The Legend of Birth of Tea

There are some legends how tea was born. The most probable story is the following:

in about 2.700 before Christ, Sen-Nung Chinese Emperor instructed the people to boil the water before use and drink, because of healthy reasons. The water had been boiled in big kettles, when once some leaves fell into the kettle from the trees in the garden. The Emperor felt the pleasant smell of the boiled water, he tasted the drink, he found it tasty and the tea was born.

The Original Home of Tea

The home of tea is most probably the border of North Burma and Southwest China, on the territory of Assam.

Tea in Europe

The tea was spread in Europe in the 16th and 17th century, through the Persians and Portuguese. In the beginning tea was very expensive, but the second half of the 17th century tea import was increased and the teas could be bought by more and more people.

Tea in America-Practical Tea Inventions

Tea was spread and became well known on the Continent by the middle of the 18th century.

Cold tea was first served on the World Exhibition in St. Louis in 1904. The weather was hot and an Exhibitor wanted to give his visitors tea, but nobody drank it because of the warm weather. The Exhibitor decided to serve the tea with ice and it was very popular among the visitors.

The tea filter was also invented in the USA, in 1908. A Tea businessman sold teas in filters to different restaurants in New York. The buyers were really satisfied with filtered teas, because it was much easier to serve it to the clients, and most of the guests also accepted this form of tea.

The History of Ceylon Tea

The history of Ceylon Tea goes back to the 19th century. At that time Ceylon was a British colony and the island was full with coffee plantation. In the 1860s a strong disease attacked all the coffee plantations on the island and at the end of 1860s most of the plantations were destroyed.

James Taylor, a Scottish businessman made experiments with tea growing at that time. He had had excellent results with tea growing, so the end of 1880s all coffee plantations disappeared and tea plantations were spread on the island. Coffee process factories were changed into tea process factories. Tea production was increased rapidly; new tea processing factories were established. The machines for tea process were made in Britain; some of them are still under operation today, as well.

The name Ceylon was united with tea. The only territory in the world, where tea is grown and gathered in the whole year. The biggest tea exporter of the world became Sri Lanka.

We can say, that the superior quality tea, like MlesnA Tea from Sri Lanka is one of the greatest presents for the world.