Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by steeping fresh or processed leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia. The plant most likely originated in the borderlands of south-western China, northern Myanmar, and north-eastern India. Although other Camellia species such as Camellia taliensis can be used, these are far less common. After water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. Its flavour profile varies significantly across types, ranging from cooling, bitter, and astringent qualities to sweeter, floral, nutty, and grassy notes. Tea contains caffeine and therefore has a mild stimulating effect in humans.
Tea has been consumed for medicinal and recreational purposes for centuries. The earliest credible references date to the third century CE in texts attributed to the Chinese physician Hua Tuo, while widespread social consumption began during the Tang dynasty. From East Asia, tea culture spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, and was later introduced to Europe by merchants and missionaries during the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth century it had become fashionable across Britain, eventually prompting extensive tea cultivation in colonial South Asia. Drinks made from other plants—such as rosehip, rooibos, and chamomile—are sometimes called herbal teas, though technically they are tisanes rather than true tea.

Etymology

The global vocabulary for tea reflects its complex history of trade and cultural exchange. Virtually all names for tea fall into three major groups: te, cha, and chai.
• Cha entered English in the 1590s through Portuguese traders in Macao, who borrowed the Cantonese pronunciation.• Tea arrived in the seventeenth century via Dutch traders who obtained the term from Malay teh or from Min Chinese dialects where it is pronounced te.• Chai is derived from a northern Chinese form of cha, transmitted overland to Central Asia and Persia where it acquired the suffix -yi.
Linguists suggest that the Chinese word for tea may ultimately descend from non-Sinitic languages spoken in the botanical homeland of the tea plant, possibly from an Austroasiatic root meaning “leaf”.

Botanical Origins

Tea plants are indigenous to East Asia within a broad fan-shaped region stretching from Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram along the Myanmar frontier, eastwards across Yunnan to Zhejiang, and southwards across the highlands of Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. This area encompasses both small-leaf and large-leaf varieties of Camellia sinensis.
Genetic studies indicate complex domestication patterns:
• The small-leaf Chinese variety (C. sinensis var. sinensis) probably originated in southern China but lacks identifiable wild populations.• Chinese Assam-type tea (C. sinensis var. assamica) appears to have two independent parentages in southern and western Yunnan.• Indian Assam tea also belongs to C. sinensis var. assamica but seems to have arisen through separate domestication and hybridisation processes, involving species such as Camellia pubicosta.
Assuming a 12-year generational cycle, small-leaf tea diverged from Assam tea approximately 22,000 years ago, with the divergence between Chinese Assam and Indian Assam tea estimated at around 2,800 years ago.

Early Tea Consumption

Long before it became a beverage, tea leaves were eaten raw, cooked in soups, or fermented and chewed. Tea drinking in a recognisably modern form likely began in Yunnan as a medicinal infusion. Sichuan appears to have been early in preparing boiled tea as a concentrated drink without added herbs.
Chinese legend attributes the discovery of tea to the mythical ruler Shennong, who supposedly tasted the infusion in 2737 BCE. However, archaeological and literary evidence points to a southwestern origin. References to a bitter plant called tu appear in ancient texts such as the Classic of Poetry, though the term may have designated various bitter greens.
The earliest physical remains of tea were found in the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han, dating to the second century BCE. A contractual document from 59 BCE mentions boiling and serving tea, indicating established household practice. Cultivation was first recorded on Meng Mountain near Chengdu during the Han dynasty. By the third century CE, medical texts recommended bitter tea for its sharpening effect on the mind.
Before the Tang dynasty, tea was primarily consumed in southern China and viewed with some disdain in the north. During the Tang period, it gained immense popularity across all social classes and spread culturally to neighbouring regions. Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea, an eighth-century treatise, shaped the aesthetics, preparation methods, and philosophical dimensions of Chinese tea culture.

Development of Processing Techniques

Over time, numerous styles of tea processing emerged:
• Tang dynasty: Leaves were steamed, pounded, and pressed into cakes.• Song dynasty: Loose-leaf tea became popular, and powdered tea whisking ceremonies flourished.• Yuan and Ming dynasties: Pan-firing, rolling, and air-drying techniques were established, creating the foundation of modern green teas by halting oxidation.• Fifteenth century: Semi-oxidised oolong tea appeared.• Later centuries: Fully oxidised black tea became favoured in Western markets.• Yellow tea developed accidentally when green tea leaves underwent slow drying, producing a unique mellow flavour.
These technological innovations diversified tea types and regional specialities.

Worldwide Spread

Tea was introduced to European travellers during the sixteenth century. Early Western references describe it as “cha” or “chiai”. Jesuit accounts and trading records contributed to its growing familiarity. In the seventeenth century, the drink gained rapid popularity in Britain, shaping social customs and driving commercial expansion. British colonial enterprises later established large-scale tea plantations across South Asia, especially in Assam, Darjeeling, and Sri Lanka.
By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tea had become a global commodity, integral to economies, cultural rituals, and daily life in many societies. Today, it remains a symbol of hospitality and tradition from East Asia to the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and beyond.