It is said that tea was found when Shen Nung, the emperor and renowned herbalist, who was boiling his drinking water when leaves from a nearby tea shrub blew into the cauldron. He tasted the resulting brew, and the beverage of tea was born.
At this time, it was manufactured in brick form: the tea leaves were pounded and pressed into a brick-shaped mould, then dried. To prepare the tea, part of the brick was ground down, and the result was boiled in water. Later, powdered tea was developed from green tea leaves. This gained popularity during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD). Boiled water was poured onto the powder and left to brew, and the resulting liquid was whisked into a frothy tea. It was during this period that tea drinking became popular in Japan, reintroduced there by a Zen Buddhist monk who had been studying in China. So in Japan, it was the Sung method of preparing tea that took hold.
In China, tea became less popular as a drink during the years of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368), when the Mongol rulers considered the drinking of tea a symbol of decadence. But it returned to popularity under the native Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). After years of foreign rule, this Dynasty saw a revival of all things considered quintessentially Chinese, and tea was certainly one of them. It was in this period that tea began to be brewed by steeping cured loose leaves in boiling water. Because it was at this time that the tea was first tried by Europeans, it was this method of making tea that became popular in the West, and remains so to this day. Also under the Ming Dynasty there was experimentation with different types of teas, fermented black teas, unfermented green teas, and the semi-fermented variety that it is now known as oolong, and within these categories with innumerable different varieties.
ORIGINS OF THE TEA BAG
The arrival of tea in Britain in the seventeenth century altered the drinking habits of this nation forever. The late eighteenth century saw black tea overtake green tea in popularity for the first time, which also accelerated the addition of milk. In the nineteenth century widespread cultivation of tea in India began, leading to the imports of Indian tea into Britain overtaking the imports of Chinese tea. And in the twentieth century there was a further development that would radically change our tea-drinking habits - the invention of the tea bag.
Needless to say, it was in America, with its love of labour-saving devices, that tea bags were first developed. The purpose of the tea bag is rooted in the belief that for tea to taste its best, the leaves ought to removed from the hot water at the end of a specific brewing period. Then there is the added benefit of convenience - a removable device means that tea can be made as easily in a mug as in a pot, without the need for a tea strainer, and that tea pots can be kept clean more easily. But the earliest examples of removable infusing devices for holding tea were not bags. Popular infusers included tea eggs and tea balls - perforated metal containers which were filled with loose leaves and immersed in boiling water, and then removed using an attached chain.
In around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers, by putting the entire bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the contents. It was thus by accident that the tea bag was born!
Responding to the comments from his customers that the mesh on the silk was too fine, Sullivan developed sachets made of gauze - the first purpose-made tea bags. During the 1920s these were developed for commercial production, and the bags grew in popularity in the USA. Made first of all from gauze and later from paper, they came in two sizes, a larger bag for the pot, a smaller one for the cup. The features that we still recognise today were already in place - a string that hung over the side so the bag could be removed easily, with a decorated tag on the end.
The material shortages of WW2 also stalled the mass adoption of tea bags in Britain, and it was not until the 1950s that they really took off. Tea bags gained popularity on the grounds that they removed the need to empty out the used tea leaves from the tea pot. The convenience factor was more important to the British tea-drinker than the desire to control the length of infusion time, hence the appearance of tea bags that did not have strings attached.
It was Tetley in 1953 that drove the introduction of tea bags in Britain, but other companies soon caught up. In the early 1960s, tea bags made up less than 3 per cent of the British market, but this has been growing steadily ever since. By 2007 tea bags made up a phenomenal 96 per cent of the British market, and there can hardly be a home or workplace in Britain that does not have a stash of the humble, but vital, tea bag
TEA ADVISORY PANEL FACTS
- Approximately 40% of the nation's fluid intake today will be tea
- Tea without milk has no calories. Using semi-skimmed milk adds around 13 calories per cup, but you also benefit from valuable minerals and calcium.
- Four cups of tea with milk provides 21% of daily calcium requirement.
- Tea is a source of the minerals manganese, essential for bone growth and body development, and potassium, vital for maintaining body fluid levels.
- The average cup of tea contains less than half the level of caffeine than coffee. One cup contains only 50mg per 190ml cup.
- Tea is a natural source of fluoride and drinking four cups makes a significant contribution to your daily intake. (Only 11% of UK water supply has fluoride added.)
- Green and black teas are from the same plant, Camelia sinensis, and contain similar amounts of antioxidants and caffeine.
The British have been drinking tea for nearly 400 years 
Tea breaks are traditions that have been with us for approximately 200 years. Initially when workers commenced their day at around 5 or 6am, employers allowed a break in the morning when food and tea were served. Some employers repeated the break in the afternoon as well 
Tea costs approximately 3p per cup to make. Coffee costs 6.5p 
Over 50% of our tea comes from East Africa – Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe 
The UK drinks 165 million cups per day - 62 billion cups per year 
There are estimated to be about 1,500 different varieties of tea 
In a recent study, 80% of staff claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way 
Average consumption is 3 cups per day 
70% of population (over 10 years) drank tea yesterday - ●
95% of tea is consumed in tea bags 
86% of tea is consumed at home, 14% out of home 
Over 25% of milk consumed in UK is taken with tea 
98% of people take milk with tea 
45% of people take sugar with their tea 
There is an estimated 1,500 different types of tea 
Britain is the second largest nation of tea drinkers per capita. Ireland is the first. 
Solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia until the 19th century. 
Tea contains half the amount of caffeine than coffee. 
Tea is a natural source of fluoride that can help protect against tooth decay and gum disease. 
By the mid 18th century tea replaced ale & gin as the drink of the masses to become Britain's most popular beverage.
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