Tea is undoubtedly an ancient beverage, which of course means its origins are shrouded in mythology. The July NovelTea Book Club parcel theme, ‘Ancient Stories', seemed an excellent opportunity to do a little bit of research into these stories!
Firstly, a quick definition - when I say ‘tea’, I’m referring to the beverage made by pouring hot water over the leaves of the Camellia sinensis, a plant native to northern India, northern Myanmar, Tibet and south west China. There are a lot of other drinks that we often call tea - usually hot water poured over other types of leaves, flowers or fruits - that have their origins all over the world. But for the purposes of this post, we’re sticking to the ‘tea’ plant.
Historically speaking, there are records of tea drinking in China in 59BC, and physical evidence has been recently recovered indicating that tea from the Camellia plant was drunk by Emperors from the Han dynasty as early as the 2nd century BC. But that’s boring… let’s get to the stories!
Chinese legend attributes the discovery of tea to Emperor Shennong in 2737 BC.
Shennong may or may not have been a historical figure, but he’s pretty important in Ancient Chinese mythology. He’s credited with teaching humans use of the plow and various other agricultural practices, as well as discovering (by experimenting on himself) the medicinal properties of many plants.
Legend has it, Shennong was sitting in his garden one day, drinking a bowl of just-boiled water and (I like to imagine) enjoying some fresh air and bird song. As he sat and sipped, leaves from a nearby wild tea bush blew into his bowl, changing the colour and taste of his drink. As the story goes, he enjoyed this new beverage so much that he went on to add it to his research and discover its medicinal properties.
Another, slightly more gruesome legend stars Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk from Central Asia or the Indian subcontinent. He lived in the 5th or 6th century and is credited as having founded Chan Buddhism in China. Bodhidharma vowed to meditate in front of a wall for nine years (in a cave, so probably less fresh air and bird song than the Shennong legend).
So the story goes, he fell asleep after 7 years, which is a pretty good effort if you ask me. Upon waking, he was so angry with himself that he cut off his eyelids so that it wouldn’t happen again. His eyelids fell to the ground and up sprang the first tea plants - providing an excellent stimulant to help future Chan Buddhist students stay awake.
Regardless, it’s generally accepted that tea drinking as we know it originated in China, I chose to include an Organic China Sencha tea sample in the Ancient Stories parcels. It’s a light and refreshing green tea made from the first picking of leaves in Spring. It fits well with my visions of Shenndong’s discovery of tea, although its lower caffeine content means that it probably wouldn’t be as helpful for Bodhidharma’s students!
If this has piqued your interest, you can head over to the Past Parcels section of the shop to see if there are any Ancient Stories parcels left in stock!
