CHAPTER 1

The History of Tea

Tea-leaves and the birth of nations

The tea plant is native to China and it has been known there for around 5,000years but it took a windy day and a hygiene conscious Emperor to bring the drinkinto existence. Legend tells us that tea as a drink was accidentally discoveredin 2737 B.C. by a Chinese Emperor called Shen Nong. This was said to haveoccurred when some tea leaves accidentally fell into a pot of boiling water. Itis known that Shen Nong was interested in science and hygiene and that it was hewho determined that drinking water should be boiled as a safety precaution. Whenthe Emperor tried the boiled water with the tea leaves infused in it, herealized that he had discovered a refreshing new drink.

A Buddhist monk called Lu Yu wrote the first book on tea, and it was he whodefined the different types of tea cultivation and preparation. In addition toits more prosaic form as a drink, Chinese tea preparation took on a mysticalform. It was this strange practice that eventually transferred itself to Japanand developed into the famous Japanese tea ceremony.

Tea-leaf reading certainly originated in China and it spread throughoutneighboring countries as each in turn took up the cultivation of tea.

The first traders to bring tea to Europe were the Portuguese. They carriedcargoes of tea to Lisbon and from there the tea-drinking habit spread to France,Holland and the Baltic countries. The Dutch became confirmed tea-drinkers and itwas the export of tea that helped to found Holland as a major trading country.Only when England settled down after the Civil War and was able to concentrateonce again on overseas trade did tea start to arrive in the British Isles, thisbeing around 1653. The price was kept artificially high which meant that onlythe wealthy and privileged classes could afford to buy tea, but by 1708 teabegan to come into the country in sufficient quantities and at a price that madeit accessible to ordinary people.

The Chinese wisely tried to keep the secrets of tea growing to themselves inorder to maintain their monopoly on the trade. However, a Scottish botanistcalled Robert Fortune who actually spoke Chinese was able to sneak into Chinaand with the help of a Chinese friend, he managed to take some seeds away withhim. The tea seeds reached India where many crops were grown, lost, improvedupon, lost and grown again until the techniques became properly understood. Theincreasing size of the crops from the subcontinent brought the prices down andthe incredibly fast clipper ships brought cargoes to Britain at great speed. Theprice came tumbling down and the populations of Britain and Ireland as a wholetook to tea drinking in a major way.

Until the late 18th century, the two main meals were a heavy breakfastaccompanied by ale and a huge dinner - with nothing else between. The Duchess ofBedford (1788 - 1861) introduced the idea of afternoon tea, along with afriendly gossip and a walk in the fields. Afternoon tea, with bread and butter,sandwiches and cakes quickly became popular, especially with upper class ladies.The upper classes retained the practice of having a tea with snacks and cakesthereafter, while the working classes incorporated tea drinking with theirevening meal. There are still people all over Britain who refer to an eveningmain meal as their tea. The British soldiers who were stationed in Indiathroughout the 19th century and the early 20th century chose tea as a pleasantalternative to beer. Oddly enough, history records that those British Indiansoldiers who avoided beer altogether and who only drank tea suffered far morefrom heat exhaustion than those who drank at least some beer during the courseof each day. This may have something to do with the salts and natural chemicalsthat are found in beer.

Russia and the countries that surround it are great tea-drinking nations andthey like their tea in a glass with a special holder either "straight" or moreusually, with lemon and sugar. Russian tea may be made in a teapot but it isoften brewed in a decorated samovar. In 1618 the Chinese embassy in Moscowpresented Czar Alexis with several crates of tea, and shortly after this atreaty was formed that allowed trading caravans to cross the border betweenRussia and China. The length of the journey and the high cost of transportingtea by pack animal meant that at first only the wealthy could afford to drinkit. Gradually the price came down, especially after the trans-Siberian railwaywas opened in 1900 and tea became the national drink of Russia - along withvodka.

Immigrants to North America came from both tea and coffee drinking heritages.The short-sighted English government of George III imposed ridiculous taxes ontea and other products and his government interfered in the lives of thecolonists in other highly irritating ways. Eventually the Americans cried, "notaxation without representation," and began to fight for independence. On the16th of December 1773, a group of Americans dressed as Red Indians clamberedonto an English ship called the Beaver and threw its cargo of tea into Bostonharbor. Although Americans continued to import tea from Holland and also from afew rogue English traders, these difficulties encouraged Americans to choosecoffee over tea as their national drink. An American invented iced tea in 1904.Modern Americans are taking up tea drinking in larger amounts now, because theyperceive it as a healthy alternative to coffee.

Most of the tea that is imported into western countries such as Britain and theUSA nowadays comes from Kenya, with some still coming from the traditionalsources of India and Sri-Lanka. In recent times Indonesia has started to exportlea, while some is grown in Malaya and even in the north of Australia where thesoil and climate suits the crop. Despite the fact that Robert Fortune's successat smuggling tea seeds out of China broke the Chinese monopoly of teacultivation, China is still a major tea growing country. China is also majorexporter of plain and flavored Chinese styles of tea, which differ from theIndian tea flavors that are so beloved of British and Irish tea drinkers.

The History of Coffee

Over-excited goats, religious euphoria, quickie divorces, pirates and adangerous liaison

Coffee trees occur naturally in what is now Ethiopia and a rather charming storyfrom this area tells us how the drink was first discovered. At some point intime around 800 A.D. a goatherd called Kaldi noticed his goats eating the cherryred coffee berries and subsequently dancing happily from one shrub to another.The goatherd tried the beans for...