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“Not for All the Tea in China!”

THE course of history was changed by it. The mightiest trading company of its time was founded on it. Dutch sailors traveled thousands of miles looking for it. After water, it is the world’s favorite drink. What is it? Tea!

Have you ever wondered how tea gained such popularity? Where did it come from? Like countless other innovations, it originated in China. Some 500 years before the Common Era, Confucius alluded to tea in one of his poems. History tells of a Chinese emperor who, 300 years later, replenished empty coffers with a tax on tea.

Although there is no shortage of legends to explain its origin, we probably will never know how tea was really discovered. One story connects it with Emperor Shen Nung, who drank only boiled water when traveling around the country. Once a branch of a burning brush was blown into the already bubbling water. Much to his surprise, the emperor noted a most pleasant taste and a beautiful aroma in the new beverage. His discovery was tea!

According to a second legend, one of the Buddha’s disciples, a certain Bodhidharma, believed that true sainthood could be attained only by constant meditation, day and night. During one of his long vigils, sleep finally conquered him. That he might not succumb a second time to so base a human weakness, he cut off his eyelids. These fell to the ground and miraculously started to sprout. The next day a green shrub appeared. He tried the leaves and found them deliciously refreshing. Of course, it was the tea plant.

Tea Conquers the Far East

It was not long until tea conquered Japan. It was taken there by Chinese Buddhist monks, who arrived sometime during the ninth century with the ‘teapot in their knapsack.’ Soon, tea was such a favorite among Japanese that 400 years later, a “highly formalized ritual” of preparing and serving tea, called chanoyu, became a national institution.

However, while the Japanese were elaborating a meticulous tea-drinking ceremony, tea in China was hardly palatable. Even though Chinese poets hailed tea as a “froth of fluid jade,” it was often more like a soup. Green tea leaves boiled in salt water and sometimes flavored with ginger and cinnamon or even onions, and other times brewed with milk and even rice, were the more common recipes of the time.

Yet, it was a Chinese who wrote the first book dedicated to tea making. Around 780 C.E., Lu Yu published Tscha-King (Book of Tea), which soon became the tea bible for Far Eastern tea lovers. Influenced by this man of letters, China began to refine its tea habits, preparing the beverage in a more subtle, and yet simple, way: Plain boiled water with at most a pinch of salt​—as the sole concession to the long-cherished ancient recipes—​was poured over dried tea leaves. Lu Yu observed that whether tea is good or not depends largely on its aroma. He recognized that its flavor and quality are determined not only by the tea plant itself but even more so, as in the case of wine, by such factors as soil and climate. That explains why he could say that there are “a thousand and ten thousand” teas.

Soon the Chinese started to blend teas, and hundreds of different sorts were marketed. Not surprisingly, the country that gave tea to the world also gave it its universal name: It is from a Chinese character in the Amoy Chinese dialect.

Europe Discovers Tea

It took a long time for Europeans to discover their taste for tea. Even though Marco Polo (1254-1324), a Venetian merchant and adventurer, widely toured China, he mentioned tea but once in his travel reports. He told of a Chinese finance minister who was dismissed because he had arbitrarily increased the tea tax. Some 200 years later, another Venetian, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, gave Europe its first detailed description of tea production and usage. Thus, at the beginning of the 17th century, the first samples of this exotic new beverage were sold in European pharmacies, fetching initially the price of gold. Little wonder the originally Australian expression “Not for all the tea in China!” means​—“Certainly not!”

In the meantime, the Dutch had started trading with the Far East, tea being one of their more exotic imports. An enterprising merchant, Johan Nieuhof, reports about his interminable negotiations with Chinese mandarins, which were usually crowned by a banquet at which a beverage was served. He disparagingly called this drink a “bean soup.” After describing how it is prepared and that it is “supped as hot as you can bear it,” he added that the “Chinese treasure this beverage as much as the alchemists their Lapidum Philosophorum . . . that is, the philosopher’s stone.” Yet, he also praised tea as an effective, though expensive, remedy for all sorts of ailments.

The Cup That Cheers the British

Even though the British are the most avid tea drinkers today, both the Dutch and the Portuguese helped to convert them to tea. It is believed that Jews, who had been invited back to England by Oliver Cromwell from their exile in Amsterdam, brought tea along with them. September 23, 1658, proved to be a memorable tea date. It was the first time that a tea advertisement appeared in an English newspaper. The Mercurius Politicus announced that a beverage that the Chinese call tchan but that other people call tea was to be sold in the Sultan’s Head, a London City coffeehouse. Three years later, the English king Charles II married a tea connoisseur, Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, who introduced teatime to the English court. That established a victory over alcoholic drinks, which were reportedly being sipped “in the morning, at noon, in the evening,” by both lords and ladies. Suddenly, tea had become the fashionable beverage.

Though produced thousands of miles away, tea was brought to London in ever greater quantities. In time the East India Company acquired exclusive tea trading rights in China, monopolizing trade with the Far East for some 200 years. Most of Europe began to drink tea, although France was not converted to the new beverage.

Tea, Taxes, and Wars

Tea was a windfall for hard-pressed governments. At first a tax was levied daily on the actual quantity of tea drunk in London coffeehouses. This laborious procedure was abolished in 1689, when a duty was charged on each pound of dry tea leaves. Taxes of up to 90 percent and the rising demand led to a burgeoning smuggling business along the English south coast, for tea was so much cheaper on the Continent. Even ersatz teas were produced. Used tea leaves were treated with molasses and clay​—supposedly to restore the original color of tea—​and then dried and sold again. One “adulterator” produced what was called “smouch,” a vile-smelling concoction of ash leaves dried and steeped in sheep’s dung, which was then mixed with real tea before sale!

Tea even changed the course of history. A threepence-per-pound tea tax triggered the American War of Independence. Angry Bostonians denounced this “trivial but tyrannic” tax. The irate colonists, some disguised as native Americans (Indians), stormed the decks of three East Indiamen moored in the harbor, split open the tea chests, and threw the entire cargo overboard. From this arose the expression “Boston Tea Party.” The rest is history.

Another war was fought over tea, the Opium War. China had been paid in silver for its tea exports, since there was no demand for European goods. Opium, however, was a much coveted​—though prohibited—​commodity. The East India Company was quick to meet that demand by trading opium for tea. The unscrupulous company farmed opium poppies in eastern India to supply the huge Chinese market. For some ten years this illegal trade continued, amply furnishing the countless opium dens, until it was finally curtailed by the Chinese government. After some skirmishes between the British and the Chinese over this issue, war broke out that ended in a humiliating defeat for the Chinese in 1842. Tea was exported again to England, and China was forced to accept opium imports.

Why Not Have a Cup of Tea?

Early in tea’s history, it was recognized that tea had a stimulating effect, largely due to its caffeine content. Tea was at first sold in pharmacies and was considered a cure-all for infirmities as varied as dropsy and scurvy. It was also taken as a useful remedy for lack of appetite as well as for overeating. Today, tea is known to contain several of the B-complex vitamins. However, it also increases caffeine intake. Furthermore, in calorie-conscious Western society, it is worth remembering that a cup of tea has just four calories if taken without milk and sugar.

Tea deteriorates easily. It cannot be stockpiled for longer than a few months. And above all, it has to be stored properly. Never keep it together with other herbs or, even worse, with spices. Tea easily absorbs the taste of anything stored alongside it, so much so that British tea-plantation managers of the past century had their tea pluckers take a shower every time they went to work!

By the way, iced tea can be delicious too. During the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, an Englishman couldn’t sell his steaming hot tea to the already perspiring visitors. So he just poured it over ice, and America’s refreshing summer beverage was born.

The British take their tea with milk, Frisians in northern Germany enjoy it with white rock candy and a topping of cream, Moroccans flavor it with mint, while Tibetans add salt and yak butter to it. Yet, many tea lovers adhere to old Lu Yu’s suggestion and prepare tea with fresh boiling mountain water, wherever that is still available.

After reading so much about tea, do you feel thirsty? Why not have a nice cup of tea right now?

[Box on page 15]

“Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?​—how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.”​—Sydney Smith (1771-1845), English writer

[Box/​Picture on page 18]

From the Plantation to the Teapot

There are hundreds of different tea plants today, all of them hybrids of three main varieties. Tea fields are usually found in mountainous areas where the rainwater can drain off. The largest tea-growing region today is Assam, in the northern Indian province of the same name. Yet, the “champagne” of teas is said to come from Darjeeling, in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains. The rainy climate and acid soil work together to produce one of the finest teas, converting Darjeeling into the “promised land” of tea.

In Darjeeling the crop is seasonal, and tea pluckers are busy in March and April collecting the first flush, which will become a highly esteemed, subtly flavored tea. The second flush, plucked during the summer, is a full-bodied amber-colored tea, while the bread-and-butter teas are harvested later on in autumn. Elsewhere the plucking is done all year round at intervals of from just a few days to some weeks. The younger and softer the shoots, the better the tea will be. Plucking requires much skill and care. After all, some 30,000 shoots give but 13 pounds [6 kg] of Darjeeling tea, the day’s work of a skilled plucker. But what is harvested is not yet tea.

Now, a four-stage manufacturing process begins. First of all, the young green shoots need to wither so as to lose some 30 percent of their moisture and become soft and smooth like leather. Then they are ready to be rolled, the following stage. Through rolling, the cell walls of the leaves are broken open, releasing the natural juices that give tea its distinctive flavor. During the third stage, tea leaves change from yellowish green to their characteristic copper-brown color. This process is called fermentation. The broken leaves are spread on tables in a humid atmosphere and start to ferment. Now the leaves must be dried, or fired. This process turns the leaves black, and only when you pour hot water over them will they become copper brown in color again.

Finally, the dried leaves are sorted and packed into plywood chests lined with rice paper and aluminum foil, ready to be shipped to traders throughout the world. Then, after mixing and blending, the tea is ready to be brewed in your teapot.

[Picture on page 14]

Chinese weighing tea

[Pictures on page 16, 17]

Tea factory, Sikkim, India​—Right

Tea plucking in India​—Far right

Tea plantation in Sri Lanka​—Lower right

Tea-plant leaves and flowers​—Center

Japanese tea pluckers​—Lower left