Chapter I

Chapter I : Introduction
A. LEGEND
No one knows when tea was first discovered, but one legend places this event to almost 5,000 years ago and the Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung. Having learned that those who boiled their drinking water suffered from fewer ailments than those who drank it directly from their springs or wells, he followed suit. One day, there accidentally fell leaves from a nearby tree into the his water, he liked the flavor and gave it its name, "Ch'a," which literally means "it is." India and Japan also have their legends, but it was the Chinese people who elevated tea drinking into an art, and in Japan it took on the form of a mystical ceremony. Both countries viewed it as a symbolic link with the elements of nature. In China, the boiling water is compared with a landscape painting, depicting floating clouds, mountain mists and rippling waters. The Zen Buddhist priests describe three stages in heating the water, first they liken the tiny bubbles with the eyes of fish, then with falling beads of crystal, and, finally, as it boils, the water becomes billowing torrents and surging seas. The study of tea is a source of endless fascination, for its flavors are infinitely complex, and its history is the history of man, his institutions and his emergence from the ancient to the modern world.
B. HISTORY
All legend aside, historians have established that the purposeful cultivation of tea began in Szechuan, China, around the year 350 AD. By the year 780, the Chinese government had imposed the first known tea tax, so we know that it must certainly have proliferated quickly and become an important cash crop. It was so important to the economy that they even used it as money. In 800 AD tea was introduced into Japan, and slowly to the rest of the world. Marco Polo, the Crusades and all the wars that occurred between Arabs and Europeans helped to spur trade and the gradual import by European countries of tea. By the early 1600's tea had become very popular in England. It had been touted as a cure-all and the public was sold on it. England thus became, and has remained, the largest market for tea. Early Dutch settlers are credited for bringing tea to America, probably around the mid 1600's. By the mid 1700's it had become so important as a commodity that King George III chose it as a source of tax revenue and started considerably more than a storm in a tea cup. And we know all about the Boston Tea Party. Tea bags are the invention of a New York tea and coffee merchant, who, in 1904, sent samples of tea to his special customers, that were sewn by hand into silk bags, deciding it was less costly than using tin boxes that were popular at that time. To his surprise, the orders started coming in for tea in these special bags; his customers found that it was much easier and faster to pour boiling water over the bag than to prepare it for loose tea. And this unintentional piece of advertising resulted in the filter paper bag that we know of today.
Iced tea was another case of necessity being the mother of invention. At the St. Louis World's Fair, at the beginning of this century, an Englishman, hired to help promote tea, could find no takers. It was hot, and all preferred cold beverages. So he added some ice to the drink and it became an instant success.
C. PROCESSING
Tea undergoes several processes before it becomes ready for drinking.

Withering. This is a drying and leaf preserving process that takes up to two days. Rolling. The green leaves are rolled and twisted under pressure to break up the cellular structure of the leaves for the purpose of releasing the juices and enzymes that give tea its characteristic flavor. Roll-breaking. After rolling, the tea leaves become pressed into clumps that are broken up to separate the fine from the coarse leaves. Then the coarse leaves are rolled again. This process begins oxidation in the leaves from the heat that is generated. Fermentation. During this 8 hour process, the leaves, spread on a cement, glass or tile floor, turn a bright copper color. And it is at this stage that tannin, which affects the strength, body, pungency and color of tea, is developed. A short fermentation results in a pungent tea, and a longer one produces a tea with a fuller flavor. Firing. During this final process, the tea leaves are dried by being passed slowly under hot dry air at a carefully controlled temperature.

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Chapter I : Introduction

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