The History of Tea: Chinese Legend to Modern Favorite
While tea has only recently started to gain popularity in modern America, it has quite a storied past. Not much is known about the very beginnings of tea, other than that the Chinese were the first to drink it. Early Chinese writing credits emperor Shen Nung with the discovery of tea. Legend has it that he was enjoying a cup of hot water in his garden when a tea leaf happened to fall into his cup. This single leaf was apparently enough to flavor the water and the emperor was pleased by the aroma and taste of the steeped beverage. Tea drinking caught on all over China. Whether this story is completely factual or not is undetermined, but it is quite certain that the Chinese were the first to enjoy tea.
As Chinese culture, religion, and art entered Japan in the 500's, so did knowledge about tea. There the drink was popular because it supposedly possessed great medicinal values (a view that some still maintain today). In the 16th century, Arabs started to take notice of the Oriental drink; the fact that it was used as medicine arousing curiosity. Some attributed the typical long lives of the Japanese and Chinese to the fact that they consumed tea and others claimed it could cure a variety of ailments.
Soon after, Europeans became interested. Missionaries and religious men from Portugal and other countries reported back that tea was a valuable drink and also tasted good. These reports apparently roused desire in Europeans to try the substance and by 1600 the Dutch had sent a large fleet of ships to the Orient. Attempts to trade with China experienced setbacks due to the fact that many Dutchmen had red hair, a trait associated with devils in Chinese myth. For this reason, the Chinese called the Dutch "red devils," a fact that tended to limit their inclination toward trusting the Dutch. Facing this roadblock, the Dutch turned to Japan as a tea provider. In 1610, tea was first imported to Denmark at outrageous prices such that only the upper class could afford the drink.
As prices lowered, tea caught on in the rest of Europe and was considered quite fashionable. Still regarded mainly as a medicine, however, it raised controversy as to its benefits and/or detriments. While some doctors insisted tea was a cure-all, others were convinced that it would cause death in those that drank it regularly. The debates raged on as it continued gaining popularity, entering Germany and France. As tea became an established drink the fury died down. It became increasingly obvious that people were neither dying nor being miraculously healed as a result of drinking it.
At this same time, tea had been imported into England. The British, too, regarded it at first as a panacea. Also similar to mainland Europe, Scotland and England went through periods of tea controversy but by 1669, England had assumed a monopoly on Europe's tea importation, ousting the Dutch. By the time the 19th century rolled around, tea had become a symbol of England as British people took cues from the royalty and made tea drinking into a custom.
The British colonies established in North America also partook in tea drinking (as well as the Dutch colonies in the 1600's). After the famous Boston Tea Party and a string of related rebellious incidents in which patriots dumped British Tea into sea ports to avoid paying taxes to England, the popularity of tea in America took a sharp downward turn. After independence was gained, however, tea was brought in from Chinese trade and the drink has quietly gained popularity — today tea has made a bit of a comeback. Tea has a long history and is sure to continue making news for many generations to come.