December 15 is International Tea Day — a celebration of one of the world’s most popular, ancient, and deeply rooted beverages, inseparable from the history of human civilization. After water, tea is the most consumed drink on the planet, and its global market value reaches tens of billions of US dollars — around 49 billion in 2021. This article explores the history and fascinating aspects of this timeless beverage.
Naturally, a drink as old as tea has accumulated countless stories around its discovery, early consumption, and eventual transformation into a global phenomenon.
One of the most charming legends about the discovery of tea is recounted by L.K. Yee in The Amazing Story of Tea. According to a Chinese myth, Emperor Shennong — one of the prominent figures in Chinese mythology — was drinking hot water in his garden when the wind blew two leaves into his cup. After a few minutes, noticing that the leaves had changed the water’s color and taste, he drank it. The new flavor captivated him, and thus the story of tea drinking began.
Charming as this tale may be, historical evidence indicates that tea consumption dates back at least 2,300 years — making it nearly as ancient as wine, another of humanity’s oldest discovered (or perhaps invented) beverages.
In 2016, researchers uncovered credible evidence of the use of the Camellia plant — the same plant from which tea is made — in an imperial museum in Xi’an, China, dating back to the Han Dynasty, which ruled in the centuries before the Common Era.
Another early reference comes from the physician Hua Tuo, who lived during the era of the Three Kingdoms in China. He wrote that regular consumption of tea “helps one think more clearly.”
However, the true flourishing of tea culture occurred during the Tang Dynasty. It was during this era that tea was exported to Korea, Japan, and Myanmar, spreading beyond China’s borders. It was also during this period that Lu Yu wrote the famous Classic of Tea, a foundational text on the origins, varieties, and brewing methods of tea.
Lu Yu’s book, composed of three sections, remains the most influential work ever written on this global beverage.
Tea’s journey to the Western world did not begin until the 16th century, when Western traders and missionaries encountered it in China and carried stories of it back home.
The first shipment of tea to reach Europe was brought by the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century — marking the beginning of tea’s integration into European culture, most notably in Britain.
Russia, despite being geographically close to China and Korea, did not discover tea until the mid-16th century. In 1638, the Mongol Khan gifted several kilograms of tea to Tsar Michael I, and from there the drink spread across the country like a contagious phenomenon.
Britain, having quickly developed a fascination with the new beverage, eventually became so obsessed with it that a vast tea-smuggling industry emerged in the 18th century. To dismantle this criminal economy, the British government abolished import taxes on tea.
Countless stories have been told about tea’s health effects, but a 2017 study by Medline reported that no laboratory evidence conclusively proves either positive or negative impacts of tea on human health.
In 2022, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) reported nearly 30 million tons of tea produced worldwide. China dominated the list with almost 15 million tons, making it the undisputed leader in global tea production.
There are more than 1,500 varieties of tea grown in nearly thirty countries, each cultivated under unique environmental conditions. The finest tea is considered to be “hand-picked tea,” harvested leaf by leaf.
Another interesting fact: until the 17th century, there was only one type of tea in the world — green tea. It was during this century that Chinese producers experimented with processing techniques, eventually creating black tea.
An estimated 3.7 billion cups of tea are consumed worldwide every day. The only question is: how many of them are yours?
