The Tea Tradition, Part II

I thought it would be nice to include a little more on the origins of tea after last week's post.

Tea in China:
It is impossible to know whether there is any truth to this story but tea drinking was popular in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the West. Containers for tea have been found in tombs dating from the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), but it was under the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD) that tea became firmly established as the national drink of China. It became such a favorite that during the late Eighth Century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch'a Ching, or Tea Classic.

Tea in Japan:
Tea was first introduced to Japan by Japanese Buddhist monks who had traveled to China to study. Tea drinking has become a vital part of Japanese culture, as seen in the development of the Tea Ceremony, which may be rooted in the rituals described in the Ch'a Ching.

Tea in Europe:
In 1560 A.D., the Portuguese missionary Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz was the first European to encounter and write about tea. After its arrival in Portugal, it was shipped to Lisbon, then to France, Holland and the Baltic countries.


Tea Arrives in England:
Although we assume that tea originated in England and the British culture, it is interesting to find out that the first sample of tea reached England when Catherine de Braganza brought chests of it in her dowry for her marriage to Charles II in 1663. Charles and Catherine's affinity for tea quickly popularized it amongst the upper classes and the British tea trade began in earnest in the 1670's, thanks to the British East India Company. By 1880, afternoon tea had spread to the homes of the upper classes and to tea shops across the country. There were two types of tea traditions: low tea and high tea. Low tea was for the wealthy aristocrats. It was served elegantly with menus centered around small cakes, dainty sandwiches, assorted sweets, other gourmet tidbits and, of course, tea and where the emphasis was not only on presentation but conversation. Midway through the Industrial Revolution, working classes adopted a variation of high tea for themselves: a heavier meal served with tea at 5 PM, upon their return home from work and consisted of meats, vegetables and tea. The U.S. has a slightly different focus on some aspects of afternoon tea and the terms high and low teas have changed in today's society, as people often associate the term "high tea" with the wealthy and "low tea" with the working class.