Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The History of Tea

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sometime over 3,000 years ago, somewhere in southwestern China, a leaf from the chamelea Seneca plant may have accidentally found its way into a pot of boiling water. Noticing that the leaf had turned the water a different color, some person, unknown to history, drank the concoction and found that it was good. This was the start of something which is today a globe-spanning multi-billion dollar industry that millions of people indulge in every day. Learn more about tea, its origins, and how it spread around the world on this episode of everything everywhere daily.

Starting point is 00:00:43 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The origins of tea are shrouded in history. We don't know who first discovered that the tea leaf.

Starting point is 00:01:15 could be used to make a beverage. The current best guess is that tea probably originated in what is today the Yunnan province of China sometime around 3,000 to 3,500 years ago. One of the problems in dating the origins of tea in China has to do with the fact that the Chinese word for tea, cha, only began being used in the 8th century. There is an ancient Chinese legend regarding the discovery of tea. The mythological emperor Shen Nong was about to drink a cup of boiled water because he had made a decree that everyone in the kingdom had to boil water before drinking it. While the servants were preparing the water, a leaf from a bush landed in the water, which caused it to change color.

Starting point is 00:01:53 The emperor tasted the water and found that it not only tastes good, but was invigorating. The oldest archaeological evidence we have of tea consumption comes from the tomb of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, who died in the year 141 BC. The tomb, found in Shian, China, found biomolecular markers of tea and ancient plant compounds found in the tomb. Unambiguous references in Chinese texts indicate tea drinking in the year 59 BC, but other texts make allusions to tea drinking going back much earlier. The earliest consumption of tea was probably as a medicine rather than as a beverage. Before I go too much further, I should probably explain exactly what tea is. Tea is a beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia Senances plant.

Starting point is 00:02:36 This is the only plant that can make a true tea. Tea plants are found natively in the region along the border of the world. of what is today northern Myanmar and southwestern China. Camelia sentences would be considered a shrub or a bush and not a full-bone tree, although sometimes it is called a tea tree, and if left unchecked, they can sometimes get rather large. The plant can grow in a wide variety of areas where there is ample sunlight, warm temperatures, and plenty of rainfall. Tea plants usually do the best at higher elevations. Tea drinking for the most part was only a practice in southern China until about the 8th century,

Starting point is 00:03:09 outside of Chinese emperors and other high-ranking officials. It was during the Tang Dynasty around the 8th century that the practice of tea drinking became widespread throughout China. The Tang Dynasty writer Liu Yu wrote the book, Cha Jing, which translates into the tea classic, which is the earliest known work about the subject of tea. Written around the year 760, Liu Yu documents tea culture, including preparing, making, and growing tea.

Starting point is 00:03:35 During the Tang dynasty, tea was usually made from tea bricks, which were tea leaves that were compressed into blocks or bricks. Binding agents such as flour or blood were often added so they would retain their shape. Tea bricks were a common form of currency throughout China at this time, and they were easier to transport than loose tea leaves were. During the Song Dynasty, tea consumption changed as powder tea became popularized. Instead of steaming tea leaves, which had been the method of preparation, they were now often roasted and then crushed into a powder.

Starting point is 00:04:04 Just as tea spread throughout China, it was also taken to near-bynizant. countries. Tea was believed to have been brought to Japan in the 7th century by Buddhist monks, and the earliest evidence of tea in Korea was in the 7th century as well. However, it may have existed there much earlier. Tea drinking in Japan was originally something only consumed by Buddhist monks, but it eventually spread to the upper class in society. By the end of the 12th century, tea seeds were brought to Japan, and tea cultivation began. In the 14th century, tea competitions began, where contestants would try to distinguish teas grown in different regions, similar to wine tastings today.

Starting point is 00:04:40 And in the 15th century, elaborate tea ceremonies were imported from China and given a unique Japanese interpretation. The founder of the Japanese tea ceremony is considered to be Senno Ricu, and the tea ceremony served a central role in diplomacy and political life. After Rikyu died, his children carried on the practice, and the three major Japanese schools of tea ceremonies today can all be traced back to his children. Tea was known outside of East Asia, but it wasn't widely consumed beyond the region. There's a reference to tea by 9th century Arab traders who ventured to China and tasted it. Also, by the 9th century, tea had reached Persia and Central Asia via the Silk Road,

Starting point is 00:05:17 mostly via the exportation of tea bricks. Marco Polo mentioned tea in his writings in the 13th century, the first European to mention tea. Despite the exportation of limited amounts of tea bricks, for all practical purposes, tea consumption was limited to East Asia. The thing that radically changed the tea industry was its discovery by European, traders in the 16th century. The Portuguese established a trading post on the island of Macau in 1557, and tea became popular as it was brought over by many of the Chinese workers on the island. In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company began importing small amounts of tea to the Netherlands.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Tea became trendy amongst European royalty as the new thing, and it also found a place in coffee houses throughout Europe. However, tea never really became the dominant drink in most European countries. Coffee always tended to be more popular, save for some brief periods where tea became trendy. There were tea rooms that did spring up, and tea wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't dominant. Russia did mostly embrace tea over coffee, but it was after his R. Michael I first rejected tea in 1618 because he didn't like it. There was, however, one country in Europe that fully embraced tea. England.

Starting point is 00:06:31 The popularity of tea in England is credited to the wife of King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza from Portugal in 1662. although there is a record of tea being served at a coffee house in London five years earlier. Tea imports to England began rather small, with only two pounds of tea being recorded as imported in 1664, and those were just a gift for the king. However, the popularity of tea in England exploded. The British East India Company began importing tea from China, which at the time held a monopoly on tea production. Demand for tea in Britain exploded through the 18th century. By 1801, the amount of tea imported into Britain had reached 24 million pounds annually. A 12 million-fold jump in imports over a period of 139 years.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Tea played a role in the American Revolution when the British taxed American tea imports. The Chinese monopoly on tea and the lack of desire by the Chinese for the importation of many Western products produced a huge trade deficit between Britain and China. To rectify this, Britain began importing opium to China, which resulted in the first opium war, which began in 1839. Eventually in the mid-19th century, Britain sought to break the Chinese Monopoly and Tea and began cultivating tea in northern India. This eventually led India on a path that made it the largest producer of tea in the world. The British also brought tea production to other colonies they held around the world which were suitable for growing it. The biggest tea producing regions outside of India were in

Starting point is 00:07:56 Sri Lanka and Kenya. In the Americas, tea consumption in the United States decreased dramatically after the revolution, but tea was dominant in Canada due to the British ties until after the Second World War when coffee finally overcame it. Brazil, due to its ties with Portugal, became the biggest tea consumer in South America and was its largest tea producer as well. Despite being one of the largest tea producers in the world, tea in India wasn't commonly consumed by Indians until after India became independent. Tea producers wanted to stimulate domestic demand and so began promoting tea consumption internally. Tea also became, became very popular across the Muslim world throughout the 19th and 20th centuries,

Starting point is 00:08:36 competing with coffee as a non-alcoholic beverage. Today, half of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of per capita tea consumption are predominantly Muslim countries. The biggest tea consuming country is Turkey. China only ranks 21st. Today, there are over 6 million metric tons of tea which are produced every year. The largest producing countries by a wide margin or China and India, followed by Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The global tea industry is now estimated to be close to $100 billion annually. Tea has also gone well beyond its consumption as a hot beverage with steeped leaves. Ice tea and other sweetened tea-based drinks have become popular as soft drink alternatives.

Starting point is 00:09:18 Before I end, I should address a question that many of you might have. Earlier I said there is only one species of plant, chamelea sentences, that is a tea plant. Well, technically there are two varietals of the same. same species, but for all practical purposes, there's one tea plant. And you might be thinking that when you go to the store, you can find a wide variety of teas. There are entire shops that sell nothing but different types of teas. How can this all come from one plant? That is an excellent question. For starters, anything called herbal tea really isn't a tea. It doesn't use tea leaves from a tea plant. It might be called a tea, but it really isn't a true tea. It is simply prepared in a way similar to a

Starting point is 00:09:58 tea. It would be like roasting beans from a non-coffee plant and calling it coffee. Likewise, chamomile tea doesn't come from a tea plant, but rather comes from the chamomile flour. It tastes really good, but it technically isn't a tea. I had some fantastic chamomile tea when I stayed in a Benoan camp in Wadi Rum and Jordan, and it was actually one of the highlights of my trip. Beyond that, in the world of true teas, there's green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, and yellow tea. All of these different teas are due to how tea leaves are processed and how high tea leaves are processed, how long tea leaves are allowed to oxidize. Tea leaf oxidation is nothing more than the natural process of reacting with oxygen, no different than what happens if you leave fruit out. Green tea is made

Starting point is 00:10:40 from minimally oxidized tea leaves which preserves the natural green color of the leaf. Yellow tea is where the tea leaf is allowed to yellow before being consumed. White tea is where the tea leaf has wilted, but is still mostly unoxidized. U-long tea is where the leaves are wilted and partially oxidized. And black tea is where the leaves are fully wilted and fully oxidized. These leaves are often so brittle that they're just crushed into a powder. Beyond black tea, there is something known as dark tea, where the leaves are allowed to ferment. The oxidation process can be stopped through the application of heat, which can be done via roasting, sun drying, baking, and even microwaving.

Starting point is 00:11:20 Beyond the different methods of processing tea leaves, each region where tea is grown will result in different flavors due to the inputs that went into its creation. The end result is a wide variety of teas, all made from what is basically a single plant. Today, tea is the largest manufactured beverage in the world, and its production equals that of all other beverages combined, including coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol. And all of this began thousands of years ago because some person probably had a leaf accidentally fall into their pot of water. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel.

Starting point is 00:12:01 The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Brage Koperdal over on Apple Podcasts in Norway. He writes, The Best. This podcast is the best thing I've ever heard. I'm only 12 years old and still love this podcast. Keep it going, Gary. Talks to Koldu Ha, Brage. I'm glad you enjoy the show.

Starting point is 00:12:20 And if you're getting this much out of the show at the age of 12, you will have a huge leg up over all the other kids at school. And to be honest, you'll probably have a leg up over most adults as well. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The History of Tea

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