Tea drinking began in China. Legend says the emperor Shen Nong discovered it nearly 5,000 years ago, when a few leaves drifted into his pot of boiling water. What archaeology shows is less magical but still remarkable: tea buried with a Chinese emperor who died in 141 BC, and written references from around the same time. From south-west China, tea travelled to Japan, along the Silk Roads and by ship to Europe, where it changed the way whole nations spend their afternoons. And every cup, from delicate jasmine to a strong builder's brew, comes from the same plant.
The legend: an emperor and a falling leaf
The story goes that in 2737 BC the divine farmer-emperor Shen Nong, who taught people agriculture and tasted hundreds of plants to learn which healed and which harmed, was resting under a tree while his drinking water boiled. A breeze shook a few leaves into the pot. He tasted the pale, fragrant brew and found it wonderfully refreshing. The tree was a tea bush.
Shen Nong is a mythical figure, a culture hero rather than a historical king, and the neat date and the falling leaves are later additions to his legend. There are other origin tales too. One, told in Japan as well as China, has the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma cutting off his own eyelids to stay awake in meditation, with tea bushes springing up where they fell. Neither story is history, but both show how early people linked tea with clarity and wakefulness.
What the evidence shows
The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is native to the region where south-west China meets Myanmar and north-east India. In 2016, scientists confirmed that plant remains found in the tomb complex of Emperor Jing of Han, near Xi'an, were tea leaves more than 2,100 years old, the oldest physical tea identified at the time. Written sources point the same way. A contract drawn up by the scholar Wang Bao in 59 BC, telling a servant to buy tea and prepare it, is often cited as one of the earliest written mentions, though the ancient character used for tea is open to interpretation.
Cakes, powder and leaves: how tea changed shape
Tea did not always look like the leaves in your caddy. Under the Tang dynasty (618–907), leaves were steamed and pressed into cakes, then roasted, ground and boiled, sometimes with salt. Around 760–780 the writer Lu Yu produced The Classic of Tea, the first book devoted entirely to the subject, covering everything from growing the plant to choosing the right water.
Under the Song dynasty (960–1279), the fashion was powdered tea whisked into a froth in a bowl. Japanese monks studying in China carried that style home. The monk Eisai, who returned in 1191, is credited with popularising it, and whisked powdered tea lives on in Japan as matcha.
The biggest change came under the Ming. In 1391 the founding emperor ordered that tribute tea be sent as loose leaves rather than labour-intensive pressed cakes. Steeping whole leaves in hot water became the norm, and with it came a new object: the teapot. Unglazed clay pots from Yixing, in Jiangsu province, became prized for brewing, and still are.
Tea goes west
Portuguese traders and missionaries met tea in the 1500s, and the Dutch East India Company brought the first shipments to Europe around 1610. In London tea was being advertised by 1658, and on 25 September 1660 the diarist Samuel Pepys noted sending for a cup of "tee (a China drink)", which he had never tasted before. In 1662 Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, a keen tea drinker who is usually credited with making it fashionable at court.
From there, tea became an obsession, and a force in world history. Heavy taxes fed a smuggling trade, and a dispute over tea duty ended with colonists tipping chests of it into Boston harbour in 1773. Britain's thirst for Chinese tea fuelled the opium trade and the wars that followed. In 1848 the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune was sent into China to gather tea plants and know-how for plantations in India, where the British had already begun growing a native Assam variety in the 1830s. Afternoon tea, usually credited to Anna, Duchess of Bedford, in the 1840s, turned a drink into a meal.
The trade routes left a trace in language. Where tea travelled overland or through Portuguese Macau, the word came from the Chinese cha, giving chai in Hindi and Russian and chá in Portuguese. Where it arrived by sea with Dutch ships trading in Fujian, it came from the local Min word te, giving tea, thé, Tee and té.
Tea at home: brewing it well
- One plant, many teas. Green, white, oolong, black (which the Chinese call red tea) and pu-erh all come from Camellia sinensis. The difference is processing: how the leaves are withered, rolled, oxidised or aged.
- Mind the temperature. Green tea likes water at around 70–80°C, and boiling water makes it bitter. Oolong is happy at 85–95°C; black tea and pu-erh want water just off the boil.
- Brew short and often. In Chinese gongfu style you use more leaf in a small pot or a lidded bowl called a gaiwan, and pour off quick infusions of 20–60 seconds, tasting how the tea changes over several rounds.
- Rinse dark teas. Pu-erh is traditionally given a quick splash of hot water, poured straight away, before the first proper infusion.
Flower infusions such as rose bud or chrysanthemum are not technically tea at all, but they belong to the same Chinese tradition of the everyday cup. Yang Sheng, our book on the Chinese art of nourishing life, has a run of both, from Jasmine Green Tea — The Master Technique to Osmanthus & Oolong Tea, Dried Tangerine Peel & Pu-erh Tea and Rose Bud Tea. If you're curious about the thinking behind them, start with our introduction to yang sheng, or search every tea recipe in the recipe finder.
Questions people ask
Who discovered tea?
According to Chinese legend, the emperor Shen Nong in 2737 BC, but he is a mythical figure. The evidence shows that tea was being drunk in China at least 2,100 years ago, and probably well before.
When did tea come to Britain?
In the 1650s. It was being advertised in London by 1658 and became fashionable at court after Charles II married Catherine of Braganza in 1662.
Are green tea and black tea from the same plant?
Yes. Both come from Camellia sinensis. Green tea is heated soon after picking to stop the leaves oxidising; black tea is left to oxidise fully, which darkens the leaf and deepens the flavour.
Why is tea called "chai" in some languages and "tea" in others?
It depends on the route tea took. Overland and Portuguese routes carried the Chinese word cha, while Dutch ships trading in Fujian carried the local word te.