out to be as packed with interesting defensive
chemicals as any spice. Beginning in
southwest China around 2,000 years ago,
people learned how to use physical pressure,
mild heat, and time to coax a number of
different flavors and colors from the tea leaf.
Tea became a staple of the Chinese diet
around 1000 CE. In 12th-century Japan,
Buddhist monks who valued tea as an aid to
long hours of study found that tea itself was
worthy of their contemplation. They
developed the formal tea ceremony, which
remains remarkable for the attention it pays to
the simplest of preparations, an infusion of
leaves in water.
The History of Tea
Tea in China The tea tree, Camellia sinensis,
is native to Southeast Asia and southern
China, and its caffeine-rich, tender young
leaves were probably chewed raw long before
recorded history. The preparation of tea leaves