The History of Tea

Once upon a time in a far off land a wild tea leaf fell into a boiling pot of water of a Chinese emperor and thus started the love of tea.

Well that’s the story anyway. Tea does get it’s origins from China. But only China and Japan enjoyed tea for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until the 17th century when Portuguese and Dutch traders brought it into Europe. And the late 17th century where it came to England to be enjoyed by the aristocracy, since it was expensive to import. The British also imported porcelain from the East, which they called China as that is where the material came from.

Americans were shipped this costly drink until The Boston Tea party mishap in 1773. Then we had a bit of break from it. About 15 years later, America cut out the middle man and traded directly with China. It wasn’t until the 18th century where tea became available for all classes of people, since it began to be grown in areas outside of China.

And tea became enjoyed happily ever after.