The Legend
Once upon a time... about 5000 years ago there was a chinese emperor called Shen Nung. he was a wise and skilled ruler who decided that all water that was to be drunk should be boiled for hygiene's sake.

One day in the middle of summer, it is thought that Shen Nung and his court, whilst on a long journey to a far away part of this realm, stopped for a rest. in accordance with the emperor's wish, drinking water was boiled but in the process, dried leaves from a near by bush fell into the water, turning it a brown colour.

As a man that was ever curious, the emperor tasted the brown liquid and found it refreshing... and rumour has it that this is how the brew was born!

All the tea in China
Tea spread throughout chinese society. in 800AD the first book about tea (Ch'a Ching) was written by a man named Lu Yu. this book documented the various different codes for tea consumption, ideas that would later be exported to imperial japan.

...And then to Japan
The japanese association with tea has for the most part been in relation to zen buddhism. it was the returning buddhist priest Yeisei who brought the first tea seeds to japan who had seen how tea could help in the enrichment of religious meditation.

Tea became an art form in Japan which led to the genesis of the japanese tea ceremony, known as Cha-no-yu .

Europe and a cup of Cha
It wasn't until the 16th century that tea made its way to our continent, and when it did it arrived thanks to a man called Father Jasper de Cruz, a portuguese jesuit who had encountered tea as a missionary in china.

The portuguese, at the time, had an advanced navy, and it was through their superior maritime technology they were able to establish the first trade links with china . tea was imported into lisbon and then distributed up the western coast of the european continent by dutch trade ships.

Get the kettle on… tea's arrived!!
The uk was the last of the three great maritime countries to become involved in trade with Asia and the far east , largely due to the political instability of the country at this time, most notably as our ancestors were fighting each other in the cromwellian civil war… from it's introduction in the mid 1600s tea was quickly adopted as the national drink of the english.