Where Does Tea Come From? - The Culture of Tea - Part 2

Where Does Tea Come From?

The origins of tea and the complex history of how it was spread around the world is a culturally rich, yet often bloodied, story. It all starts in China, where tea has been a source of health and culture for thousands of years. Through the development of global trade, and in spite of major conflicts, each country the plant has touched develops it’s own traditions, practices, and communities surrounding the cup.

Early Origins of Tea

When was tea first found? There are two major methods we can use to answer this question; written history, and physical evidence. However, these methods may not tell the whole story, as written history and physical evidence may deteriorate over time. Oral histories and traditions may give us even deeper insights into the history of tea.

The oral history goes back the furthest. Chinese legend says that in 2737 BCE the mythical emperor and herbalist, Shen Nung, sat under a tree while a servant boiled drinking water. A leaf fell from the tree into the water and the emperor decided to taste the brew, enjoying the first cup of tea. This legend is a favorite amongst tea drinkers, widely considered to be the first account of tea being brewed. The oral traditions play a crucial role in understanding the origins of tea, because the first known written text about tea wasn’t written until over 2500 years later.

In 59 BCE Wang Bao, a poet and musician to the Emperor’s court, wrote a contract to purchase a servant of the widowed Lady Hui. The contract brutally described how tea and other goods were to be purchased, prepared, and served with excruciating detail. By creating this contract, Wang Bao unknowingly created the oldest known written history of tea. While the earliest written record is marred with cruelty, physical evidence proves that the beverage was well established in Chinese culture long before Wang Bao’s contract was written.

In 2016 the earliest physical evidence of tea leaves was found in the Han Yangling Mausoleum in Xi’an, China. The tomb was built for the Jing Emperor Liu Qi, who passed away in 141 BCE. Several plants were found inside the mausoleum, one of which struck an incredible resemblance to fine teas. The buds were finally identified as Camellia sinensis when they were found to have traces of caffeine and theanine, two of the most recognizable compounds in tea. Several utensils, pottery, and other items were also found in the mausoleum indicating that techniques and practices had already developed by that time. These pieces of physical evidence gives us an idea of how much the culture had developed, even before the first known written record.

A Painting of Legendary Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung by Nobukata

(16th-17th Century CE)

Items found in the Han Yangling Mausoleum in Xi’an, Shaanxi, China.

(circa 141 BCE)

TEA IN THE WEST

The history of tea in China had been developing for over four thousand years before it was widely introduced to the west. This means Chinese tea history is ten times as long as the four hundred years of tea in the west. It’s first major appearance in the western world was from Portuguese traders and missionaries who would travel between eastern and western countries carrying small amounts of tea.

At the time, commercial trade with Asia was controlled under a granted monopoly by the Dutch East India company and the British East India Company under the single entity the United East Indies Company. In 1603 the company established a trade post on the island of Java, Indonesia. In 1606 the first shipment of tea from China to Holland was routed through the trade post. The beverage became a luxury amongst wealthy westerners across Europe, and remained an expensive commodity until the 1784 economic reform of Britain.

Tea in England

High tea, the classic English Breakfast blend, and household drinking are deeply rooted parts of modern English culture. Although, it was not always found in every English household. The first record of tea in England is from a 1658 advertisement in Mercurius Politicus, a weekly newsbook. While the beverage had already permeated the wealthiest of the upper class, it had not found its place yet as a widely consumed commodity. It wasn’t until the marriage of King Charles II, and Catherine of Braganza, a Portugese princess, that the beverage gained mass popularity in England. The then Queen of England was obsessed with the drink, making it widely popular amongst wealthy individuals. Popularity rose and eventually the East India Company made their first shipment to Britain in 1664, containing 100 lbs of Chinese tea to be imported via the tradepost in Java.

Mass Popularity

The beverage grew to wide spread popularity, but was continuously subject to high taxation which severely limited the public’s access to the commodity. While the upper class continued to enjoy tea, the working class simply could not afford it. This created a massive black market, an abundance of piracy, and wide spread adulteration of the product. The high taxation culminated in the majority of the product in America being smuggled, and contributed in causing the Boston Tea Party. These problems persisted until 1784 when British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, cut taxes from 119 percent to 12.5 percent, making tea accessible to everyone, and effectively eliminating the black market.

Tea in India

As mass consumption rose, the need for greater supply increased. China had a monopoly over production and England wanted to find a way to expand production and claim market share in the global industry. After Camellia sinensis. var assamica was found in India in 1824, cultivation began in the region, under British colonization. The first English tea garden was established in 1837, in Upper Assam. The Assam Tea Company then began commercial production in 1840. While the British now had access to the cultivation of tea, they still did not have access to the Sinensis variety or the production techniques used by the Chinese to produce a high quality product. That is until 1848 when Robert Fortune, a plant hunter and botanist, was sent on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society of London to China to learn the secrets of the trade and smuggle Camellia sinensis var. sinensis seeds into India. With this newly acquired information and access to the Sinensis variety, production quickly expanded throughout India in the 1850s. The British and the Dutch would eventually expand production to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and Indonesia in the early 1800s, and throughout Africa in the early 1900s.

The first advertisement for tea appearing in a September 30, 1658 edition of Mercurius Politicus, a weekly newsbook published in England.

Contemporary Tea Production

Largest Producer: China

The modern market is incredibly dynamic as technology continues to develop in transportation and communication. This has allowed the product to find its place in billions of homes and thousands of cultures across the world. When you compare the 1664 shipment of 100lbs to Britain to the modern production of millions of metric tons every year you can start to see the scale of the impact tea has had on the global economy and many different cultures.

China remains the largest tea producer in the world, with 3.35 million metric tons produced in 2022. China's production has been steadily increasing over the last twenty years and it continues its upward trend now. India produces the second most with 1.365 million metric tons produced in 2022. In the same year Kenya produced 535,000 metric tons, and Sri Lanka produced 251,499 metric tons. Other major modern tea producing countries include Türkiye, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Iran, and Argentina. The plant has now entered the contemporary culture of societies all across the world.

Harvesting oolong tea in the Wuyi Shan mountains, China. circa 2006

Consumption Per Capita

Who drinks the most tea? We can answer this in two ways, per capita, and total consumption. Türkiye ranks as the number one tea consuming nation per capita in the world. Turkish citizens drink on average 3-4 cups of tea per day. However, limited access to global data may not show the full picture of per capita tea consumption throughout Asia, and even South American countries. When examining total tea consumption, it comes as no surprise that China’s 1.4 billion population consumes the most with at least 791,000 metric tons, as of a 2016 report. The same report shows Pakistan as the second largest consumer with 320,000 metric tons, then Turkey with 256,000 metric tons. The UK comes in at 6th with 127,000 metric tons consumed, and the US comes in 35th with 74,000 metric tons.