blown from a nearby tree into his water,
Changing the color and taste.
The emperor took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and restorative properties.
A variant of the legend tells that the Emperor tested the medical properties of various herbs on himself,
Some of them poisonous,
And found tea to work as an antidote.
Shenong is also mentioned in Liu Yu's famous early work on the subject,
The Classic of Tea.
A similar Chinese legend states that Shenong would chew the leaves,
Stems,
And roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs.
If he consumed a poisonous plant,
He would chew tea leaves to counteract the poison.
The Chinese have consumed tea for thousands of years.
The earliest physical evidence known to date,
Found in 2016,
Comes from the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han in Xi'an.
Indicating that tea was drunk by Han Dynasty emperors as early as the 2nd century BCE.
The samples were identified as T from the genus Camellia,
Particularly via mass spectrometry,
And written records suggest that it may have been drunk earlier.
People of the Han Dynasty used tea as medicine,
Though the first use of tea as a stimulant is unknown.
China is considered to have the earliest records of tea consumption,
With possible records dating back to the 10th century BC.
Note,
However,
That the current word for tea in Chinese only came into use in the 8th century AD.
There are therefore uncertainties as to whether the older words used are the same as tea.
The word tu appears in Shijing,
Another ancient text,
To signify a kind of bitter vegetable,
And it is possible that it referred to several different plants,
Such as sow thistle,
Chicory,
Or smartweed,
Including tea.
In the chronicles of Huayang,
It was recorded that the Ba people in Sichuan presented two to the Zhou king.
The state of Ba and its neighbor Xu were later conquered by the Qin.
And according to the 17th century scholar Gu Yongwu,
Who wrote in the Riji Lu,
It was after the Qin had taken Xu that they learned how to drink tea.
The first known reference to boiling tea came from the Han Dynasty work,
The Contract for a Youth,
Written by Wang Bao.
Where among the tasks listed to be undertaken by the youth,
He shall boil tea and fill the utensils,
And he shall buy tea at Wuyang.
The first record of cultivation of tea also dated it to this period,
When tea was cultivated on Meng Mountain,
Near Chengdu.
From the Tong to the Qing dynasties,
The first 360 leaves of tea grown here were picked each spring and presented to the emperor.
Even today it's green and yellow teas,
Such as the Mengding Ganlu tea.
Are still sought after.
An early credible record of tea drinking dates to 220 AD.
In a medical text,
Shi Lun,
By Hua Tuo,
Who stated,
To drink bitter too constantly makes one think better.
Another possible early reference to tea is found in a letter written by the Qin dynasty general Lu Kun.
However,
Before the mid-8th century Tang dynasty,
Tea drinking was primarily a southern Chinese practice.
It became widely popular during the Tang Dynasty when it was spread to Korea,
Japan,
And Vietnam.
During the Tang Dynasty in China,
Tea was prepared differently than it is today.
Instead of steeping tea leaves in hot water,
The tea was boiled with various ingredients such as ginger,
Onions,
And spices to create a savory broth.
It was not until the Song Dynasty that the practice of steeping tea leaves in hot water became popular.
Laozi,
The classical Chinese philosopher,
Was said to describe tea as the froth of the liquid jade,
And named it an indispensable ingredient to the elixir of life.
Legend has it that Master Lao was saddened by society's moral decay,
And sensing that the end of the dynasty was near,
He journeyed westward to the unsettled territories,
Never to be seen again.
While passing along the nation's border,
He encountered and was offered tea by a customs inspector named Hien Hsi.
Yin-Shi encouraged him to compile his teachings into a single book,
So that future generations might benefit from his wisdom.
This became known as the Tao Te Ching,
A collection of Lao Tzu's sayings.
Tong Dynasty writer Lu Yu's Cha Jin,
A classic of tea.
Is in early work on the subject.
According to Cha Jin,
Tea drinking was widespread.
The book describes how tea plants were grown,
The leaves processed,
And tea prepared as a beverage.
It also describes how tea was evaluated.
The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced.
Tees produced in this period were mainly tea bricks,
Which were often used as currency,
Especially further from the center of the empire,
Where coins lost their value.
These were made by compressing tea leaves into a dense round shape that was easy to transport and store.
The cakes were valued based on their weight,
And they could be traded for other goods or used to pay taxes.
During the Song Dynasty,
Production and preparation of all tea changed.
The tea included many loose-leaf styles to preserve the delicate character favored by court society,
And it is the origin of today's loose teas and the practice of brewed teas.
A powdered form of tea also emerged.
Steaming tea leaves was the primary process used for centuries in the preparation of tea.
After the transition from compressed tea to the powdered form,
The production of tea for trade and distribution changed once again.
The Chinese learned to process tea in a different way in the mid-13th century.
Tea leaves were roasted and then crumbled rather than steamed.
By the Yuan and Ming dynasties,
Unfermented tea leaves were first pan-fried,
Then rolled and dried.
This stops the oxidation process,
Which turns the leaves dark and allows tea to remain green.
In the 15th century,
Oolong tea,
Where the tea leaves were allowed to partially ferment before pan frying,
Was developed.
Western taste,
However,
Preferred the fully oxidized black tea,
And the leaves were allowed to ferment further.
Yellow tea was an accidental discovery in the production of green tea during the Ming dynasty,
When apparently sloppy practices allowed the leaves to turn yellow,
Which yielded a different flavor as a result.
Tea production in China historically was a laborious process conducted in distant and often poorly accessible regions.
This led to the rise of many apocryphal stories and legends surrounding the harvesting process.
For example,
One story that has been told for many years is that of a village where monkeys pick tea.
According to this legend,
The villagers stand below the monkeys and taunt them.
The monkeys in turn become angry and grab handfuls of tea leaves and throw them at the villagers.
There are products sold today that claim to be harvested in this manner,
But no reliable commentators have observed this firsthand,
And most doubt that it happened at all.
For many hundreds of years,
The commercially used tea tree has been,
In shape,
More of a bush than a tree.
Monkey pick tea is more likely a name of certain varieties than a description of how it was obtained.
In 1391,
The Hongwu Emperor issued a decree that only loose tea would be accepted as a tribute.
As a result,
Tea production shifted from cake tea to leaf tea,
And processing techniques advanced,
Giving rise to the more energy-efficient methods of pan-firing and sun-drying,
Which were popular in Jiangnan and Fujian,
Respectively.
The last group to adopt loose-leaf tea was the literati,
Who were reluctant to abandon their refined culture of whisking tea until the invention of oolong tea.
By the end of the 16th century,
Loose leaf tea had entirely replaced the earlier tradition of cake and powdered tea.
During the Sui dynasty in China,
Tea was introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks.
Tea use spread during the 6th century A.
D.
Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys sent to China to learn about its culture brought tea to Japan.
Ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by the priest named Saicho in 805,
And then by another named Kukai in 806.
It became a drink of the royal class when Emperor Saga encouraged the growth of tea plants.
Seeds were imported from China and cultivation in Japan began.
In 1191,
Zen priest Eisai introduced tea seeds to Kyoto.
Some of the tea seeds were given to the priest Myohe Shonin and became the basis of Uji tea.
The oldest tea specialty book in Japan,
Hisa Yojogi,
How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea,
Was written by Eisai.
The two-volume book was written in 1211,
After his second and last visit to China.
The first sentence states,
Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy,
And has the ability to make one's life more full and complete.
Aesai was also instrumental in introducing tea consumption to the warrior class,
Which rose to political prominence after the Heian period.
Green tea became a staple among cultured people in Japan,
A brew for the gentry and the Buddhist priesthood alike.
Production grew and tea became increasingly accessible,
Though still a privilege enjoyed mostly by the upper classes.
The tea ceremony of Japan was introduced from China in the 15th century by Buddhists as a semi-religious social custom.
The modern tea ceremony developed over several centuries by Zen Buddhist monks under the original guidance of the monk San-no-rikyu.
In fact,
Both the beverage and the ceremony surrounding it played a prominent role in feudal diplomacy.
In 1738,
Son Nagatani developed Japanese sencha,
Literally,
Simmered tea,
Which is an unfermented form of green tea.
It is the most popular form of tea in Japan today.
The name can be confusing because Sencha is no longer simmered.
While Sencha is currently prepared by steeping the leaves in hot water,
This was not always the case.
Sencha was originally prepared by casting the leaves into a cauldron and simmering briefly.
The liquid would then be ladled into bowls and served.
In 1835,
Kage Yamamoto developed gyokuro,
Literally jewel dew,
By shading tea trees during the weeks leading up to harvesting.
By the 20th century,
Machine manufacturing of green tea was introduced and began replacing handmade tea.
The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in 661 A.
D.
In which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro,
The founder of the Gumguan Keya kingdom.
Records from the Goryeo dynasty show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks.
During the Joseon dynasty,
The royal Yi family and the aristocracy used tea for simple rites.
The day tea ride was a common daytime ceremony,
Whereas the special tea ride was reserved for specific occasions.
Toward the end of the Joseon dynasty,
Commoners joined the trend and used tea for ancestral rites,
Following the Chinese example based on Zhu Qi's text Formalities of Family.
Stoneware was common,
Ceramic more frequent,
Mostly made in provincial kilns,
With porcelain rare,
Imperial porcelain with dragons the rarest.
The earliest kinds of tea used in tea ceremonies were heavily pressed cakes of black tea.
The equivalent of aged pu-erh tea in China.
However,
Importation of tea plants by Buddhist monks brought a more delicate series of teas into Korea and the tea ceremony.
Green tea,
Jakseol,
Or jungno,
Is most often served.
However,
Other teas,
Such as byeokseorong,
Cheonhwacheon,
Ujeon,
Okcheon,
As well as native chrysanthemum tea or mugwort tea,
May be served at different times of the year.
The earliest record of tea in a more Occidental writing is said to be found in the statement of an Arabian traveler,
That after 879,
The main sources of revenue in Canton were the duties on salt and tea.
Marco Polo records the deposition of a Chinese Minister of Finance in 1285 for his arbitrary augmentation of the tea taxes.
In 1557,
Portugal established a trading port in Macau,
And word of the Chinese drink cha spread quickly.
But there is no mention of them bringing any samples home.
In the early 17th century,
A ship of the Dutch East India Company brought the first green tea leaves to Amsterdam from China.
Tea was known in France by 1636.
It enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Paris around 1648.
The history of tea in Russia can also be traced back to the 17th century.
Tea was first offered by China as a gift to Tsar Michael I in 1618.
The Russian ambassador tried the drink.
He did not care for it and rejected the offer,
Delaying T's Russian introduction by 50 years.
By 1689,
Tea was regularly imported from China to Russia via a caravan of hundreds of camels traveling the year-long journey,
Making it a precarious commodity at the time.
T was appearing in German apothecaries by 1657,
But never gained much esteem except in coastal areas,
Such as Ostfriesland.
Tea first appeared publicly in mainland Britain during the 1650s,
Where it was introduced through coffee houses.
From there it was introduced to British colonies in America and elsewhere.
Tea taxation was a large issue.
In Britain,
Tea smuggling thrived until the repeal of tea's tax in 1785.
In Holland,
Tea drinkers had to pay for an annual license per person.
T was first introduced to Europe by Italian traveller Giovanni Battista Ramosio,
Who in 1555 published Voyages and Travels,
Containing the first European reference to T,
Which he calls Chai Khatai.
His accounts were based on second-hand reports in the polities of the Gulf of Aden,
Yemen,
And Somalia.
Portuguese priests and merchants in the 16th century made their first contact with tea in China,
At which time it was termed Cha.
The first Portuguese ships reached China in 1516,
And in 1560 Portuguese missionary Gaspar da Cruz published the first Portuguese account of Chinese tea.
In 1565 Portuguese missionary Louis Almeida published the first European account of tea in Japan.
Commercial production of tea was first introduced into India by the British in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea.
The British,
Using Chinese seeds plus Chinese planting and cultivating techniques,
Launched a tea industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate tea for export.
Tea was originally only consumed by Anglicized Indians.
It was not until the 1950s that tea grew widely popular in India through a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Porter.
Prior to the British,
The plant may have been used for medicinal purposes.
Some cite the Sanjeevani plant as the first recorded reference of tea used in India.
However,
Scientific studies have shown that the Sanjeevani plant is in fact a different plant and is not related to tea.
In a psalm there is evidence of pre-modern medicinal use of tea among the Singpho and Khamti tribes.
However,
Commercial production of tea in India did not begin until the arrival of the British East India Company,
At which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production.
India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century,
But was displaced by China as the top tea producer in the 21st century.
Indian tea companies have acquired a number of iconic foreign tea enterprises,
Including British brand Tetley.
Most of the Indian tea garden owners have focused on exports to markets like Europe and Russia,
While very few have focused on building their own brands,
Such as Macaibari,
Dharamsala Tea Company,
And a few others.
While India is the largest consumer of tea worldwide,
The per capita consumption of tea in India remains a modest 750 grams per person annually.
Recently,
Consumption of green tea has seen a great upsurge across the cities,
And regions such as Kangra,
Which were known for their green tea production historically,
Have seen a resurgence of their green teas in the domestic market.
Taiwan is famous for the making of oolong tea and green tea,
As well as many western-styled teas.
Bubble tea,
Or genju nai chad,
Is black tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk and tapioca.
Since the island was known to Westerners for many centuries as Formosa,
Short for the Portuguese Ilha Formosa,
Or Beautiful Island,
Tea grown in Taiwan is often identified by that name.
As an attempt to circumvent its dependence on Chinese tea,
The East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to China to purchase and bring out of China tea plants,
Which were then taken to India.
With the exception of a few plants which survived and established Indian gardens,
Most of the Chinese tea plant's fortune introduced in the northwestern provinces of India perished.
Due to the British preference and fashion for a strong dark tea brew,
Which was discovered to be best made from the native varieties of tea plant in India,
Assam subspecies,
It proved more important for the development of production there.
However,
The technology and knowledge that was brought from China was instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry in Assam and Sri Lanka.
From 1940 to 1952,
Tea was rationed,
But coffee was exempted.
The drinking of tea in the United States was largely influenced by the passage of the Tea Act and its subsequent protests during the American Revolution.
Tea consumption sharply decreased in America during and after the Revolution,
When many Americans switched from drinking tea to drinking coffee,
Considering tea drinking to be unpatriotic.
The American specialty tea market quadrupled in the years from 1993 to 2008,
Now being worth $6.
8 billion a year.
Specialty tea houses and retailers also started to pop up during this period.
