Tea Worldwide Research Paper

Camila Jenkins

Mr. Torres

Personal Project

The History and Influence of Tea Worldwide

Tea was first discovered in ancient China, around the year 2737 BC, by Emperor Shennong. According to this ancient myth, one afternoon different from no other, Shennong sat under a Camellia tree with a pot of boiling water. Dried leaves from such tree fell into his pot, thus marking the first tea infusion. Captured by the fragrance created by the infusion, Shennong chose to drink the water, resulting fascinated by the fresh, new and light flavor of the infused water. At first tea waas used only for rituals, as part of the offerings to the greater being, it then became common for tea leaves to be used in medicine seen as it was believed to have healing powers

The first country that it reached was England when King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, who, after trying tea, decided to make tea a royal drink. Thus, making tea a prevalent import by the East India Company. This is when English afternoon tea parties were the way in which the high class enjoyed tea. As greater quantities of tea were imported, the taxes placed on these imports began rising to the point where the taxes were so high that tea began being smuggles and sold illegally at cheaper prices for those that couldn’t afford it otherwise. In order to expand their profit, the East India Company began exporting tea to the United States. Like in England, big taxes were imposed upon tea imports which is known as one of the several contributions to the cause of the Boston Tea Party. The East India Company brought the first shipment of green tea to Amsterdam around the early 1600s and was the introduced to France around 1636. The popularity of tea among the French population thrived from 1636 to around 148 but was not too extensively popular after that. It wasn’t until around 1830 that England thought of India as a proper place to grow and harvest tea. Although their were tea plants native to India, the English chose to import the tea seeds from China. Under such different conditions, the Chinese tea plant was not able to adapt while the native species grew successfully and so,

In England, tea parties became popular until around the md 1800s. People usually ate an early breakfast and a late dinner and tea parties were created when Duchess of Bedford, Anna asked for sweets and tea in the afternoon to help with the hunger, she later shared the idea with her friends, making tea parties popular for the noble class. The working class followed the tradition as a way to receive a break during the day. Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century cherished the afternoon tea parties tradition, adding to her tea, lemon slices and requesting very specific cakes and accompanying them with strawberry jam. The tradition brought with it tea gardens, which were carefully decorated gardens with outdoor furniture used for the afternoon teas. The tradition of tea gardens has faded through the years but can still be seen in the English countryside. In England tea is consumed all throughout the day, not only in the afternoon and it is such a common custom that tea is served in hotels, tea lounges, department stores and at most citizens homes. It is a tradition that spread to several members of the British Commonwealth like Australia, Canada, the UK and even South