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#AceHistoryDesk – Consumed by billions of people daily, tea is the most popular beverage in the world after water

Stepping into a hip tea bar nestled in the heart of Sydney’s Kings Cross, visitors are treated to a vast array of rare tea strains and blends sourced from around the world.

Inside, science-graduate-turned-tea-expert Cathy Zhang reflects on the chance opening of such a venue in a neighbourhood historically known for hedonism, noting the similarities to the discovery of tea itself.

The discovery of tea was a mistake — opening this shop was a mistake as well,” she says.

While tea’s exact origins remain unclear, one legend says that a stray tea leaf blew into a Chinese emperor’s hot cup of water thousands of years ago, accidentally creating a primitive “brew”. 

Another tells of a Chinese farmer who accidentally poisoned himself but was revived after the wind blew a small leaf into his mouth, which he chewed.

“Everything beautiful in life happens by mistake — by accident,” Cathy says.

Whoever it was who had the pleasure of tasting the first cup of tea, it’s unlikely they could have anticipated how it would go on to reshape global politics for centuries to come, establishing itself as the most popular drink in the world after water.

Hence why for tea lovers and purists, tea, or a morning cuppa, is so much more than a drink.

From bitter ‘medicine’ to popular beverage

Despite different legends, records agree that tea, or Camellia sinensis as the plant is officially known, originated in China thousands of years ago.

But it wasn’t always a beverage — early records show tea leaves were chewed on their own, or added to soups and porridges, for their therapeutic effects, kind of like a medicine.

“Traditionally, monks consumed tea to clear their minds to allow them to concentrate and better meditate,” Cathy says.

Over the years, this bitter “medicine” went through innumerous variation changes — from green teas to oxidised black teas — until establishing itself as a beverage about 1,500 years ago.

For years the standard method of preparation was to pack fresh tea into “cakes” which could be ground down and mixed with hot water to create a beverage.

This beverage very quickly became the drink of choice for emperors and artists, and a subject of popular culture and discussions.

Demonstrating a traditional method of brewing tea, Cathy uses the “Gong Fu” technique, which requires specific processes and equipment to “re-brew” the tea multiple times.

However, Cathy insists that the best part about tea — and a key reason for its popularity — is that “there is no right or wrong way”.

“When we talk about tea making, it’s very personal,” she says.

“The tea you enjoy drinking will be different to the way I want to drink it.”

For centuries, China was the only country that produced tea, and it used it as leverage to negotiate and trade with neighbouring countries as it spread throughout Asia, most notably, India and Japan, where tea culture heavily influenced Buddhist doctrines and traditions.

This relatively golden era of Chinese tea production peaked around the 1600s, when black tea started to grow in popularity in Europe after the discovery by Dutch traders, setting the scene for centuries of conflict that would shape the modern world.

Tea parties and opium wars

It is believed that Queen Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese noblewoman who later married King Charles II in 1661, popularised tea with the British aristocracy.

At the same time, the British Empire was in the midst of global expansion and becoming the new dominant world power. It monopolised the importation of tea to England, while proceeding to spread it globally throughout colonial outposts in the Americas, Africa and eventually Australia.

But since the plant was only grown in China, it remained a luxurious commodity, costing the British ten times the price of coffee — more money than they had.

In the late 1700s, the Boston Tea Party took place in protest against tax exemptions for the importation of British tea sourced from China, with demonstrators dumping tea into Boston Harbor, a significant event that contributed to the American War of Independence a couple of years later.

Shortly after, the Chinese would have issues of their own with the way the British Empire was engaging in the tea trade.

“[The Chinese] didn’t want paper money or British pounds — they only wanted silver,” Cathy says.

Running low on silver to buy tea, the British agreed to trade opium for tea, triggering a Chinese public health crisis.

In response, a Chinese official ordered the destruction of mass opium shipments in the 1800s, triggering the Opium Wars, which would see the British take control of Hong Kong which it held onto until 1997, and sowed divisions between the West and the East.

About the same time, Britain’s interest in growing its own tea led to the development of fields in British-controlled India — areas near the Chinese border like Darjeeling — leading to a “triangle trading system” between India, China and England.

As prices dropped, the production and popularity of tea soared around the British Empire, laying the foundations of the morning cup of tea enjoyed today in places like Australia.

‘More than just a beverage’

Australia has a long history of enjoying the afternoon tea tradition, the history of which can still be traced back to places like the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne’s CBD, which has served afternoon tea since 1883, making its service the longest-running in Melbourne.

Joseph Rozario has been working as a butler in the hotel for 50 years and he has witnessed how the tradition has been enjoyed through generations.

Members of the royal family, Australian prime ministers, and celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Anthony Hopkins and the late Barry Humphries have all visited the premises.

“The crowds change every year,” Joseph says. “Every day, you see new faces as well as returning clients.”

Recently, an elderly man came in with his son and grandson, and reminded Joseph how he had served him as a child, memories he reflects on fondly.

“The best way to enjoy tea is to relax,” he says, pointing to the inclusion of sparkling wines, sandwiches and pastries now common at high tea offerings.

“You have to relax. If you don’t relax, you won’t enjoy anything that comes your way.”

Of course, while “tea” specifically refers to the Camellia sinensis plant, the Chinese were not the only people to create beverages out of boiled plants.

For thousands of years, Indigenous communities from South America to Australia have been making brews and infusions out of a vast array of herbs and plants — such as yerba mate or tisanes — many of which have become part of modern “tea culture” in multicultural Australia.

“[Yerba mate is] just something that you share — it’s not really different to any other tea or coffee that you consume,” says Argentinian-born Jonathan Rivas, head of Yerba Mate Australia, while sipping a fresh brew before passing his cup around.

“Even growing up, with family or friends, after dinner, Mum would bring yerba out and everyone would sit around and socialise.”

Yerba mate has experienced an explosion in popularity since the World Cup in Qatar, where the champion Argentinian team would regularly be seen drinking it between games.

“It has a similar effect to coffee, so it does bring you up, gives you a boost in energy,” Jonathan says.

In Türkiye, tea is served in a distinctive but delicate tulip-shaped glass cup.

“This is a good, fresh-brewed tea,” says Onur Kurt, who now owns a Turkish tea shop in Brunswick 

“We say it’s the colour of rabbit’s blood.”

Onur says the clinking sound of the teaspoon in her glass reminds her of tea culture back home, where tea is a “lifeblood” that people drink like water.

“[My aunt would] have the teapot brewing all the time. All her neighbours would constantly pop in,” she says.

In India, which remains one of the world’s largest exporters of tea, it is widely served with a blend of spices and called “chai” (a word which also means tea in many other languages). 

Before opening the Melbourne chain Dropout Chai Walla, owner Sanjith Konda House wasn’t sure he could compete with Melbourne’s thriving coffee culture.

“But [the success of the store] has made me realise there is space for chai — there are so many people who love chai,” he says.

Having dropped out of university to start his business, the former international student says the success of his venture has made his family back in India proud.

“My dad called me one night saying that my grandfather would be very proud that I was running a chai shop,” he says, something that he considers his biggest achievement.

It’s now estimated some 3 billion cups of tea are drunk every day around the world, making it the world’s most popular drink after water, winning out over alcohol and coffee. And its popularity only increased during the pandemic, an effect Cathy personally witnessed at her Kings Cross tea bar.

“Tea is more than just a beverage,” she adds. “Not just the health benefits — that goes without saying — but the connection that tea can create.

“Like you and me talking right now: Without tea, this conversation would never exist.

“And with so many people living in the world today, people we don’t know, tea can create the perfect environment and context to engage in deep conversation and bond.

“That is what keeps tea culture going.”

Read the story in Chinese: 阅读中文版本 or Indonesian: Dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Credits

• Writing & Reporting: Erwin Renaldi
• Illustrations & Photography: Jarrod Fankhauser
• Additional Photography: Supplied by Ms.Cattea Tea Bar, the Windsor Hotel, and Reuters
• Production & Editing: Steven Viney

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