The Chinese have been drinking tea for ages; for the last 4746 years to be precise. According to legend, the second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when the wind blows leaves from the tree Camelia Sinensis into his cup of hot water. The legend doesn’t specify if this happened during breakfast or during a coffee break.

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Events in the History of Tea

• The first recorded mention of tea is around 350 A.D. in a Chinese dictionary. Around 400 A.D., tea is called Kuang Ya in another dictionary and details of tea infusion are found.
• Product Differentiation happens to tea! Tea becomes a medicinal herb in China. People begin adding ginger, spices, orange and even onions to teas. 400-600 A.D.
• Tea becomes a cross-border commodity! Turkish traders discover tea in Mongolia around 480 A.D.
• Tea becomes an exotic overseas luxury! Japanese Buddhist priests studying in China take back tealeaves, seeds and tea drinking culture in addition to Buddhism.
• Brand Identity of Ch’a is born! The first mention of the Chinese character Ch’a for tea in 725 A.D. Ch’a is the name still used by almost all Indian and Russian tea drinkers. For some curious reason, the Indians and the Russians don’t use the Chinese characters.
• Tea Tax is invented! 
Like all governments sniffing an opportunity to tax the people, the Chinese government become the first imposers of Tea Tax in the world in 780 A.D. Oldest recorded book about Tea – Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea) written by Lu Yu.
• Tea, among other pastimes causes loss of empire! 1101 -1126 – Hui Tsung, the eighth Sung emperor immerses himself in writing about best methods for cultivating, preparing and enjoying tea and fathering 63 children. Meanwhile, the Mongols take over his empire.
• Tea becomes plebian! For the next three hundred years, tea is out of fashion for the aristocracy and becomes a common people’s drink, as the Mongol rulers don’t like tea.
• Fighting about who discovered tea begins in Europe! 1589 – 1597 – Europeans learn about tea from a Venetian author and from Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Linschooten’s travels. Portuguese catholic priests also claim to have first discovered tea in China.
• Brand Management meets Tea! The Dutch East India Company brands Tea as a life enhancing medicinal elixir (very expensive) for the elite and the image conscious wannabe elite in 1610 A.D.
• Tea marries jam! The Russian first reject tea in 1618, as useless and then start adding sweet jam to it. It took them 80 years to learn to appreciate a product that in those days took 16 months to travel 17 000 miles. Tea becomes Russia’s national drink alongside Vodka.
• Tea enters politics! In 1650, the Dutch trader Peter Stuyvesant brings tea to New Amsterdam (now New York) and soon the colonies start drinking more tea than the English. The British government forbids Dutch tea and allows East India Company to coin its own money, declare wars, make peace, and distribute justice as it saw fit. The Boston Tea Party, in 1773, establishes a new standard for political behaviour at harbour parties.
• Tea becomes cool! Ice tea becomes an accidental hit at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Almost 70-80% of the 140 million cups of tea Americans drink each day is iced tea.

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• Tea Bag becomes yet another accidental invention. Samples of expensive tea at the turn of the twentieth century were given out in small silk or muslin bags. Sometimes customers would drop the whole bag into the boiling water. Soon a tea company took a patent in 1904. Today 70% of the whole world’s tea bag making machines comes from one company in Argentina; a country, which produces only 2% of all the tea in the world.

 
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How To Thank for Tea at a Chinese Table

After your cup is filled, knock your bent index and middle fingers on the table to express gratitude to the person who served the tea.
 

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This custom originated in the Qing Dynasty, over 300 years ago. Emperor Qianlong wanted to travel incognito through the empire. Servants were instructed not to reveal the Emperor’s identity. One day in a restaurant, the emperor, after pouring himself a cup of tea, filled a servant’s cup as well. This was such a huge honour for the servant to have the emperor pour him a cup of tea but the servant could not kneel and kowtow to the emperor to express his thanks since that would have revealed the emperor’s identity. So he bent his fingers on the table to express his gratitude and respect to the emperor. This “thanks” knock is still in used today in China and Chinese-influenced areas.