The History of Tea

Like many great inventions, tea happened by accident.

Legend has it that in 2737 BC, Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, a man of science and scholar by all accounts, sat beneath a tea tree while his servant boiled water for drinking. As fate would have it, some dried leaves from the tea tree fell into the water...and the rest, as they say, is history!

Tea became China's national drink during the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 AD). In 780 AD, Chinese Author Lu Yu wrote Ch'a Ching, a comprehensive tome on tea and its making and drinking. Included in the books are illustrations of tea-making utensils- and some theorize that it was these books that inspired Buddhist priests to create the Japanese tea ceremony.

The Portugese and Dutch claim to be responsible for first bringing tea to Europe, with Portugese Jesuit priests bringing it back to Portugal on ships as early as 1515. In 1610, there was a regular shipment of tea to ports in Holland, the Baltic Coast and France- and in the mid to late 17th century, the English joined in via the East India Company.