It’s Tea Time!

Despite all the liquid refreshments in the world, from sodas to juices; coffee to alcohol, tea is the second most-consumed beverage after water. Tea is savored in over 50 countries but is only produced in four countries; China, India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya. All Tea comes from a tea plant called Camellia sinensis. From that plant, there can only be six types of tea, Black tea, green tea, dark tea, oolong, yellow tea, and white tea. As tea became popular and spread across the world, every society has formed its own tea cultures or adapted a tea culture from another country. Since its first discovery until now, Tea has changed in production, use, and representation, specifically in the United Kingdom and China.

The way people consumed tea is unlike the way people consume tea today.  Before tea was an everyday fashionable beverage, it was an herb, eaten as a form of medicine. Tea was discovered by Emperor Shen Nong in southwest China about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Shen Nong was known as a ‘divine farmer” who studied herbs and was very knowledgeable about medicine. One day, Shen Nong accidentally intoxicated himself with 72 different herbs, but before the plants could kill him a tea leaf flew in his mouth. Shen Nong chewed on the leaf and was cured. As stated in the book Tea: Bio-activity and Therapeutic Potential, “tea was taken as a medicine to detoxify or cure diseases.” Every since that finding, tea in China has been symbolized as a sense of health and medicine. Chinese tea was eaten, rather than drank, and sometimes cooked. Tea shifted from food to beverage during the Zhou Dynasty in 1132 B.C. The first tea beverage was a mere tea leaf placed in a cup of water. As time passes the way a cup of tea will transform.

Before tea was brought to England it spread to Japan. It is believed that a Japanese monk in the 9th century, after visiting China, brought a tea plant from China, over to Japan, thus introducing tea to Japan. According to the Journal of the Society of Arts by Richard Bannister, Japanese tea was first made by removing the tea leaves off the plant, then quickly dip them into hot water, next to let them dry in the sun and finally crushing. The grounded leaf served with a boiling cup of water created a popular tea called Matcha. The tea culture in Japan is considered a form of art or a skill. It wasn’t long before tea became a popular drink in Japan and by the 14th, it had become Japan’s “national beverage”. Shortly after in the late 1500s, Tea was introduced to many European and Asia countries but it was extremely popular in Portugal. In 1606 the first imported tea was brought into the Netherlands. And by the 1650s, the Dutch had presented tea to the United Kingdom.

Like Japan, Tea is tea considered the “national beverage” of England. In the early 1700s, tea consumption was dominated mainly by men, in public, and also by the upper-class citizens. Tea was a symbol of wealth and power among the fortunate. However, by the late 1800s, the meaning of tea had completely changed. According to Julie E. Former’s Deeply Indebted to the Tea Plant, “tea became an icon of English domesticity and was associated with privacy, intimacy, and the nuclear family” and was now enjoyed by the whole British community. One of the main reasons for that shift was the impeccable sensation tea gave the drinkers of England. The English began to notice the effects of tea on the body. They noticed that it decreased tension in the nerves, stomach and stimulated the body. This effect made the English people more like the perfect English citizen, “ social(ly) charm(ing)” with “personal grace” and the ability to have “a lively but polite discourse.” Tea symbolizes relaxation and peace in English society.

Out of all the tea culture that has risen, The United Kingdom’s way of making tea is the farthest from how tea was originally made. The United Kingdom has three-time frames where it is dedicated to tea time, afternoon tea, tea breaks, and high tea but the most popular is Afternoon Tea. Afternoon Tea began in the 1840s with Anna the Dutchess of Bedford (The UK is now supplied by India for Tea; India has a cool climate similar to China’s and its cheaper for the British, being India is a British territory). Dinner was served late in the evening, Anna became hungry and would often have tea with small baked dishes on the side. She would invite other wealthy people to enjoy a cup of tea with her. Afternoon tea is typically between the hours of 2 pm and 4 pm and lasts for about two hours. Based on an essay by Zi Wang “A Comparison of Chinese and British Tea Culture”, High Tea is  “for the working and farming communities… to take the place of dinner when a proper hot meal could not be afforded”, and it can be served from 5 pm-7 pm. Tea breaks are for workers who start the day at around 5 or 6 am to break the fast from the night before. As stated in the “A Comparison of Chinese and British Tea Culture”, “Instead of drinking pure tea, Britons have added milk, sugar, fruit, flowers and even spice to tea.” The tea is poured in a silver teapot and later distributed in china cups. Along with those added ingredients to the tea, on the side, are cakes and pastries to aid complete the UK’s tea custom.

When it comes to making a cup of tea, the United Kingdom’s primary focus is on taste and flavor. Chinese tea culture is focused on the pureness of the tea (no added milk, sugar, etc), just the tea leaf and water. Due to the fact that the Camellia sinensis plant actually grows in China, picking and preparing the leaves as become a skill in the Chinese Tea culture. As the tea leaf is ready to be picked, it was only picked at a certain time, in a certain way. Chinese tea growers believed that the perfect time to pick the leaves was during the Waking of Insects and Pure Brightness. The leaves were picked by women with nails of the finger and not the actual fingers “so that its quality is not affected the hand’s temperature.”(Wang,3) After the tea leave is thoroughly rinsed it is processed into one of the four; weak tea, loose tea, tea dust, and tea cakes.  The best water to drink tea is mountains or river water. It is also apart of Chinese Tea culture to be near some kind of “elegant environment” for example “in bamboo groves on mountains, in ancient temples and small pavilions, or in one’s own garden”(Wang,3) appreciating what nature has to offer.

After over 5,000 years of tea drinking, it is still one of the favored beverages in the world. With different tea cultures and customs across the world, People could enjoy their cup of tea with anyone of their cultures. For instance, in The United Kingdom where tea is served with milk and sugar, in China where tea is as simple as the tea leaf and mountain water and in Japan where the tea leaves are grounded then placed in water. Today packaged teabags are very popular but the development of tea will countries to expand, and eventually lead to the consumption of tea in all 195 countries in the world.

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