Thomas Lipton begins blending and packaging his tea in New York. Black tea (Bohea) (Wu-i) passes green tea in popularity in England, with sugar and milk becoming popular additives early on. The Legendary Origins According to Chinese mythology, tea was discovered in 2737 BC by Shen Nong, also known as Yan Di or Shen Nong Shi – (2,852-2737 B.C. At the fall of the Mongol take over, all teas — green, black, and oolong — are easily found in China. Caravans carried tea on the Silk Road, trading with India, Turkey, and Russia. During Queen Anne's reign, tea drinking thrives in British coffeehouses. Clipper ships are outdated by the development of faster steamers. Mrs Florence Philips, a tea planter’s wife smuggled a box of tea seeds out of India and these were planed in Chipinge (Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe): led to the development of the tea industry in the then colony. And those people of Cathay do say if in our part of the world, in Persia, and the country of the Franks, people only knew of it, there is no doubt that the merchants would cease altogether to buy rhubarb.”. The first teapots begin to appear – people didn’t have to prepare tea one cup at a time. The Suez Canal opens, shortening the trip to China and making steamships more economical. Today, the ancient beverage is widely consumed and has become apart of modern life. Ethical (?!) First attempt at tea cultivation in the United States. Thomas Lipton buys tea estates in Ceylon, in order to sell tea at a reasonable price at his growing chain of 300 grocery stores. This will eventually lead to widespread smuggling. It was initially used as medicine in ancient China, where people chewed on fresh leaves for their refreshing and invigorating effect before they learned to brew it in water … Europeans learn about tea when a Venetian author credits the lengthy lives of Asians to their tea drinking. The Marquise Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de Sévigné, is recorded to have added milk to her tea. East India Company started tea production in Nepal. A Chinese dictionary cites tea for the first time as Erh Ya. The history of tea is long and complex, spreading across multiple cultures over the span of thousands of years. Opium trade was legalized and China had to pay silver to the winners. “Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.” - Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1862). The history of tea started from China and it spread to various parts of world. The first Indian tea bushes are “discovered” growing wild in the Assam region of India by British Army Major Robert Bruce. A small amount is sent to England and quickly purchased due to its uniqueness. Japan's shogun Yoshimasa encourages tea ceremonies, painting, and drama. The commercialization of tea in the late 1880’s would afford no time to be romantic about the leaf, and so, a timely discovery of the “tea bag” was praised by many. The government also established tea nurseries during that period. Dutch East India Company market tea. Revolution Tea is founded on the idea of bringing premium, full-leaf teas to consumers. Tea's status elevates to an art form and almost a religion. The English East India Company brings the gift of tea to the British king and queen. This is called by those people Chai Catai, and grows in the district of Cathay which is called Cacian-fu [Szechwan]…, They take of that herb, whether dry or fresh, and boil it well in water. But the history of tea is fascinating, and in this section we can follow its story from the earliest times in Imperial China right up to its present place at the heart of British life. Hartford and Gilman buy whole clipper shipments from the New York harbor and sell the tea 1/3 cheaper than other merchants. Tea is brought to Canada by the Hudson Bay Company. Now viewed as a valuable commodity, the first Chinese teas are sold at auctions in Europe. Japanese tea master Sen-no Rikyu opens the first independent teahouse and evolves the tea ceremony into its current simple and aesthetic ritual. The Chinese plant did not thrive however, and was later supplanted by the hardier Assam variety. The British introduced tea production, a… The Trade Treaty of Newchinsk establishes a common border between China and Russia, allowing trade caravans to cross freely. Mongolia takes over China and since the Emperor of Mongol isn't a "tea guy," tea drinking dies down in the courts and among the aristocracy. Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, who introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan, brings tea seeds from China and plants them around his Kyoto temple. Persian traveler Chaggi Memet (Haji Mohamed): “He told me that all over Cathay they made use of another plant or rather of its leaves. Tea likely originated in the Yunnan region during the Shang dynasty as a medicinal drink. Tea bags are successfully marketed. Thomas Johnstone Lipton opens his first shop in Glasgow, using American merchandising methods he learned working in the grocery section of a New York department store. The Massachusetts colony is known to drink black tea. The History of Tea – A Complete Tea Timeline The Origin of Tea - Some 5,000 years ago the “tea leaf” was discovered … a beautiful gift from nature that nurtured both the body and soul. Thomas Twining serves up tea at Tom's Coffee House in London. Nations have defined themselves by the tea trade and culturally by their tea ceremonies. Over 90 percent of Britain's tea is still imported from China. Tea catches on in the Dutch court. First Opium War, was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking, China lost the Hong Kong island to the United Kingdom, and UK also established five treaty ports at Shanghai, Canton, Ningpo, Fuchow, and Amoy. Tea parties become quite trendy among women across the social classes. Tea sold at Garaway’s Coffee House, London. Rediscovery and an entrepreneurial willingness to overthrow conventional wisdom, Revolution Tea restored the experience with a modern packaging method that could actually produce a tea bag using full-leaf tea. ), a collection of first-hand accounts of travels by famous explorers incl. The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan (although some argue it was from China). For the first time tea is made publicly available at Thomas Garaway’s Coffee House in London. Anna the Duchess of Bedford introduces afternoon tea, which becomes a lasting English ritual. But that which before all they delight to drink is water almost boiling, mingled with the powdered chia.”. “There wa… Tea is the common name of the Camellia sinensis plant which possesses cooling and astringent flavor. 1601, English East India Company founded. Samples of indigenous Indian tea plants are sent to an East India Company botanist who is slowly convinced that they are bona fide tea plants. And flew to a fairy mansion, England’s first tax on tea, levied at 8 pence for every gallon of tea sold at the coffeehouses. They would eventually break England’s tea monopoly with their faster sailing ships, and they paid gold, not Opium for tea. Twinings of England begins to blend tea for uniformity. Tea is introduced to Russia, when the Chinese embassy visits Moscow, bringing a chest of tea as a gift for the Czar Alexis. After several British attempts to end the taxation protests, the American Revolution begins. Chinese Tea has existed more than 5000 thousand years. One summer day while visiting a distant region, he and the court stopped to rest, and his se… The popularity of tea wanes in France, in favor of coffee, wine and chocolate. English Quaker John Horniman introduces the first retail tea in sealed, lead-lined packages. Ceylon's successful coffee market turns into a successful tea market. A German physician touts a warning about the dangers of tea drinking. 11 million pounds of tea are brought into England. Annual tea importation to England tops 800,000 pounds. From the historical annal “Yianzhi Chunchiu”: the prime minister of Chi (547 B.C.–490 B.C.) Tea is planted in Malawi, and becomes the first to be cultivated in Africa. Producing two-million tea bags a day from a single machine required the tea leaf to be crushed and replaced by a lower grade referred to as fannings and dust. Reddit. Nobility made tea a popular pastime. 700’s Tea became popular medicine during the Tang Dynasty Period. The second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when tea leaves blow into his cup of hot water (or so the story goes). The “tea heretics” (doctors and university authorities) of Holland argue over the positive and negative effects of tea, while the Dutch continue to enjoy their newfound beverage. Although there are several tea vendors that claim to have been the first to create this now world-famous drink, the most credible is Liu Han-Chieh of Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Taichung. ), the second of the three Chinese Emperors of the San Huang Period, (3,000 – 2,700 B.C.). The tea story started in China around 2750 BC. Tea drinking becomes a popular pastime in Europe, as a result of a craze for anything Oriental. The grandson of Thomas Twinning persuades the Prime Minister William Pitt to drop the high taxes on tea, not only eliminating smuggling, but making tea an affordable luxury to Brits of all walks of life. In a marketing effort to capitalize on the transcontinental rail link fervor, the Great American Tea Company is renamed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. A certain tea merchant had planned to give away samples of his tea to the fair-goers, and when unable to think of anything else to do when a heat wave threatened his plans, he dumped ice into his hot tea. During this ceremony, one takes a garden path into a portico, enters upon hearing the host's gong, washes in a special room, and then enters a small tearoom that holds a painting or flower arrangement to gaze upon. In 1600 Queen Elizabeth I gave a charter to the East India Trading company, a compnay that would help shape the history of tea and play a part in the world's history as well. You have it twice a day and though the expense is considerable, the humblest peasant has his tea just like the rich man.”, The American Revolution is over, and America begins to trade directly with China. England begins to trade directly with China. A New York tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan packages his samples of tea in silk sachets, as a way to cut down on his costs. By mid-1941 supplies from the Dutch East Indies, then occupied by Japan, India and Ceylon were interrupted by the war. Cutty Sark clipper built – the last merchant ship to be so built. Italian Jesuit writer Giovanni Pietro (John Peter) Maffei writes: Historica Indica in Rome, talking about tea drinking in Japan, with the soundbyte: “The Japanese have as yet no use for grapes, but they make a kind of wine from rice. Tea rationing was formally introduced in late February 1942 and by July a coupon system had been arranged. First created by a Zen priest named Murata Shuko, the ceremony is called Cha-no-yu, literally meaning "hot water tea" and celebrates the mundane aspects of everyday life. Drinking powdered and frothed tea or tea scented with flowers is widespread in China while earlier flavorings fall by the wayside. Not long after, tea drinking becomes very fashionable among the aristocracy of England, although the debate continues as to its medicinal value or harm. Tea with milk is mentioned in Madam de Sévigné's letters. The Duchess of York introduces tea to Scotland. After all, what good was iced tea in the winter time? The Japanese Buddhist saint and priest Saicho and the monk Kobo Daishi bring tea seeds and cultivation and manufacturing tips back from China and plant gardens in the Japanese temples. In one of her famous letters to her daughter she reminds her to offer milk with the tea when entertaining guests. Gold stolen from the South Americans…. The following information provides further information on the colorful origins and history of tea. Thomas J Lipton Co. is established as a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hoboken, New Jersey. A new British Sale of Food and Drugs Law calls adulteration hazardous to personal health and increases its legal consequences to a heavy fine or imprisonment. British workers are given tea breaks throughout the day as this is thought to improve their productivity. Tea drinking becomes prevalent among the masses in Japan. The first “iced tea” was served at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The process of steeping whole tea leaves in cups or teapots becomes popular. English tea drinking hits a rate of 2 pounds per capita annually, a rate that increases by five times over the next 10 years. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by Hua Tuo. The first tea plants, imports from China and India, are cultivated on a trial basis in Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The Trans-Siberian Railroad is completed, ending camel caravan trade between Russia and China. Tea in Japan is rare and expensive, enjoyed mostly by high priests and the aristocracy. The British are ecstatic as this means that they are now able to successfully grow their own tea, in India. Scotsman James Taylor, manager of a coffee plantation in Ceylon, Sri Lanka, experiments with growing tea, planting both the China and India seed. A Dutch trader introduces tea to the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (a small settlement in North America). Now called Kuang Ya in the Chinese dictionary, tea and its detailed infusion and preparation steps are defined. Tea is planted in and about Darjeeling, India. The Boston Tea Party occurs when American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians push 342 chests of tea overboard, to protest taxes on tea. teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, Complete English translation with translator’s notes. So, in an attempt to summarize two millennia of tea-based history a colleague of mine and I have put together a timeline of major events from the supposed original cuppa to the state of the British tea industry today – with not a little violence, greed, and fury thrown in for good measure. His edicts required that all drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution. The first Russians to be recorded as tasting tea were Ivan Petrov and Vasili Tumenets, Cossacks, dispatched by Tsar Michael the 1st as envoys to create trade with China. This movement eventually inspired the word “teetotaling”. British soldiers are given tea as part of their rations. By clicking enter you are verifying that you are old enough to consume alcohol. New York tea importer Thomas Sullivan inadvertently invents tea bags when he sends tea to clients in small silk bags and they mistakenly steep the bags whole. 206 B.C.–220 C.E. The tale begins in the early 1820s, barely five years after the surrender of Kandy, the last surviving indigenously-ruled state in Ceylon, to the British crown. The Dutch East India Company markets tea as an exotic medicinal drink, but it's so expensive only the aristocracy can afford the tea and its serving pieces. Thomas Twinning converts his coffeehouse to the first teashop “The Golden Lyon”, which becomes the first place for women to meet and socialize in public. The Japanese tea ceremony emerges onto the scene. Jacobsen), who smuggled both the seeds and teamen out of China. Russian tea-drinking customs emerge, which entail using tea concentrate, adding hot water, topping it with a lemon, and drinking it through a lump of sugar held between the teeth. 1929: The first tea plantation was established in Malaysia during the British colonisation, in Cameron Highlands. Zen Buddhism catches on in Japan via China and along come tea-drinking temple rituals. Marco Polo, Magellan, Alvar Nunez Cabeza, Niccolo Da Conti et al., containing the first mention of tea in Euro lit. 图赞 compiled by Shenan, 审安老人. It thrives over the earlier planted China variety. Tea is introduced to England by the Dutch East India Company. An alternative theory is that the original shape may have come from Islamic coffee pots. They begin to trade opium, (which they could grow cheaply in India) with the Chinese for tea. The Boston Tea Party was a protest that took place in Boston during the American Revolution. The first tea from Indian soil and imported Chinese tea plants is sold. Italian Venetian geographer Giambattista (Giovanni Battista) Ramusio (1485-1557) writes Navigatione et Viaggi (Voyages and Travels) (3 vols. While boiling water in the garden, a leaf from an overhanging wild tea tree drifted into his pot. He even holds tea-tasting tournaments in the court. The John Company and the East India Company merge, forming the New East India Company. Tea production began in the Azores, Portugal. Alternatively use it as a simple call to action with a link to a product or a page. The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York. Tea bags were developed for commercial production, initially from gauze and then later from paper. Chinese ambassadors present the Russian Czar Alexis with many chests of tea, which are refused as useless. Tea likely originated in China during the Shang dynasty as a medicinal drink. Tea planting in the Indian district of Darjeeling had begun Dr. Campbell, a civil surgeon of the Indian Medical Service. Tea was successfully marketed in Russia, when a Mongolian ruler donated to Tsar Michael I four poods (65–70 kg) of tea. The English begin to make and use silver teapots. The tale begins in the early 1820s, barely five years after the surrender of Kandy, the last surviving indigenously-ruled state in Ceylon, to the British crown. He was a scholar, the father of agriculture and the inventor of Chinese herbal medicine. Before the indigenous Assam tea plants are identified, British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, hired by the East India Company, suggests that India grow, plant and cultivate imported Chinese tea. It is believed that the teapot originally derived its shape from the wine ewers and ceramic kettles that came from China when tea was originally shipped to Europe in the 17th century. While tea has an impressive history stretching back 5,000 years, iced tea has a history stretching back only as far as the discovery of preserving ice. England imports an annual average 240,000 pounds of tea. England imposes high taxes on tea and other items sent to the American colonists. The debate over tea's health benefits versus detriments heightens when a Dutch doctor praises its curative side while French and German doctors call out its harmful side. In the 18th century, tea had heavy import duties, consumption was limited to the higher classes. Anna the 7th Duchess of Bedford invents “Afternoon Tea” to abolish the “sinking feeling” she experienced during the long gap between breakfast and dinner. It first became known to western civilization through Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the early 16th century. They were invited to dinner by Altin Khan after he received gifts sent by the Tsar. In Holland, tea is widely available for purchase in common food shops. ... 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