From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tea plantation in Ciwidey,
The history of tea is long and complex, spreading across multiple cultures over the span of thousands of years.
likely originated in the
region during the
as a medicinal drink. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by . Tea was first introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in Lebanon during the 16th century. Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century. The British introduced tea production, as well as tea consumption, to India, in order to compete with the Chinese monopoly on tea.
" originated in , specifically around the intersection of
and , the point of confluence of the lands of northeast India, north Burma, southwest China and Tibet. The plant was introduced to more than 52 countries, from this 'centre of origin'."
On morphological differences between the
and Chinese varieties, botanists have long asserted a dual bota however, statistical , the same
(2n=30), easy , and various types of intermediate hybrids and spontaneous
all appear to demonstrate a single place of origin for Camellia sinensis—the area including the northern part of , and
provinces of China.
Yunnan Province has also been identified as "the birthplace of tea...the first area where humans figured out that eating tea leaves or brewing a cup could be pleasant."
Prefecture of Yunnan Province in China is said to be home to the world's oldest cultivated tea tree, some 3,200 years old.
According to The Story of Tea, tea drinking likely began in Yunnan province during the
(1500 BC–1046 BC), as a medicinal drink. From there, the drink spread to Sichuan, and it is believed that there "for the first time, people began to boil tea leaves for consumption into a concentrated liquid without the addition of other leaves or herbs, thereby using tea as a bitter yet stimulating drink, rather than as a medicinal concoction."
Japanese painting depicting .
In one popular , , the legendary
and inventor of
was drinking a bowl of just boiled water due to a decree that his subjects must boil water before drinking it. Some time around 2737 BC, a few leaves were blown, from a nearby tree, into his water, changing the color and taste. The emperor took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and restorative properties. A variant of the legend tells that the emperor tested the medical properties of various herbs on himself, some of them poisonous, and found tea to work as an antidote. Shennong is also mentioned in 's famous early work on the subject, . A similar Chinese legend goes that the god of agriculture would chew the leaves, stems, and roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs. If he consumed a poisonous plant, he would chew tea leaves to counteract the poison.
A rather gruesome legend dates back to the . In the legend, , the founder of , accidentally fell asleep after meditating in front of a wall for nine years. He woke up in such disgust at his weakness that he cut off his own eyelids. They fell to the ground and took root, growing into tea bushes. Sometimes, another version of the story is told with
in place of Bodhidharma.
Scholars however believe that tea drinking likely originated in the southwest of China, and that the Chinese words for tea themselves may have been originally derived from the
of the people who originally inhabited that area.
Whether or not these legends have any basis in fact, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative, and a . It is not surprising, therefore, that theories of its origin are often religious or royal in nature.
's statue in
The Chinese have consumed tea for thousands of years. The earliest physical evidence known to date, found in 2016, comes from the mausoleum of
in , indicating that tea was drunk by Han Dynasty emperors as early as the 2nd century BC. The samples were identified as tea from the genus
particularly via . and written records suggest that it may have been drunk earlier. People of the
used tea as medicine (though the first use of tea as a stimulant is unknown). China is considered to have the earliest records of tea consumption, with possible records dating back to the 10th century BC.
Note however that the current word for tea in Chinese only came into use in the 8th century AD, there are therefore uncertainties as to whether the older words used are the same as tea.
The word tu
appears in
and other ancient texts to signify a kind of "bitter vegetable" (苦菜), and it is possible that it referred to a number of different plants, such as , , or , including tea.
In the , it was recorded that the
presented tu to the
king. The state of Ba and its neighbour
were later conquered by the , and according to the 17th century scholar
who wrote in Ri Zhi Lu (日知錄): "It was after the Qin had taken Shu that they learned how to drink tea."
The first known reference to boiling tea came from the Han dynasty work "The Contract for a Youth" written by
where, among the tasks listed to be undertaken by the youth, "he shall boil tea and fill the utensils" and "he shall buy tea at Wuyang".
The first record of cultivation of tea also dated it to this period (Ganlu era of ) when tea was cultivated on Meng Mountain (蒙山) near .
From the Tang to the Qing dynasties, the first 360 leaves of tea grown here were picked each spring and presented to the emperor. Even today its green and yellow teas, such as the , are still sought after.
An unknown Chinese inventor was also the first person to invent a tea shredder.
An early credible record of tea drinking dates to 220 AD, in a medical text
Shi Lun (食论) by , who stated, "to drink bitter t'u constantly makes one think better."
Another possible early reference to tea is found in a letter written by the Qin Dynasty general Liu Kun.
However, before the mid-8th century Tang dynasty, tea-drinking was primarily a southern Chinese practice. It became widely popular during the , when it was spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
, the classical Chinese philosopher, was said to describe tea as "the froth of the liquid jade" and named it an indispensable ingredient to the . Legend has it that master Lao was saddened by society's moral decay and, sensing that the end of the dynasty was near, he journeyed westward to the unsettled territories, never to be seen again. While passing along the nation's border, he encountered and was offered tea by a customs inspector named Yin Hsi. Yin Hsi encouraged him to compile his teachings into a single book so that future generations might benefit from his wisdom. This then became known as the , a collection of Laozi's sayings.
During the
(589–618 AD) tea was introduced to Japan by
writer 's (: 陆羽; : 陸羽; : lùyǔ) Cha Jing () (: 茶经; : 茶經; : chá jīng) is an early work on the subject. (See also ) According to Cha Jing tea drinking was widespread. The book describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated. The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced. Teas produced in this period were mainly
which were often used as currency, especially further from the center of the empire where coins lost their value. In this period, tea leaves were steamed, then pounded and shaped into cake or brick forms.
painting by artist
illustrating scholars greeting in a tea party
During the
(960–1279), production and preparation of all tea changed. The tea of Song included many loose-leaf styles (to preserve the delicate character favored by court society), and it is the origin of today's loose teas and the practice of brewed tea.
A new powdered form of tea also emerged. Steaming tea leaves was the primary process used for centuries in the preparation of tea. After the transition from compressed tea to the powdered form, the production of tea for trade and distribution changed once again.
Illustration of the legend of monkeys harvesting tea
The Chinese learned to process tea in a different way in the mid-13th century.
Tea leaves were roasted and then crumbled rather than steamed. By the
dynasties, unfermented tea leaves were first pan-fried, then rolled and dried.
This stops the oxidation process which turns the leaves dark and allows tea to remain green. In the 15th century, , where the tea leaves were allowed to partially ferment before pan-frying, was developed.
Western taste, however, preferred the fully oxidized , and the leaves were allowed to ferment further.
was an accidental discovery in the production of green tea during the Ming dynasty, when apparently sloppy practices allowed the leaves to turn yellow, but yielded a different flavour as a result.
Tea production in China, historically, was a laborious process, conducted in distant and often poorly accessible regions. This led to the rise of many apocryphal stories and legends surrounding the harvesting process. For example, one story that has been told for many years is that of a village where monkeys pick tea. According to this legend, the villagers stand below the monkeys and taunt them. The monkeys, in turn, become angry, and grab handfuls of tea leaves and throw them at the villagers. There are products sold today that claim to be harvested in this manner, but no reliable commentators have observed this firsthand, and most doubt that it happened at all. For many hundreds of years the commercially used tea tree has been, in shape, more of a bush than a tree. "Monkey picked tea" is more likely a name of certain varieties than a description of how it was obtained.
In 1391, the
court issued a decree that only loose tea would be accepted as a "". As a result, loose tea production increased and processing techniques advanced. Soon, most tea was distributed in full-leaf, loose form and steeped in earthenware vessels.
In Hong Kong, apart from the
culture of , a localised version of
was developed, the .
Ancient Tea Urns used by merchants to store tea
Tea use spread to Japan about the sixth century AD. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys, sent to China to learn about its culture, brought tea to Japan. Ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by a priest named  (最澄, 767–822) in 805 and then by another named  (空海, 774–835) in 806. It became a drink of the royal classes when  (嵯峨天皇), the Japanese emperor, encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.
In 1191, the famous
priest  (栄西, ) brought back tea seeds to . Some of the tea seeds were given to the priest Myoe Shonin, and became the basis for Uji tea. The oldest tea specialty book in Japan, Kissa Yōjōki (喫茶養生記, How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea), was written by Eisai. The two-volume book was written in 1211 after his second and last visit to China. The first sentence states, "Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy and has the ability to make one's life more full and complete." Eisai was also instrumental in introducing tea consumption to the warrior class, which rose to political prominence after the .
Green tea became a staple among cultured people in Japan—a brew for the gentry and the
alike. Production grew and tea became increasingly accessible, though still a privilege enjoyed mostly by the upper classes. The
was introduced from China in the 15th century by Buddhists as a semi-religious social custom. The modern tea ceremony developed over several centuries by Zen Buddhist monks under the original guidance of the monk  (千 利休, ). In fact, both the beverage and the ceremony surrounding it played a prominent role in feudal diplomacy.
In 1738, Soen Nagatani developed Japanese  (煎茶), literally roasted tea, which is an unfermented form of green tea. It is the most popular form of tea in Japan today. In 1835, Kahei Yamamoto developed  (玉露), literally jewel dew, by shading tea trees during the weeks leading up to harvesting. At the end of the
(), machine manufacturing of green tea was introduced and began replacing handmade tea.
, Korean tea ceremony
The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in the year 661 in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of , the founder of the
Kingdom (42–562). Records from the
Dynasty (918–1392) show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks.
During the
(), the royal Yi family and the aristocracy used tea for simple rites. The "Day Tea Rite" was a common daytime ceremony, whereas the "Special Tea Rite" was reserved for specific occasions. Toward the end of the Joseon Dynasty, commoners joined the trend and used tea for ancestral rites, following the Chinese example based on Zhu Xi's text formalities of Family.
Stoneware was common,
more frequent, mostly made in provincial , with
rare, imperial porcelain with dragons the rarest. The earliest kinds of tea used in tea ceremonies were heavily pressed cakes of black tea, the equivalent of aged
still popular in China. However, importation of tea plants by Buddhist monks brought a more delicate series of teas into Korea, and the . Green tea, "Jakseol(??, 雀舌)" or "Jungno(??, 竹露)", is most often served. However, other teas such as "Byeoksoryeong(???, 碧宵嶺)" Cheonhachun(???, 天下春), Ujeon(??, 雨前), Okcheon(??, 玉泉), as well as native ,
leaf tea, or
tea may be served at different times of the year.
Vietnamese green teas have been largely unknown outside of mainland Asia until the present day. Recent free-enterprise initiatives are introducing these green teas to outside
countries through new export activities. Some specialty
and . Vietnam also produces black and oolong teas in lesser quantities.
Vietnamese teas are produced in many areas that have been known for tea-house "retreats." For example, some are located amidst immense tea forests of the Lamdong highlands, where there is a community of ancient Ruong houses built at the end of the 18th century.
A conical urn-shaped silver-plated
used for boiling water for tea in Russia and some Middle eastern countries
The earliest record of tea in a more
writing is said to be found in the statement of an Arabian traveler, that after the year 879 the main sources of revenue in
were the duties on salt and tea.
records the deposition of a Chinese minister of finance in 1285 for his arbitrary augmentation of the tea taxes. The travelers Giovanni Batista
(1559), L. Almeida (1576), Maffei (1588), and Teixeira (1610) also mentioned tea. In 1557, Portugal established a trading port in
and word of the Chinese drink "chá" spread quickly, but there is no mention of them bringing any samples home. In the early 17th century, a ship of the
brought the first green tea leaves to
from China. Tea was known in France by 1636. It enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Paris around 1648. The history of tea in Russia can also be traced back to the seventeenth century. Tea was first offered by China as a gift to Czar
in 1618. The Russian ambass he did not care for it and rejected the offer, delaying tea's Russian introduction by fifty years. In 1689, tea was regularly imported from China to Russia via a caravan of hundreds of camels traveling the year-long journey, making it a precious commodity at the time. Tea was appearing in German
by 1657 but never gained much esteem except in coastal areas such as . Tea first appeared publicly in England during the 1650s, where it was introduced through . From there it was introduced to British colonies in America and elsewhere.
Tea was first introduced to Europe by Italian traveler , who in 1555 published Voyages and Travels, containing the first European reference to tea, which he calls "Chai Catai"; his accounts were based on second-hand reports.
Portuguese priests and merchants in the 16th century made their first contact with tea in China, at which time it was termed chá. The first Portuguese ships reached China in 1516, and in 1560 Portuguese missionary Gaspar da Cruz published the first Portuguese account of C in 1565 Italian missionary Louis Almeida published the first European account of tea in Japan.
A view of tea Plantations in , , India
Tea Garden in , India
Commercial production of tea was first introduced into India by the British, in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea. The British, "using Chinese seeds, plus Chinese planting and cultivating techniques, launched a tea industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate tea for export." Tea was originally only consumed by Anglicized Indians, it was not until the 1950s that tea grew widely popular in India through a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Board.
Prior to the British, the plant may have been used for medicinal purposes. Some cite the
plant first recorded reference of tea use in India. However, scientific studies have shown that the Sanjeevani plant is in fact a different plant and is not related to tea. The Singpho tribe and the Khamti tribe also validate that they have been consuming tea since the 12th century. However, commercial production of tea in India did not begin until the arrival of the , at which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production.
The Chinese variety is used for Sikkim, , and the , clonal to the native to , everywhere else. The British started commercial tea plantations in India and in Ceylon:
"In 1824 tea plants were discovered in the hills along the frontier between Burma and Assam. The British introduced
into India in 1836 and into Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1867. At first they used seeds from China, but later seeds from the clonal Assam plant were used." Only black tea was produced until recent decades. Tea is called chaai in India.
India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century, but was displaced by China as the top tea producer in the 21st century. Indian tea companies have acquired a number of iconic foreign tea enterprises including British brands , ,
and . While India is the largest consumer of tea worldwide, the per-capita consumption of tea in India remains a modest 750 grams per person every year. Recently consumption of green tea has seen a great upsurge across the cities. Average growth in the consumption is assumed to be over 50%. One estimate suggest the market size has already crossed over INR 1400crore and will reach a 6000 crore in next few years.
Top station, 41 km (1 Hour) from , is aptly named, as it is home to some of the highest tea plantations in India. It lies on the state of
and commands a panoramic view of rolling green hills.
A panoramic view of tea plantations in , , India.
Tea harvest in , Iran
in North of
is main production center of Iranian Tea. Historically,
is the first town in Iran to have tea plantations. With its mild weather, soil quality and fresh spring water, Lahijan stands to have the largest area of tea cultivation in . "Lahijan Spring Tea" is the best quality tea produced in the country. Tea is cultivated at other cities of , for example
Tea plantation in Taiwan
Taiwan is famous for the making of Oolong tea and green tea, as well as many western-styled teas.
or "Zhen Zhu Nai Cha" (Mandarin: 珍珠奶茶) is black tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk and tapioca. Since the island was known to Westerners for many centuries as Formosa—short for the Portuguese Ilha Formosa, or "beautiful island"—tea grown in Taiwan is often identified by that name.
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Thai tea or "cha-yen" (: ??????) in , is a drink made from strongly brewed black tea ("red tea" in East Asia). Other ingredients may include added orange blossom water, , crushed
seed or red and yellow , and sometimes other spices as well. This tea is sweetened with
Usually, Thai people drink Thai hot tea in the morning, frequently with
(fried dough) or Pa-tong-ko (: ?????????). The varieties of Thai tea include:
Thai hot tea (Thai: ??????, cha-ron) is Thai tea served hot.
Dark Thai hot tea (Thai: ????????, cha-dam-ron) is Thai tea served hot with no milk content, sweetened with sugar only.
Dark Thai iced tea (Thai: ????????, cha-dam-yen) is Thai tea served cold with ice and without milk.
Turkish tea
Turkey is traditionally one of the largest tea markets in the world. Turkish black tea is the most popular drink in Turkey, even more popular than .
Tea plantation in the ,
The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an
office in Japan, writing to a merchant in
requesting "the best sort of chaw" in 1615.
, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fujian in 1637, wrote, "chaa—only water with a kind of herb boiled in it".
In 1657, Thomas Garway, a "tobacconist and coffee-man" was the first to sell tea in London at his house in , charging between 16 and 50 shillings per pound. The same year, tea was listed as an item in the price list in a London coffee house, and the first advertisement for tea appeared in 1658.
On 25 September 1660
recorded in his diary: "I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before." It is probable that early imports were smuggled via
or through sailors arriving on eastern boats. The marriage of
in 1662 to the
also brought the tea drinking habit to court. Official trade of tea began in 1664 with an import of only two pound two ounces for presentation to the king, but grew to 24 million pounds a year by 1801.
Regular trade began in
(now Guangzhou), where it was controlled by two monopolies: the Chinese
(trading companies) and the British East India Company. The Cohong acquired tea from 'tea men' who had an elaborate supply chain into the mountains and provinces where tea grew.
The East India Company brought back many products, of which tea was just one, but proved one of the most successful. It was initially promoted as a medicinal beverage or tonic but by the end of the seventeenth century was taken as an all-purpose drink, albeit mainly by the elite, as it was still expensive. Tea was not traded in significant amounts until the 18th century. By 1700 tea was being sold by grocers and tea shops in London, the latter frequented by women as well as men. By the 1720s
in popularity as the price dropped, and early on British drinkers began adding sugar and milk to tea, a practice that was not done in China.
By the 1720s European maritime trade with China was dominated by exchange of silver for tea. As prices continued to drop, tea became increasingly popular, and by 1750 had become the British national drink.
A fungus reduced
by 95% in the 19th century, cementing tea's popularity.
The escalation of tea importation and sales over the period 1690 to 1750 is mirrored closely by the increase in importation and sales of : the British were not drinking just tea but sweet tea. Thus, two of Britain's
converged: the sugar sourced from Britain's trading triangle encompassing Britain, Africa and the West Indies and the tea from the triangle encompassing Britain, India and China.
In China, the
wrote to King
in response to the 's request for trade in 1793: "Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders.
There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce." Tea also had to be paid in silver bullion, and critics of the tea trade at this time would point to the damage caused to Britain's wealth by this loss of bullion. As a way to generate the silver needed as payment for tea, Britain began exporting
from the traditional growing regions of
(in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) into China. Although
had a long history, the British importation of opium, which began in the late 18th century, increased fivefold between 1821 and 1837, and usage of the drug became more widespread across Chinese society. The Qing government attitude towards opium, which was often ambivalent, hardened due to the social problems created by drug use, and took serious measures to curtail importation of opium in 1838–39. Tea by now had become an important source of tax revenue for the British Empire and the banning of the opium trade and thus the creation of funding issues for tea importers was one of the main causes of the .
While waging war on China was one of Britain's tactics, it also began to explore, then executed, a plan to use India for growing tea. After tea plants were smuggled out of China, plantations were established in areas such as Darjeeling, Assam, and Ceylon. As an attempt to circumvent its dependence on Chinese tea, the East India Company sent Scottish botanist
to China to purchase and bring out of China tea plants, which were then taken to India, although it was the discovery of native varieties of tea plant in India which proved more important for the development of production there.
Tea remained a very important item in Britain's global trade, contributing in part to Britain's global dominance by the end of the eighteenth century. To this day tea is seen worldwide as a symbol of 'Britishness', but also, to some, as a symbol of old British .
section of the paralympic handover in Beijing included tea as part of the routine. A cup or mug of tea in Britain is usually made in a different way than is common in China and other Eastern countries. Over 90% of tea consumed is black tea, often but not always with a small amount of milk and / or sugar added. The tea used is often contained in a . As of 2009, the UK can boast one commercial tea plantation with another planned. The existing one lies in
and is owned by the Tregothnan Estate. By 2015, another will lie in , , owned by the Pembrokeshire Tea Company.
While coffee is by far more popular, hot brewed black tea is enjoyed both with meals and as a refreshment by much of the population. Similarly,
is consumed throughout. In the
states , sweetened with large amounts of sugar or an artificial sweetener and chilled, is the fashion. Outside the South, sweet tea is sometimes found, but primarily because of cultural migration and commercialization.[]
The drinking of tea in the United States was largely influenced by the passage of the
and its subsequent protest during the . Tea consumption sharply decreased in America during and after the Revolution, when many Americans switched from drinking tea to drinking coffee, considering tea drinking to be unpatriotic.
The American specialty tea market quadrupled in the years from 1993 to 2008, now being worth $6.8 billion a year. Similar to the trend of better coffee and better wines, this tremendous increase was partly due to consumers who choose to trade up.[] Specialty tea houses and retailers also started to pop up during this period.
Canadians were big tea drinkers from the days of British colonisation until the Second World War, when they began drinking more coffee like their American neighbors to the south. During the 1990s, Canadians begun to purchase more specialty teas instead of coffee.
A commercial tea farm has opened on
in British Columbia in 2010 and expects production to start in 2015.
drank an infusion from the plant species
(a different plant from the tea plant or camellia sinensis). Upon discovering Australia,
noticed the aboriginal peoples drinking it and called it tea. Today the plant is referred to as the "ti tree".
Through colonisation by the British, tea was introduced to Australia. In fact, tea was aboard the
in 1788. Tea is a large part of modern Australian culture due to its British origins. Australians drink tea and have afternoon tea and morning tea much the way the British do. Additionally, due to Australia's climate, tea is able to be grown and produced in northern Australia. In 2000, Australia consumed 14,000 tonnes of tea annually. Tea production in Australia remains very small and is primarily in northern
and . Most tea produced in Australia is black tea, although there are small quantities of green tea produced in the
region of .
In 1884, the Cutten brothers established the first commercial tea plantation in Australia in
in northern . In 1883, Alfred Bushell opened the first tea shop in Australia in present-day Queensland. In 1899, Bushell's sons moved the enterprise to
and began selling tea commercially, founding Australia's first commercial tea seller .
Tea Garden in Sri Lanka
is renowned for its high quality tea and as the fourth biggest tea producing country globally, after China, India and Kenya, and has a production share of 9% in the international sphere. The total extent of land under tea cultivation has been assessed at approximately 187,309 hectares.
The plantations started by the British were initially taken over by the government in the 1960s, but have been privatized and are now run by 'plantation companies' which own a few 'estates' or tea plantations each.
Ceylon tea is divided into 3 groups as Upcountry, Mid country and Low country tea based on the geography of the land on which it is grown.
Africa and South America have seen greatly increased tea production in recent decades, the great majority for export to Europe and North America respectively, produced on large estates, often owned by tea companies from the export markets. Almost all production is of basic mass-market teas, processed by the
is now the third largest global producer (figures below), after China and India, and is now the largest exporter of tea to the United Kingdom. There is also a great consumption of tea in Chile. In South Africa, the non- beverage
is popular. In South America
is a popular
The only European plantation is , located in
(Portugal).
In South America, the tea production in Brazil has strong roots due to the country's origins in Portugal, the strong presence of Japanese immigrants and also because of the influences of their neighbor's yerba mate culture. Brazil had a big tea production until the 80s, but it has weakened in the past decades. Right now, there's only a few families trying to reorganize the tea production in the , facing strong competition against the coffee companies.
Mary Lou H Robert J. Heiss (23 March 2011). . Random House. p. 31.  . By the time of the Shang dynasty ( BC), tea was being consumed in Yunnan Province for its medicinal properties
, p. 29: "beginning in the third century CE, references to tea seem more credible, in particular those dating to the time of Hua T'o, a highly respected physician and surgeon"
Bennett Alan W Bonnie K. Bealer (2001). . Psychology Press. p. 63.  . The Portuguese traders and the Portuguese Jesuit priests, who like Jesuits of every nation busied themselves with the affairs of caffeine, wrote frequently and favorably to compatriots in Europe about tea.
Colleen Taylor Sen (2004). . Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 26.  .
Mary Lou H Robert J. Heiss. The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide. citing Mondal (2007) p. 519
:4 "For a long time, botanists have asserted the dualism of tea origin from their observations that there exist distinct differences in the morphological characteristics between Assamese varieties and Chinese varieties.
Hashimoto and Shimura reported that the differences in the morphological characteristics in tea plants are not necessarily the evidence of the dualism hypothesis from the researches using the statistical cluster analysis method. In recent investigations, it has also been made clear that both varieties have the same chromosome number (2n=30) and can be easily hybridized with each other. In addition, various types of intermediate hybrids or spontaneous polyploids of tea plants have been found in a wide area extending over the regions mentioned above. These facts may prove that the place of origin of Camellia sinensis is in the area including the northern part of the Burma, Yunnan, and Sichuan districts of China."
Fuller, Thomas (). . The New York Times. New York. p. A8.
The Oldest Tea Tree on the Earth, (Kunming, 2006).
. Archived from
on 31 March .
Saberi, Helen. Tea, a global history. London. Reaktion books ltd. 2010. Print.
Chow p. 19-20 (Czech edition); also Arcimovicova p. 9, Evans p. 2 and others
Lu Ju p. 29-30 (Czech edition)
Chow p. 20-21
Evans p. 3
Houyuan Lu et al. (7 January 2016). . . : 2016.
. . 10 January .
. . Archived from
Sixth Edition. 2001–07.
James A. Benn. . Hong Kong University Press. p. 42.  .
. Inventors.about.com (9 April 2012). Retrieved on 13 May 2013.
Bennett Alan Weinberg, Bonnie K. Bealer (2001). . Routledge. p. 28.  .
Pettigrew, Jane (2009). "The discovery of Tea". afternoon tea. PITKIN. p. 10.  . Known as the 'Elixir of Life'
James A. Benn. . Hong Kong University Press. p. 42.  .
George Staunton (1797). An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China, Undertaken By Order of the King of Great B Including the Manners and Customs of the I and Preceded By an Account of the Causes of the embassy and Voyage to China. J. Stockdale. p. 452. The Chinese perceiving these dispositions in the monkey took advantage of the propensities of the animal and converted them to life in a domestic state which in that of nature were exerted to their annoyance.
Robert Fortune (1852). A Journey to the Tea Countries of C including Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills. J. Murray. p. 237. I should not like to assert that no tea is gathered on these hills by the agency of chains and monkeys but I think it may be safely affirmed that the quantity in such is small.
Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming. Wanderings in China. W. Blackwood and Sons. p. 318.
Laura C. Martin (2007). Tea: The Drink that Changed the World. Tuttle Publishing. p. 133.  .
Book of Tea By Kakuzō Okakura (pp. 5–6). Published 1964. Courier Dover Publications. Sociology. 94 pages.  
Ukers, William Harrison (1 January 1935). . Tea and coffee trade journal Company 2017
– via Google Books.
Sen, Colleen Taylor. p. 26. "Ironically, it was the British who introduced tea drinking to India, initially to anglicized Indians.. tea did not become a mass drink in India until the 1950s when the India Tea Board, faced with a surplus of low-grade tea, launched an advertising campaign to popularize tea in the North, where the drink of choice was milk."
tea. (2008). Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Paul Chrystal (October 17, 2014). . Amberley Publishing Limited.
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. . 29 April 2004. .
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Peterson, Willard J. (7 April 2016). . Cambridge University Press 2017
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Movable Feasts, Sarah Murray, 2007, pp. 164
(PDF). Archived from
(PDF) on 8 June .
Levin, Angela (20 May 2013). .
Turner, Robin (3 October 2009). .
(). . The Adams Papers: Digital Editions: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 1. . Archived from
on . I believe I forgot to tell you one Anecdote: When I first came to this House it was late in the Afternoon, and I had ridden 35 miles at least. “Madam” said I to Mrs. Huston, “is it lawfull for a weary Traveller to refresh himself with a Dish of Tea provided it has been honestly smuggled, or paid no Duties?”“No sir, said she, we have renounced all Tea in this Place. I cant make Tea, but I'le make you Coffee.” Accordingly I have drank Coffee every Afternoon since, and have borne it very well. Tea must be universally renounced. I must be weaned, and the sooner, the better.(2) Stone, William L. (1867). . : Letters and Journals relating to the War of Independence and the Capture of the Troops at Saratoga (Translated from the Original German). Albany: Joel Munsell. p. 147. She then became more gentle, and offered me bread and milk.
I made tea for ourselves. The woman eyed us longingly, for the America but they had resolved to drink it no longer, as the famous duty on the tea had occasioned the war. At .
Note: Fredricka Charlotte Riedesel was the wife of General , commander of all German and Indian troops in General 's
and American prisoner of war during the .(3)
Heiss, Mary L Heiss, Robert .J (2007). "A History of Tea: The Boston Tea Party". . pp. 21–24. At .(4) Zuraw, Lydia (). . . Archived from
on .(5) DeRupo, Joseph (). . . Archived from
on .(6) Luttinger, N Dicum, Gregory (2006). . The New Press. p. 33. At .
Times Online. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
Campbell, Polly (April 26, 2006). "Suited to a tea." Cincinnati Enquirer.
. . November 12, 2013.
. . 5 May .
. Archived from
tea, Bushells.
. Pureceylontea.com. Archived from
. QUARTZ. .
Mair, Victor H.; Hoh, Erling (2009). . .  .
Mondal, T.K. (2007).
Pua, E.C.; Davey, M.R., eds. "Tea". Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry. Berlin: Springer. Transgenic Crops V. (60).
Yamamoto, T; Kim, M; Juneja, L R (1997). Chemistry and Applications of Green Tea. CRC Press.  .
, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Huw Bowen, James Walvin & Amanda Vickery (In Our Time, Apr. 29, 2004)
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