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| By this time in China,
tea was enjoyed by the nobility as an elegant past-time. At the height of the
Tang dynasty, the poet Lu Yu wrote the first book on tea 'Cha Ching' or
'The Tea Code' describing its botany, processing, infusing and tasting
techniques. The book is today considered a classic literary text. |
| Tea was introduced to Japan by a Buddhist
monk named Saicho. Tea penetrated into the rest of Asia and the Middle East through on-land trade routes before reaching Europe. |
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| Marco Polo writes in his famed tome 'The Book of Marco Polo, wherein is recounted the Wonders of the World' of the dismissal of a Chinese finance minister as a result of the arbitrary increase to the tax on tea. |
| Tea's popularity reaches its
height when Zen priest Murata Shuko introduced the 'Cha-no-Yu' or 'Hot Water
for Tea' ceremony which celebrates the physical, mental as well as spiritual
aspects of tea preparation and drinking. |
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Marco Polo writes in his famed tome 'The Book of Marco Polo,
wherein is recounted the Wonders of the World' of the dismissal of a
Chinese finance minister as a result of the arbitrary increase to the tax on
tea.
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| Tea catches on in the West. The
French East India Company established regular trade relations with the Far
East, introducing tea into Holland in 1610, France in 1636 and England in
1650. |
| Under the charter granted by
Elizabeth I, the East India Company had been in contact with China since 1637
but tea only appears on import documents in this year. |
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| King Charles II of England
marries the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza who introduces and makes
popular the custom of drinking tea in England. |
| American nationalists dump
crates of tea from a British ship into the sea in protest over rising taxes
imposed by the British colonists. Known today as the Boston Tea Party, the
riot served as a catalyst for the American War of Independence. |
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| Tea grows in demand across the
globe. Competition between shipowners for the speediest transportation of tea
along the Far East shipping routes lead to the development of the Tea Clipper
races. |
| Ceylon (today, Sri Lanka), one
of the biggest names in tea, was a late bloomer. Up to 1870, the country had
grown only coffee but in this year, a severe coffee blight attacked and
threatened to destroy the entire industry overnight. Panicking, Ceylonese coffee
planters turned to the wild Ceylonese tea plant in a desperate gamble to save
their fortunes. The bet paid off. Today, Ceylonese tea is widely regarded as
some of the best teas in the world. |
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| J.A. Russell, businessman,
scholar and tea pioneer, established Malaysia's first highland tea plantation
in Cameron Highlands. |
| The United Kingdom is
considered to have the highest tea consumption in the world. The country's
love of tea is perhaps best represented by the tea card phenomenon which
gripped the country during this period. Tea cards were illustrated cards
contained in packets of loose leaf tea. Meant to be collected by children as
their parents bought tea for household consumption, these cards are now
valuable collectors' items, many of which have been illustrated by renowned
artists. |
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| India is today's foremost
tea-producing country followed by China, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Other major
players are Turkey, USSR, Indonesia and Japan. |