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| Tea history |
Shenang, a farmer who went out in search of edible plants and herbs, accidentally swallowed poisonous substances. Before the poison could kill him, a leaf flew into his mouth. He chewed the address and saved Shenyang's life. And this is the story of the discovery of tea.
No, no, like such ancient stories, this story is famous in China. Not original And tea does not cure poison. But Shenyang, a Chinese divinity character who is said to be the inventor of agriculture in China in fairy tales, points out that tea was important in ancient China.
Archaeological evidence suggests that tea has been cultivated in China for at least 6,000 years. That is, the great pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs, one and a half thousand years before Giza. And the same tea plant from China is grown all over the world today. However, it was used very differently. It was eaten as a vegetable or cooked with porridge. Its use as a beverage dates back to only one and a half thousand years ago when people realized that heating and moistening its leaves creates a very unique taste.
After hundreds of variation experiments, the standard method was to heat and press the leaves. It was ground to form a powder. It was mixed with hot water and a drink called macha was prepared.
Macha became so popular that it led to the emergence of tea culture in China. It became the subject of poetry and books. Make it a favorite drink of kings. And in the hands of artists. Macha foam, which is presented at royal ceremonies, is shaped by the artist before it is presented.
The plant was first introduced to Japan by a Japanese monk during the Tang Dynasty in the ninth century. In Japan, tea has its own unique rituals. A Japanese tea party was created.
In the fourteenth century, during the Ming Dynasty, it was customary to open leaves instead of squeezing and packing them to make drinks at Chinese royal ceremonies. Until then, there was a Chinese monopoly on tea plants in the world. And tea, silk and sugar cane were China's three main exports. China was a major global economic power. The traditions of the great superpower of that time spread to other countries. In the seventeenth century, it was widely introduced in Europe by Dutch merchants.
Portuguese Queen Catherine of Bergenza is said to have played a key role in popularizing the drink among the British elite. She married British King Charles II in 1661. This was the time when the British Empire was spreading all over the world. And it was becoming a new world power. And as British influence grew, so did the spread of tea. By 1700, the price of tea in Europe was ten times higher than coffee, and the plant was grown only in China. The trade was so lucrative that the world's fastest sailing boat, the clipper, was invented by Western merchants in a race to get tea to Europe as quickly as possible and to make more money. ۔
Earlier Britain used to give silver in exchange for tea. Then another item took its place, which was opium. This started a health problem in China. Because it was a narcotic drug. In 1839, a Chinese official ordered the destruction of a large influx of opium from Britain. This led to the first war between Britain and China, which lasted until 1842. Defeated, the Chung dynasty ceded the port of Hong Kong to Britain, and the trade was restored on British terms. This war weakened China for more than a hundred years.
The British East India Company did not want to depend on China for tea. Botanist Robert Fortune was hired to do the research. Robert Fortune secretly visited tea plantations in the mountains of China. From there, tea and tea plantation workers were brought to Darjeeling in India.
Beyond Darjeeling, the tea plant spread rapidly and became a daily beverage in many parts of the world.
Today, after water, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world. In many ways. Buttermilk tea in Tibet. Turkish sweet tea. Milk leaf Each culture has its own ways of making tea.
The history of tea is not a leaf that accidentally slips into a farmer's mouth, but like tea, its real story is probably more delicious. And much more interesting than this short article.
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