The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Time for Tea
You’ve probably never thought a lot about tea — iced tea, hot tea, chai tea, green tea, sweet tea — tea is everywhere! But you may not know that tea has been an important part of many cultures for thousands of years. The Mini Page goes on a tea discovery mission this week.
Who drinks tea?
People in Turkey drink more tea than those in any other country. In fact, after water, it’s the most popular drink in the world.
Usually tea is made by pouring hot water
over the dried leaves of a plant, Camellia
sinensis. This shrub grows in places such as India, parts of Africa and the Middle East, where the weather is hot and humid. Some people use tea in bags, while others use a teaball, a mesh ball that holds the leaves while
the tea steeps, or brews.
Tea history
Early humans may have been imitating monkeys when they chewed on bundles of tea leaves. The leaves could also be boiled or steamed, then formed into balls and eaten with salt, oil, garlic, pork fat and dried fish.
As a drink, tea was first used in China, probably during the Shang dynasty between 1600 and 1046 BCE. At first, it was used as a medicine. Boiling the water for tea helped people avoid getting sick from dirty water sources. But soon people realized that tea helped them stay awake and improved their concentration.
The Chinese began distributing tea across their country and beyond and using it for trading purposes. In fact, for a time, bricks of tea were used as a currency, like money.
Spreading the love
The Chinese developed a serious and complicated process for brewing tea. Tea masters had to use specific types of fuel for heating the water and the right utensils for making and presenting the tea.
As tea spread to other countries, people developed their own traditions about preparing and serving tea, and today, special tea ceremonies still take place in Japan and other Asian countries.
Europeans catch on
In the 1600s, European travelers brought tea home from China. The Dutch were big fans, and soon the French and English wanted the exotic drink. But tea was expensive, so only the rich and royalty could afford it.
The British East India Company imported tea from China, but in the 1800s it began growing tea in India, which was ruled by Britain. By the end of that century, India was producing more tea than China.