On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of tea time tassies recipe page across from the article title. This article is about the beverage made from Camellia sinensis. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the third century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking subsequently spread to other East Asian countries.

The term herbal tea refers to drinks not made from Camellia sinensis. They are the infusions of fruit, leaves, or other plant parts, such as steeps of rosehip, chamomile, or rooibos. The etymology of the various words for tea reflects the history of transmission of tea drinking culture and trade from China to countries around the world. Tea plants are native to East Asia and the probable center of origin of tea is near the source of the Irrawaddy River from where it spread out fan-wise into southeast China, Indo-China and Assam. China possibly with hybridization of unknown wild tea relatives. However, since there are no known wild populations of this tea, its origin is speculative. Assuming a generation of 12 years, Chinese small-leaf tea is estimated to have diverged from Assam tea around 22,000 years ago, while Chinese Assam tea and Indian Assam tea diverged 2,800 years ago.

The divergence of Chinese small-leaf tea and Assam tea would correspond to the last glacial maximum. A 19th-century Japanese painting depicting Shennong: Chinese legends credit Shennong with the invention of tea. People in ancient East Asia ate tea for centuries, perhaps even millennia, before ever consuming it as a beverage. Tea drinking may have begun in the region of Yunnan, where it was used for medicinal purposes. It is also believed that in Sichuan, “people began to boil tea leaves for consumption into a concentrated liquid without the addition of other leaves or herbs, thereby using tea as a bitter yet stimulating drink, rather than as a medicinal concoction.

The earliest written records of tea come from China. It was after the Qin had taken Shu that they learned how to drink tea. Another possible early reference to tea is found in a letter written by the Qin dynasty general Liu Kun who requested that some “real tea” to be sent to him. The earliest known physical evidence of tea was discovered in 2016 in the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han in Xi’an, indicating that tea from the genus Camellia was drunk by Han dynasty emperors as early as the second century BC. Another early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text by Hua Tuo, who stated, “to drink bitter t’u constantly makes one think better. Through the centuries, a variety of techniques for processing tea, and a number of different forms of tea, were developed.

During the Tang dynasty, tea was steamed, then pounded and shaped into cake form, while in the Song dynasty, loose-leaf tea was developed and became popular. Tea was first introduced to Western priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which time it was termed chá. The earliest European reference to tea, written as chiai, came from Delle navigationi e viaggi written by Venetian Giambattista Ramusio in 1545. In 1567, Russian people came in contact with tea when the Cossack Atamans Petrov and Yalyshev visited China. The first vessel direct from China to Hull on her arrival on 14 October 1843 with a cargo of tea.

The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an East India Company office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting “the best sort of chaw” in 1615. Chinese small-leaf-type tea was introduced into India in 1836 by the British in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea. Physically speaking, tea has properties of both a solution and a suspension. It is a solution of all the water-soluble compounds that have been extracted from the tea leaves, such as the polyphenols and amino acids, but is a suspension when all of the insoluble components are considered, such as the cellulose in the tea leaves. A study found that the caffeine content of one gram of black tea ranged from 22 to 28 mg, while the caffeine content of one gram of green tea ranged from 11 to 20 mg, reflecting a significant difference. The astringency in tea can be attributed to the presence of polyphenols. Although health benefits have been assumed throughout the history of Camellia sinensis’s consumption, there is no high-quality evidence showing that tea consumption gives significant benefits other than possibly increasing alertness, an effect caused by caffeine in the tea leaves.

Black and green teas contain no essential nutrients in significant amounts, with the exception of the dietary mineral manganese, at 0. Camellia sinensis is an evergreen plant that grows mainly in tropical and subtropical climates. 4 to 12 years are needed for a plant to bear seed and about three years before a new plant is ready for harvesting. Two principal varieties are used: Camellia sinensis var. Chinese, Formosan and Japanese teas, and C. Within these botanical varieties, many strains and modern clonal varieties are known. Also, the short plants bear more new shoots which provide new and tender leaves and increase the quality of the tea.

Tea is mainly grown in Asia and Africa, though it is also grown in South America and around the Black and Caspian Seas. Some, such as flower teas, may last only a month or so. Others, such as pu-erh, improve with age. To remain fresh and prevent mold, tea needs to be stored away from heat, light, air, and moisture. Tea must be kept at room temperature in an air-tight container. Tea is generally divided into categories based on how it is processed.

After picking, the leaves of C. After basic processing, teas may be altered through additional processing steps before being sold and is often consumed with additions to the basic tea leaf and water added during preparation or drinking. Examples of additional processing steps that occur before tea is sold are blending, flavouring, scenting, and decaffeination of teas. Tea blending is the combination of different teas together to achieve the final product.