by Athlyn Green

Created on: July 19, 2007   Last Updated: August 17, 2010

Tantalizing Tea: A Refreshing Drink For All Occasions

Tea is a drink brewed from the leaf of camellia sinensis. Some people drink their tea with lemon, milk, cream, or sugar; others prefer it straight up. Do you like black tea, Assam or Darjeeling? Perhaps you prefer green tea?

The health benefits of tea are becoming widely known. Green tea contains vitamin C but it also inhibits the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the body. Tea of all kinds helps to reduce cholesterol. It is a natural source of the amino acid theanine and polyphenolic antioxidant catechins. Tea also contains fluoride. Regular drinking of tea can prevent dental cavities to some extent.

Some people prefer herbal teas, which are infusions of different plants. Valerian root tea can combat insomnia; peppermint tea has a soothing effect on the stomach; chamomile tea offers both of these benefits.

Loose tea is still sold but the advent of the teabag in 1908 changed the way tea was marketed. Thomas Sullivan, an importer, sent out tea samples in small silk bags. As the story goes, a customer decided to dunk a bag, discovered how convenient it was, and the rest is history.

In 1904, at the St. Louis World's Fair, hot tea was passed over because of the extreme outside temperatures. All was not lost though. A savvy British tea merchant thought to pour tea over ice and invented iced tea.

How Was Tea First Discovered?

* As legend has it, a revered Chinese emperor taught that boiling water made it safe for drinking. He accidentally discovered tea when a few tea leaves fell into some water he was preparing. He tasted the resulting infusion and touted it as medicine.

* Tea spread to Japan when a Japanese monk returned to his native land, bringing seeds from a tea plant.

* Much later, tea arrived in Europe. Dutch traders introduced tea, importing it from Japan.

"I say, a right cup-a-the-rosy!"

It could be said that tea found its home in England. The English fell in love with the stuff and by the late 1700s were enthusiastically sipping their way through approximately 5 million tons of it! The love affair was so entrenched that the British supplied opium to China to support the British tea habit, resulting in the ill-famed Opium Wars.

Tea in the New World

The tea habit was brought to the New World by American settlers; however, interest cooled after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists tossed crates of tea into Boston Harbor to protest British taxes on tea.

One Species of Tea Plant, Many Varieties

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