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| hi these are a few of my tea pots/cups |
Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng
There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. ~Bernard-Paul Heroux
Tea has a complex history spanning over thousands years and although legends exist of it's beginnings, no exact origin is known. It is most likely that the plant was introduced somewhere in southeast Asia, between China and India. Lincang City Prefecture of Yunnan Province of China is said to be the home of the world's oldest cultivated tea tree, over 3,200 years old.
Tea is drank in almost every culture in the world.
During the Sui Dynasty, tea was introduced to the Japanese by chinese Buddhist monks. At one point, bricks of tea were used as currency. Both China and Japan have very old tea traditions including "tea ceremonies", a practice rich in the culture. Korea and Vietnam are sometimes for flower teas. Chrysanthemum tea is native to Korea and Jasmine tea to Vietnam.
Tea began to spread all over world in the late 17th century. The first ever green tea leaves were brought to Amsterdam by the Dutch East India Company from China. In 1648, tea was a trendy fad in Paris. China offered Czar Michael I tea as a gift in 1618, but the Russian ambassador refused the drink, delaying tea's introduction in Russia by around fifty years. In 1689, tea was imported from China to Russia by hundreds of camels, a journey that took one year, making tea an expensive and precious commodity for nobles.
Portugese princess, Catherine of Braganza, brought tea to Great Britain when she married King Charles II. Ever since, tea was imported from China to Britain. Trade was monopolized by the Chinese and by the British East India trading company.
Tea is also consumed differently in different parts of the world. In East Asian countries, white and green tea are the most consumed, while in Britain over 90% of all tea is black tea. Western countries also commonly add a small amount of sugar and milk to the tea, which is rare in the eastern world. In addition, tea in Britain and America comes in "tea bags" and often contains "impurities" that are not 100% tea leaves.
Tea is really good for you! It's warm and aids digestion, cleanses the kidneys, and to many, drinking tea is a spiritual endeavor.
