Helen Saberi

The Chinese sip it from tiny cups, the Japanese whisk it. In America they serve it iced. The Tibetans add butter. The Russians serve with lemon. Mint is added in North Africa.

Afghans flavour it with cardamom. The Irish and the British drink it by the gallon with milk and sugar. The Indians boil it with condensed milk. In Australia it is brewed in a ‘billy’ can.

Tea, made from the dried leaves of the evergreen shrub Camellia sinensis infused in boiling water, is consumed by millions across the world. It is the second most popular beverage

in the world after water.

The word tea comes from the Chinese Amoy word t’e, pronounced tay.

The Dutch, who were the first to import tea into Europe from the port of Amoy in Fujian Province, called it thee, which became ‘tea’ in English.

The Mandarin word for tea is cha, which became ch’a (pronounced tcha) in Cantonese.

Variations passed into other languages, becoming chai in India, Afghanistan, Persia, Russia and Turkish and shai in Arabic.

At first mainly valued for its health benefits, drinking tea was later discovered by Buddhists to be an effective way of keeping awake during long hours of meditation.

In Chinese legend, the story of tea begins with Emperor Shen Nong (‒ ), also known as the Divine Healer, the Divine Husbandman and the Divine Cultivator. The Emperor decreed that to preserve their health his subjects must boil water before drinking it. One day while he was boiling water some leaves, blown by the wind, accidentally fell into the pot.