On The Tea Trail

Tea is among the world’s oldest and most revered beverages. It is today’s most popular beverage in the world, next to water. Tea drinking has long been an important aspect of Chinese culture. A Chinese saying identifies the seven basic daily necessities as fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.

According to Chinese legend, tea was invented accidentally by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 B.C. Emperor Shen Nong was a scholar and herbalist, as well as a creative scientist and patron of the arts. Among other things, the emperor believed that drinking boiled water contributed to good health. By his decree, his subjects and servants had to boil their water before drinking it as a hygiene precaution. On one summer day while he was visiting a distant region, he and his entourage stopped to rest. The servants began to boil water for the skilled ruler and his subjects to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby camellia bush fell into the boiling water. The emperor was interested in the new liquid because it had a pleasing aroma in this new brew interested the emperor, so he drank the infusion and discovered that it was very refreshing and had a delightful flavor. He declared that tea gives vigor to the body, thus. That was when tea was invented, but it was considered as a medicinal beverage. It was around 300 A.D. when, tea became a daily drink. China's earliest records of tea consumption dates back to the 10th century BC!

It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties when tea showed some significance in Chinese tradition. During the mid-Tang Dynasty (780 A.D.), a scholar named Lu Yu published the first definitive book, Cha Ching or The Tea Classic, on tea after he spent over twenty years studying the subject. This documentation included his knowledge of planting, processing, tasting, and brewing tea. His research helped to elevate tea drinking to a high status throughout China. This was when the art of tea drinking was born.

Later, a Song Dynasty emperor helped the spread of tea consumption further by indulging in this wonderful custom. He enjoyed tea drinking so much, that he bestowed tea as gifts only to those who were worthy. During this e same time, tea was the inspirationinspired many of books, poems, songs, and paintings. This not only popularized tea, it also elevated tea’s value which drew tea-growers to the capital.

source : http://www.chcp.org/tea.html

My Cup of Tea

Tea! Aha!

Let me start with 2 stories:

I was in Vizag visiting some people and they offered me a cup of tea. The tea was well boiled with lot of milk and sugar and little water which was added more as an apology than anything else. The tea was served in a big cup; it was thick brownish-whitish in colour and had a layer of malai on top of it. It smelt just like buffalo milk! I couldn’t master the courage of sipping more than once; but kept holding the cup all the time so that I don’t offend the host. Then the dreaded question came: “how is the tea?” “mmmm... yeah it’s nice... I just don’t drink tea like this” I managed to answer. “Oh! You like those light teas is it? Well, that can’t be considered real tea, isn’t?” That was 10 years back.

Last month I was in Darjeeling for a vacation with my parents. The first think that catches anyone’s eye as soon as they enter Doors or Darjeeling are the lush green tea gardens. The cold air of the area carries with it the sweet aroma of Darjeeling tea and creates an unending urge of sitting on an arm chair and sipping a hot cup of tea all day long. Walking through the Makaibari Tea estate, the largest tea estate in the state I couldn’t but imagine, how this 7000 hectare of tea garden produces the best and the most expensive teas in the world (even the tea for Queen Elizabeth comes from here). Our tour guide and driver, Subhas Chhetri, looked at me and said, “The British gave us tea gardens and taught us how to grow and cultivate tea, but they didn’t teach us how to make a cup of tea. I feel sad when I see what people do with their tea leaves!” How true!

 I am a tea fanatic; a cup of badly made tea or a cup of bad tea makes me sick – not because I am snobbish  about my cup of tea but because how we, as a nation which produces world’s best teas, couldn’t learn to enjoy and appreciate a cup of real, nice tea!