Tea

Story: Many years agao, a Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was sitting under a tea tree drinking soup. Some of the tea leaves fell into his pot. The soup tasted better, so the emperor started to drink his soup with tea leaves.
Many centuries later, tea was introduced into Japan by Chinese Buddist monks. The Japanses developed a ritual tea ceremony, Cha No Yu, which remains a special part of their culture to this day. Tea drinking was kept as a secret from other countries was only 350 years ago that the Dutch traders discovered tea in China. They took the tea back to Europe in sailing ships.
Soon tea became a popular drink. India, Sri Lanka, Java, Japan and Brazil became famous for their tea estates. Large sailing ships called clippers raced to get the tea to Europe.

In 1904 two important discoveries in the US revolutionized the tea industry. On a blistery hot day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, a young English tea merchant named Richard Blechynden discovered that he could attract thirsty customers by offering hot tea poured over ice. Thus, he invented iced tea. That same year, a New York City tea and coffee merchant, Thomas Sullivan, decided that it would be easier to send samples of tea to his customers in little hand-sewn silk bags, rather than bulky canisters.

Tea Council of the U.S.A.

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