HISTORY OF TEA:
Tea is nearly 5.000 years old and was discovered, as legend has it, in 2737 B.C. by a Chinese Emperor when some tealeaves acidentally blew into a pot of boiling water. In the 1600s, tea became popular throughout Europe and the American colonles. Since colonlal days, tea has played a role in American culture and customs. Today American schoolchildren learn about the famous Boston Tea Party protesting the British tea tax -- one of the acts leading to the Revolutlonary War. During this century, two major American contributions to the tea Industry occurred. In 1904, iced tea was created at the World's Fair in St. Louis, and in 1908, Thomas Sullivan of New York developed the concept of tea a bag. Tea breaks down Into three basic types: Black, Green, and Oolong. In the U.S., over 90 percent of the tea consumed is black tea, which has been fully oxidized or fermented and yields a hearty-flavored, amber brew. Some of the popular black teas include English Breakfast (good breakfast choice since its hearty flavor mixes well with milik), Darjeeling (a blend of Himalayan teas with a flowery bouquet suited for. lunch) and Orange Pekoe (a blend of Ceylon teas that is the most widely used of the tea blends). Green tea skips the oxidizing step. It has a more delicate taste and is light green/golden in color. Green tea, a staple in the Orient, is gaining popularity in the U.S. due in, part to recent, scientific studies linking green tea drinking with reduced cancer risk. Oolong tea, popular in China, Is partly oxidized and is a cross between black and green tea in color and taste. While flavored teas evolve from these three basic teas, herbal teas contaln no true tealeaves. Herbal and "medicinal" teas are created from the flowers, berries, peels, seeds, leaves, and roots of many different plants.
STORY OF TEA began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to legend, the Shen Nong, an early emperor was a skilled ruler, creative scientist, and patron of the arts. His far-sighted edicts requlred, among other things, that all drinking water be bolled as a hygienic precaution. One summer day while visiting a distant reglon of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. In accordance with his rullng, the servants began to boll water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from the near by bush fell into the boiling water, and a brown liquid was infused Into the water. As a sclentist, the Emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found It very refreshing. Therefore, according to legend, tea was created. (This myth maintains such a practical narrative, that many mythologlsts believe it may relate closely to the actual events, now lost in ancient history.)
CHINA: Tea consumption spread throughout the Chlnese culture reaching into every aspect of the society. In B00 A.D. Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea, the Ch'a Ching. This amazing man was orphaned as a child and raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China's finest monasteries. However, as a young man, he rebelled against the discipline of priestly training, which had made him a skilled observer. His fame as a perfomer increased with each year, but he felt his life lacked meaning. Finally, in mid-life, he retired for five, years into seclusion. Drawing from his vast memory of observed events and places, he codified the various methods of tea cultivation and preparation in ancient China. The vast definitive nature of his work, projected him into near sainthood within his own lifetime. Patronized by the Emperor himself, his work clearly showed the Zen Buddhist philosophy to which he was exposed as a child. It was this form of tea service that Zen Buddhist missionaries would later introduce to imperial Japan.
JAPAN: The returning Buddhist priest brought the first tea seeds, to Japan. Yeisei, who had seen the value of tea in China in enhancing religious mediation. As a result, he is known as the "Father of Tea" in Japan. Because of this early association, tea in Japan has always been associated with Zen Buddhism. Tea received almost instant Imperial sponsorship and spread rapidly from the royal court and monasteries to the other sections of Japanese society.
JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY: Tea was elevated to an art fom resulting in the creation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony ("Cha-no-yu" or "the hot water for tea"). The best description of this The Irish-Greek jourmalist-historian probably wrote complex art fomm Lafcadio Heam, one of the few foreigners ever to be granted Japanese citizenship during this era. He wrote from personal observation, "The Tea ceremony requires years of training and practice to graduate in ar...yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner possible". Such a purity of fom, of expression prompted the creation of supportive arts and services. A special form of architecture (chaseki) developed for "tea houses", based on the duplication of the simplicity of a forest cottage. The culturalartistic, hoslesses of Japan, the Geishi, began to specialize in the presentation of the tea ceremony, As more and more people became Involved in the excltement surrounding tea, the purity of the original Zen concept was lost. The tea ceremony became corupted, boisterous, and highly embellished. "Tea Toumaments" were held among the weathy where nobles competed among each other for rich prizes in naming various tea blends, Rewarding winners with gifts of silk, amor, and jewelry was totally alien to the original Zen attitude of the ceremony, Three great Zen priests restored tea to its original place in Japanese society: Ikkyu (1394-1481)-a prince who became a priest and was successful in guiding the nobles away from their corruption of the tea ceremony. Murata Shuko (1422- 1502)-the student of Ikkyu and very influential In re-introducing the Tea ceremony into Japanese society. Sen-no Rikkyu (1521-1591)-priest who set the rigid standards for the ceremony, largely used intact today. RIkyo was successful in influencing the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became Japan's greatest patron of the "art of tea". A brillant general, strategist, poet, and artist this unique leader facilitated the final and complete integration of tea into the patterm of Japanese life, So complete was this acceptance that tea was viewed as the ultimate gift, and warlords paused for tea before battles.
-santanu dirial
0 Comments