The history of tea - Shunan Teng

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Tea does not cure poisonings. Shennong’s story is a legend, not medical history.
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The British East India company stole Chinese tea plants and skilled workers, then relocated them to India.
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Early tea was eaten as a vegetable or cooked into grain porridge instead of brewed as a drink.
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By 1700, European tea cost ten times as much as coffee. China remained its sole producer.
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Tea became a drink 1,500 years ago when heat and moisture transformed leafy greens into more complex flavors.
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Britain’s attempt to pay for Chinese tea with opium created addiction and a public-health crisis in China.
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The lucrative tea trade drove development of the clipper ship, the world’s fastest sailboat.
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Historical matcha was heated, pressed into portable cakes, ground into powder, and whisked with hot water.
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In the ninth century, a Japanese monk brought tea from China to Japan, eventually inspiring the Japanese tea ceremony.
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In the fourteenth century, China shifted from pressed tea cakes to loose-leaf tea under the Ming Dynasty.
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The defeated Qing Dynasty ceded Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and accepted unfavorable trading terms.

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