The History of Green Tea
Green Tea is particularly popular in Asia in countries such as China and Japan.
In more recent years Green Tea has become popular in the Western world as people learn more about the health benefits associated with drinking it.
The drink has a long history.
It is believed that Green Tea was originally discovered over 5000 years ago in China.
There are 2 famous legends surrounding the discovery.
The first being that a man accidentally tasted the juice from a tea plant leaf and liked the flavour and felt the tea had medicinal benefits. He then took the next step by mixing the leaf juice with water to create a drink.
The second legend states that a tea blossom fell into an Emperors cup of hot water accidentally one day and from then on he always added the tea blossom to his drink.
For a long time the only type of tea drunk was Green Tea.
People steeped the tea leaves (of the plant Camellia Sinensis) in their natural form in hot water to create the beverage which was already considered good for the nervous systems and assisting with digestion.
The simplicity in how to make it aided its popularity and it was seen as a refreshing tonic by many.
The “Cha Jing” or “Tea Classic” book was written somewhere around 600AD by Lu Yu and was considered a tea manual – explaining how to make perfect tea and when people should drink it.
Later (sometime around the 1600’s) came different types of green tea: Black Tea which is fermented Green Tea and Oolong which is partly fermented.
The drink made its way across Asia and became very popular in Japan.
Japanese monks travelled to China and returned with tea.
It is said that the Japanese turned drinking tea into a ritual and in both China and Japan they take special care with the presentation of the tea – in an almost artistic manner.
Tea houses were created and people became experts in making tea.
Tea drinking became popular with the wealthy and it has been said that in some cases tea was used as a currency.
An industry was created and the vessels (teacups, teapots and tea sets) became just as important as the drink itself.
The Western world gradually caught on that the drink was beneficial to health and have since developed their own green tea blends.
The tea contains a high level of antioxidants and because it is not heavily processed these are not lost before the tea is drunk. Some of the health benefits include assisting with weight loss, reducing the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes and some people believe that drinking Green Tea also helps to reduce the risk of cancer.
With the drinks popularity in Europe and the USA as well as throughout Asia tea has become the most popular drink in the world after water.
