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[Note: Interest in world teas as an adjunct to an adventurous, healthy lifestyle is increasing - especially among spa-goers. For this reason, further commentaries on tea (regional preferences and character, tea and health, expert preparation, etc.) will be featured in future issues. This article sweeps across 5 millenniums of the Kipling-like legacy of black and green teas and is the first in the series.]
Long ago (approx. 2700 BC) and far away, China lay under the rule of Emperor Shen Nung. According to record, Shen Nung was boiling water over an open fire in the royal garden when, as fate would have it, a few leaves from a nearby Camellia sinensis tree fell into the pot. Shen Nung sampled the infusion, liked it, and WA-LAH!!! - tea was discovered . . . green tea, to be exact. The more traditional oxidized (black) tea evolved from many cultures over the next 3000 years.
Continuing the chronology...
600-800 AD: Tea becomes popular in China. 13th century: First account of the tea ceremony in Japan. Early 17th century: Tea-drinking catches on in England. 1773: Boston Tea Party. This event precipitated the eventual downfall of the British-owned East India Tea Company monopoly. Early 19th century: India becomes one of the top four tea-producing countries. The popularity of its flagship Assam variety grows rapidly. Early 19th century: Earl Charles Grey, Prime Minister of England develops a uniquely flavorful black tea by adding a dash of bergamot (acidic orange). Today, the best Earl Grey teas use distinctive varieties Chinese black tea, like Keemum, seasoned with a small amount of Italian bergamot. Early 19th century: Billycan tea (tea prepared in a "billy", i.e. a long outdoor cylindrical cooking pot) becomes a campfire tradition in the Australian outback. 1866: The Great Tea Race, from China to London, spanned a distance of over 14,000 miles. The winner was anyone's guess as the battle for lead position changed daily. At the finish line, the dozens of participating ships finished within a scant 25 minutes of each other. 1904: Richard Blechynden, an English tea executive, found himself in the middle of a heat wave at the World Trade Fair in St. Louis. In an attempt to cool off, Blechynden poured hot brewed tea over ice that (surprise!) was the serendipitous discovery of iced tea. In the U.S. today, it is estimated that 80% of all tea consumed is iced. 1904: Tom Sullivan, a New York importer, had been providing tea samples for potential customers in expensive engraved metal containers. To save money, Sullivan bought yards of silk and hired local seamstresses to sew silk pillows around samples of tea. Fully expecting sales prospects to cut open the silk and pour the tea leaves in hot water, Sullivan was unexpectedly surprised by the flood of orders for tea in the pillow. His silk pillows were the primitive beginning of the now popular teabags.
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