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| | Welcome
to "All about Tea" | The
History of Tea | The
Clipper Ships | Tea
Innovations | The
Flavour of Tea | |
Tea – in Legend and History The actual origin of tea, as a drink, is not recorded in history, only in legend, but it is certain that it began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. The story goes that an early Emperor named Shen Nung was visiting a distant part of his realm one day when serendipity caused a discovery that would spread in popularity all over the world.
Shen Nung was said to be an excellent ‘creative’ ruler – a scientist and a patron of the arts. He was certainly well ahead of his time and in the interests of hygiene he commanded that all drinking water should be boiled. While on a visit to the extremities of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. In accordance with his ruling the servants were busy boiling the drinking water when leaves from a nearby bush blew across the landscape and fell into the water and infused. As a scientist, the Emperor was interested in this new brown liquid and having drunk some, found it very refreshing – and so, according to this narrative, tea was born.
For thousands of years, ‘tea culture’ spread throughout Chinese life and philosophy and every area of society, but it was not until 800 A.D. that the scholar Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on the subject, which was called the Ch'a Ching (Book of Tea).
Lu Yu was an orphan raised by Buddhist monks in one of China's finest monasteries. He was both a rebel and a skilled observer who achieved acclaim as a performer. Later, for a period of five years he became a recluse, withdrawing into seclusion and using his vast experience of events and places in ancient China to log the various methods of tea cultivation and preparation. This huge project caught the attention of the Emperor, who gave him patronage. Lu Yu’s work was deeply influenced by his Zen Buddhist upbringing and he almost achieved sainthood in his lifetime. It was this influence that brought Zen Buddhism and tea drinking together.
The value of tea for enhancing religious mediation in China was noticed by the Japanese Buddhist priest Yeisei, who took the first seeds back with him to Japan. He was thereafter known throughout Japan as the ‘Father of Tea’. The subtly captivating qualities of Tea were well received among members of the royal court, various monasteries and other sections of Japanese society. Since that time, tea in Japan has always been associated with Zen Buddhism.
Tea’s presence as an aid to the calmer side of religious fervour
made its transformation into philosophy and art an easy path. The
Japanese Tea Ceremony was created, otherwise known as: ‘Cha-no-yu’
which translates as ‘the hot water for tea’. The Tea
Ceremony required years of training and practice, even though "the
whole art, signifies no more than the making and
serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that
the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful,
most charming manner possible". This description was written
by the journalist-historian Lafcadio Hearn, who was granted Japanese
citizenship during this era.
The
Geishi began to specialize in the presentation of the tea ceremony
too. Soon the intrinsically simple ceremony became corrupted by
unnecessary embellishment, including ‘tea tournaments’,
which were flamboyantly brash affairs, held among nobles. They were
completely out of harmony with the Zen philosophy surrounding tea,
or even what is considered the correct ritual in teashops today
for that matter. The ceremony's greatest practitioners have always been philosophers, but also artists, connoisseurs, collectors, gardeners, calligraphers, gourmets and flower-arrangers. The greatest of them, Sen Rikyu, left a tantalisingly simple set of rules: "Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so that it heats the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness; in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give to those with whom you find yourself, every consideration."
Tea came to Europe slowly – at first by rumour and whispers.
The first European to ‘take tea’ and document it was
the Portuguese Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz in the 1550’s,
when he was a missionary visiting China. Later, the Portuguese developed
a trade route and shipped tea to Lisbon. This enterprise was repeated
by the Dutch, who transported it to France, Holland and beyond.
Great Britain was the last of the three great sea-faring nations to benefit from the Chinese and East Indian trade routes. Tea first reached English shores between 1652 and 1654, soon proving popular enough to become the national drink – replacing ale. The following quotation by Agnes Reppiler sums this beautifully: "Tea
had come as a deliverer to a land that called for deliverance; a
land of beef and ale, of heavy eating and abundant drunkenness;
of grey skies and harsh winds; of strong nerved , stout-purposed,
slow-thinking men and women. Above all, a land of sheltered homes
and warm firesides - firesides that were waiting - waiting for the
bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea."
Tea in America The Dutch influence on the transportation of tea ensured that it reached America. It was Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672) who took the first tea to the colonists in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (later re-named New York).
The Dutch settlers were avid tea drinkers and it was discovered at the time the English acquired the colony, that this relatively small settlement consumed more tea than all of England.
Afternoon Tea The mania for tea had swept across England soon after it had become popular in Holland and imports rose five fold between 1699 and 1708, but it was not until Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) decided that the "sinking feeling" she experienced in the late afternoon called for the adoption of the European idea of 'tea service' and created, what we now call ‘tea time’.
She did this by inviting friends to join her for an additional summer
meal at five o'clock in her rooms at Belvoir Castle. The menu was
simply bread and butter sandwiches and small cakes. It proved so
popular she took the idea back to London with her, and it soon caught
on. Of course, the afternoon ritual was as much centred around conversation
and gossip as food and drink.
The idea of ‘Tea Gardens’ was inspired by Dutch ‘tavern garden teas’. Ladies and gentlemen took tea outdoors with entertainment and diversions, such as concerts, arbors, flowered walks, bowling greens and gambling.
Women were permitted to enter mixed public gatherings for the first time without social criticism. It was at Tea Garden events that the custom of 'tipping' was developed as a method of ensuring prompt service. In fact, each table had a small wooden box with the letters ‘T.I.P.S.’ inscribed on them. The letters stood for: ‘To Insure Prompt Service’.
Tea Gardens where highly popular in England throughout the twentieth century and although they are now somewhat scarce, they still remain popular today.
Tea Rooms, Tea Courts, and Tea Dances In the late 1880's, fine hotels in England and America began to offer ‘tea service’ in Tea Rooms and Tea Courts. Tea was served in the late afternoon to Victorian ladies and gentlemen who could meet for for tea, conversation and gossip in a socially acceptable way.
By 1910, hotels began to host Tea Dances in the afternoon as various dance crazes began to rival the obsession for tea. These were very popular among younger people who used them to meet members of the opposite sex. |
