| 7s | During a long day spent roaming the forest in search of edible grains and herbs, |
| 11s | the weary divine farmer Shennong accidentally poisoned himself 72 times. |
| 16s | But before the poisons could end his life, |
| 19s | a leaf drifted into his mouth. |
| 21s | He chewed on it and it revived him, |
| 24s | and that is how we discovered tea. |
| 26s | Or so an ancient legend goes at least. |
| 29s | Tea doesn't actually cure poisonings, |
| 31s | but the story of Shennong, |
| 33s | the mythical Chinese inventor of agriculture, |
| 35s | highlights tea's importance to ancient China. |
| 38s | Archaeological evidence suggests tea was first cultivated there |
| 41s | as early as 6,000 years ago, |
| 44s | or 1,500 years before the pharaohs built the Great Pyramids of Giza. |
| 48s | That original Chinese tea plant |
| 50s | is the same type that's grown around the world today, |
| 52s | yet it was originally consumed very differently. |
| 55s | It was eaten as a vegetable or cooked with grain porridge. |
| 59s | Tea only shifted from food to drink 1,500 years ago |
| 62s | when people realized that a combination of heat and moisture |
| 66s | could create a complex and varied taste out of the leafy green. |
| 70s | After hundreds of years of variations to the preparation method, |
| 74s | the standard became to heat tea, |
| 76s | pack it into portable cakes, |
| 77s | |
| 79s | |
| 81s | and create a beverage called muo cha, or matcha. |
| 85s | Matcha became so popular that a distinct Chinese tea culture emerged. |
| 90s | Tea was the subject of books and poetry, |
| 92s | the favorite drink of emperors, |
| 93s | and a medium for artists. |
| 95s | They would draw extravagant pictures in the foam of the tea, |
| 98s | very much like the espresso art you might see in coffee shops today. |
| 102s | In the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty, |
| 105s | a Japanese monk brought the first tea plant to Japan. |
| 109s | The Japanese eventually developed their own unique rituals around tea, |
| 113s | leading to the creation of the Japanese tea ceremony. |
| 116s | And in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty, |
| 119s | the Chinese emperor shifted the standard |
| 121s | from tea pressed into cakes to loose leaf tea. |
| 124s | At that point, China still held a virtual monopoly on the world's tea trees, |
| 128s | making tea one of three essential Chinese export goods, |
| 132s | along with porcelain and silk. |
| 134s | This gave China a great deal of power and economic influence |
| 137s | as tea drinking spread around the world. |
| 140s | That spread began in earnest around the early 1600s |
| 143s | when Dutch traders brought tea to Europe in large quantities. |
| 147s | Many credit Queen Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese noble woman, |
| 150s | for making tea popular with the English aristocracy |
| 153s | when she married King Charles II in 1661. |
| 157s | At the time, Great Britain was in the midst of expanding its colonial influence |
| 161s | and becoming the new dominant world power. |
| 164s | And as Great Britain grew, interest in tea spread around the world. |
| 168s | By 1700, tea in Europe sold for ten times the price of coffee |
| 173s | and the plant was still only grown in China. |
| 176s | The tea trade was so lucrative |
| 177s | that the world's fastest sailboat, the clipper ship, |
| 180s | was born out of intense competition between Western trading companies. |
| 184s | All were racing to bring their tea back to Europe first |
| 187s | to maximize their profits. |
| 189s | At first, Britain paid for all this Chinese tea with silver. |
| 193s | When that proved too expensive, |
| 195s | they suggested trading tea for another substance, opium. |
| 199s | This triggered a public health problem within China |
| 202s | as people became addicted to the drug. |
| 204s | Then in 1839, a Chinese official ordered his men |
| 208s | to destroy massive British shipments of opium |
| 210s | as a statement against Britain's influence over China. |
| 213s | This act triggered the First Opium War between the two nations. |
| 217s | Fighting raged up and down the Chinese coast until 1842 |
| 221s | when the defeated Qing Dynasty ceded the port of Hong Kong to the British |
| 225s | and resumed trading on unfavorable terms. |
| 228s | The war weakened China's global standing for over a century. |
| 232s | The British East India company also wanted to be able to grow tea themselves |
| 236s | and further control the market. |
| 238s | So they commissioned botanist Robert Fortune |
| 241s | to steal tea from China in a covert operation. |
| 245s | He disguised himself and took a perilous journey |
| 247s | through China's mountainous tea regions, |
| 249s | eventually smuggling tea trees and experienced tea workers |
| 252s | |
| 254s | From there, the plant spread further still, |
| 257s | helping drive tea's rapid growth as an everyday commodity. |
| 261s | Today, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, |
| 265s | and from sugary Turkish Rize tea, |
| 267s | to salty Tibetan butter tea, |
| 269s | there are almost as many ways of preparing the beverage |
| 272s | as there are cultures on the globe. |
