Tea

Tea is a hot drink made by soaking the dried leaves of a plant called Camellia sinensis in hot water. The plant is a small evergreen shrub that grows best in warm, rainy places with hilly land. After water, tea is the most popular drink in the world. People drink about 6 billion cups of it every day.

Tea began in China. According to a Chinese legend, an emperor named Shennong discovered tea around 2737 BCE, when leaves blew into his pot of boiling water. Whether or not the legend is true, people in China have been drinking tea for at least 3,000 years. From China, tea spread along the Silk Road to other parts of Asia. Buddhist monks carried it to Japan more than a thousand years ago. European traders brought it home in the 1600s.

All true tea comes from the same plant. The differences between green, black, white, and oolong tea come from how the leaves are treated after picking. Green tea is dried quickly, so it stays green and tastes fresh. Black tea is left to react with the air, which turns the leaves dark brown and gives the tea a stronger flavor. White tea is made from young leaves and buds and is barely processed at all.

Many drinks called tea are not made from the tea plant. Mint tea, chamomile tea, and ginger tea are really herbal drinks called tisanes. They are made by soaking other plants in hot water.

Tea has shaped history in surprising ways. In 1773, American colonists were angry about a British tax on tea. They threw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party helped lead to the American Revolution. In Britain, tea became so popular that "afternoon tea," a small meal with tea and cakes, became a daily tradition in the 1840s. In Japan, the tea ceremony is a careful, quiet way of preparing and serving green tea. A full ceremony can last four hours.

Today, tea is grown in more than 60 countries. China and India produce the most. India is also the home of chai, a strong black tea boiled with milk and spices like cardamom and cinnamon. In Morocco, mint tea is poured from high above the cup to make a foamy top. In Taiwan in the 1980s, someone added chewy tapioca balls to cold tea and invented bubble tea, which is now sold around the world.