The Birthplace & History of Tea

3 MIN READ JULY 30, 2022

Alongside water and coffee, tea is one of the three most consumed beverages in the world, delighting those who enjoy it across the globe. But while the drink is ubiquitous today, its history boils down to one accidental cup consumed nearly five millennia ago. Read on to discover the birthplace and history of tea.

In the year 2737 B.C., the mythical Chinese emperor Shen Nung is said to have been waiting beneath a tree for his servant to boil a cup of hot water for drinking when a breeze blew some leaves into the water. The emperor, also viewed by many as the father of Chinese agriculture, decided to drink the water anyway, and the concept of tea as we know it was born.

Tea is made from the leaves and buds of the camellia sinensis, a flowering evergreen shrub thought to be indigenous to China. Today, all black, green, white, and oolong tea is made with this key ingredient, while herbal tisanes (casually called “herbal teas”) are made from other botanical sources, from herbs and flowers to berries and seeds. Legend has it that the leaves in the emperor’s water that fateful day blew in from the nearest camellia sinensis plant, and thus, Shen Nung became the world’s first tea drinker.

HOW TEA BECAME POPULAR

Tea is made from the leaves and buds of the camellia sinensis, a flowering evergreen shrub thought to be indigenous to China. Today, all black, green, white, and oolong tea is made with this key ingredient, while herbal tisanes (casually called “herbal teas”) are made from other botanical sources, from herbs and flowers to berries and seeds. Legend has it that the leaves in the emperor’s water that fateful day blew in from the nearest camellia sinensis plant, and thus, Shen Nung became the world’s first tea drinker.

Tang dynasty style tea ceremony

By the end of the Tang dynasty’s three-century reign in 906 AD, the act of drinking tea had become a common pastime across China, where the leaves were steamed and packed into brick-like cakes for easy transport and trading. Near the turn of the 13th century, a Japanese priest named Myoan Eisai – now considered the founder of Zen Buddhism – took a trip to China and, as the story goes, returned home with tea seeds which he soon planted in Japanese soil. Years later, he wrote his own book about tea and gave it to a samurai general as a gift, sparking local interest in the mysterious beverage.

Tea brick-like cakes for easy transport and trading

Over the decades that followed, tea became embedded in Japanese social and ceremonial life. Historical sources describe tea as a drink associated with balance, discipline, hospitality, and traditional ideas about health. Those historical beliefs are part of tea culture, but they should not be read as modern medical claims. Tea ceremonies were restricted at different points in Japanese history, and ritualized matcha preparation remains an important cultural tradition today.

Samurai warriors gather together to drink tea

TEA FOR TWO

Tea was largely Asia’s secret until the 17th century, when it began making its way to Europe via Dutch and Portuguese trade routes. A trading post was set up on the isle of Java in 1606 and the first transcontinental tea voyage took place between China and Europe, soon after which tea became all the rage in Holland.

Once the beverage made its way to England, it quickly became a luxury enjoyed almost exclusively by the elite class. It began with the court of Queen Catherine and Charles II: the queen, born in Portugal, loved tea and wished to drink it often, and the king cultivated a favorable relationship with the East India Company, a trade giant that operated with his full military support as it forcefully occupied lands of interest. The city of Mumbai (then known as Bombay) was given to Charles as part of Catherine’s dowry, and his decision to use its port as a trade hub played a large role in the influx of tea to Britain in the years that followed.

TEA FOR ALL

The first written record of tea in Britain can be found on a shopping list written in 1644 by a man in Leeds, requesting a bottle from his local apothecary. Its first public mention in the UK was a 1658 newspaper advertisement for a new drink from China being served at one of England’s first coffee houses. By 1664, the East India Company was shipping 100 pounds of “China Drink” leaves to London at a time. Throughout the remainder of the 17th century, men from the upper and middle classes would sip tea at coffee houses while women would drink it at home. But then, steep taxation put such a chokehold on the price of tea toward the beginning of the 18th century that its sales almost ceased completely.

NOTABLE SMUGGLERS

John Hancock and Samuel Adams, and in 1765, the Sons of Liberty famously organized the Boston Tea Party, during which they chucked more than 300 chests full of tea overboard into Boston Harbor as a form of protest against taxation without representation.

With tax rates soaring wildly up to 100 percent or more, the cost of tea was doubling, and yet British thirst for the delicious drink was every bit as high. As a result, organized crime began to rise, with gangs smuggling millions of pounds of tea to the masses, stuffing the bricks with filler along the way to inflate their profits. Stateside, notable smugglers included John Hancock and Samuel Adams, and in 1765, the Sons of Liberty famously organized the Boston Tea Party, during which they chucked more than 300 chests full of tea overboard into Boston Harbor as a form of protest against taxation without representation. Finally, the British Prime Minister cut the tax rate down to 12 percent in 1784, virtually eliminating the illegal activity surrounding the coveted drink and making it affordable even for those less financially fortunate.

TEA & TEMPERANCE

As tea became the drink of the people, debates also arose over how the beverage might affect daily life and the body. Historical opinions ranged widely and were shaped by the limited medical knowledge of the period. These debates are part of tea history, not evidence for modern health claims about tea.

A curious footnote in the history of tea is its role in the temperance movement of the early 19th century. Concerns about tea’s effects on the body and mind began to take a backseat to the drink’s role as a substitute for alcohol, and British philanthropists started offering it at temperance meetings, encouraging attendees to lay off the liquor and drink tea instead. Largely a movement of the working class in an attempt to gain the respect of those more powerful, the temperance movement gave birth to the term “teetotaling,” which meant abstaining from alcohol consumption. The word’s relationship to tea is tenuous at best, but many teetotalers drank tea instead of spirits for extended periods of time.

Victorian Temperance Hall, UK.

TEA TODAY

Modern research continues to examine tea chemistry, processing, sensory characteristics, caffeine, polyphenols, and patterns of consumption. Research findings vary by tea type, preparation, study design, dose, and population. This history page does not use that research to claim that tea can diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent a medical condition.

From traditional bowls of matcha and classic pots of tea to bold oolong styles and delicate tisanes, tea today spans a remarkable range of flavors, rituals, and preparation methods. Its story connects trade, agriculture, craft, culture, and everyday hospitality across centuries. And to think the legend begins with just one accidental cup.