History of tea

The history of tea goes back almost five millennia. According to legend, Emperor Shennong discovered the tea plant as a medicinal herb in 2737 BC, as an antidote to poisons from other plants whose healing properties he was researching. For a long time, tea was only used as a medicinal plant. Only after a longer phase, during which tea was drunk with other herbs, fruits etc. and salt as a kind of ‘drink’ - whether for acute medical treatment or prophylactically - did tea establish itself as a beverage in its pure form. The old traditions of brewing tea together with other ingredients have been preserved by many peoples in the border regions of China, such as Tibetan butter tea or Mongolian milk tea.

The tea plant itself originates from the south of today's Yunnan province and was only gradually spread throughout China. In particular, the large-scale projects of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di (259-201 BCE), the unifier of the empire shortly before the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), brought tea to China. The expansion of the Great Wall and the construction of his tomb complex with the terracotta army to protect him after his death helped to spread tea: countless people, including convicted criminals, decommissioned soldiers and hired (forced) labourers from all parts of China had to work on it. Through the exchange between these people from different backgrounds, their respective customs and utensils became known and spread.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), when Lu Yu (728-804 CE) wrote the classic ‘Chajing’, the first known book about tea, tea was not yet processed as leaf tea as it is today, but pressed into cakes and stored. Leaves, stems etc. were processed together, the leaves were not left intact. In some cases, the leaves were boiled down as a brew and pressed into bamboo tubes, for example. The exact processing is disputed, but it was not one of the six types of processing that exist today, most likely similar to today's heicha. Before drinking, a piece of tea was pulverised, poured over with hot water and whipped with a bamboo whisk until frothy. This tradition is still preserved today in the Japanese tea ceremony - albeit with a powdered leaf tea previously processed as green tea.

It was not until the Song (960-1279 CE) and Ming (1368-1644 CE) dynasties that tea culture and tea processing had developed to such an extent that tea was processed as leaf tea. In addition to Heicha, which is probably a relic from earlier times with only slightly different processing, the first processing method known today was green tea (probably in the 12th century), although initially in the steamed green tea variant that is now mainly produced in Japan; roasting or baking techniques only emerged later (16th century). Yellow tea was probably invented relatively soon afterwards; the only difference in the transforming process is the ‘menhuang’, which means “Sealing Yellow”. Oolong tea was first processed around 1500, and white tea and black tea only emerged in the 19th century.