Tea is one of the most popular drinks on Earth. According to the generally accepted version, it was first used in ancient China. For example, in the treatise "Shen Lun Ben Shu" there are such lines: "When a person drinks tea, he thinks better, he sleeps less, his body becomes lighter, and his vision is sharper." True, for a long time tea was considered either as a medicine or as a ritual drink.
By the beginning of the Han era, which dates back to 207 BC - 220 A.D., tea has already become a widespread commodity, although it is far from accessible to everyone. And after Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi united the disparate parts of the country into a single state, tea gradually began to become a nationwide drink.
The heyday of the consumption of this drink in China falls on the Tang era (618 - 907). The popularization of tea in the broadest sections of society was promoted by Buddhist monks who considered tea bushes as wonderful plants with healing properties. Therefore, the monks, together with the propaganda of their religious views, actively spread the traditions of tea drinking. As a result, good varieties of tea began to be considered a luxurious gift that can be safely presented to people of even the highest rank, up to the emperor.
Residents of different provinces began to compete, trying to develop new varieties of tea, distinguished by their exquisite taste and aroma, and earn the honor of becoming suppliers of the imperial court.
From China tea came to other countries, primarily neighboring countries: Japan and Korea. Then after a while to Burma, Thailand, to Sri Lanka. And then merchants from Western countries became interested in the drink.
In 1684, a Dutch merchant brought a batch of tea bushes to Indonesia, which was then a colony of the Netherlands. They took root well, multiplied, and after some time Indonesia itself became a tea producer.
In India, the first plantations appeared around 1780. And by the middle of the 19th century, tea plantations covered the slopes of the mountains of the island of Sri Lanka. This happened after almost all coffee plantations died there as a result of a massive disease. So that the island's economy did not receive a crushing blow, a replacement was urgently needed, and tea came in handy.
Tea first came to Russia in the middle of the 16th century. By the middle of the 17th century, it had already gained recognition among the higher aristocracy, and after another hundred years it spread among the people of the lower classes. Since then, the samovar for a long time has become an integral part of the interior of any home, even a very modest one. Poor people drank empty tea, while more affluent people drank a bit, that is, alternating sips of aromatic hot liquid with eating pieces of sugar.
