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Chinese legend has it that Emperor Chen (or Shen)-Nung discovered tea over 5,000 years ago. As the story goes, the Emperor and his court were traveling when they stopped to rest. His servants began to boil water, which was one of the Emperor’s requirements. He believed that doing this prevented common diseases of that time. As the water was being prepared, a few leaves from a camellia bush fell into the pot. The boiling pot of water gave off a wonderful aroma and the Emperor became curious at this unknown brew. Upon drinking it, he discovered it’s delightful taste. Word spread quickly throughout the land and soon everyone was enjoying the Emperor’s new creation. As the myth says, that’s how “tea” became apart of Chinese culture. Regardless of how the drink was first concocted, Buddhist missionaries quickly introduced tea to other Asian regions such as Japan, Korea, and India. Trade between these nations and the West eventually brought tea to Europe where it became increasingly popular, despite the fact that the first few Europeans who came in contact with a tea leaf had no clue how to use it. Some sources say they boiled the leaves and attempted to eat them! It didn’t take long until “tea” became a way of life. In time, a man by the name of Peter Stuyvesant introduced tea to the colonists of New Amsterdam (now New York) in the Americas. The drink was so popular that it was said that the settlement consumed more tea at one time than all of England. Over the years, this kind of mass popularity led to the taxation of tea in Europe and the Americas. American colonists were so up in arms about the unfair taxes that the English government imposed on the tea, that they dumped hundreds of pounds of tea into the harbor in protest during the Boston Tea Party. Throughout history tea has only grown in popularity and is so much more than just a simple beverage.

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