In History




3000 B.C      Shen Nong discovered tea and started to cultivate it

2000 B.C      Zhou Dynasty , King Wen said he recieved tea as tribute from tribal heads

300 B.C      Fresh leaves were boiled with water, got to be dalily beverage

221 - 206 B.C     Qin Dynasty, Shangdong governor Liu Kun wrote , his nephew sent some "real Tea" when he
                       was feeling old and depressed

317 - 420    Easten Jin Dynasty, Poet described " Fragrant tea superimposes the six passions; the taste for it
                  spreads over the nine districts"

347     A book about tea by Chang Ju, Traetise on the Kingdom of Huayang

467     Chinese records noted tea was bigun to use to bater trade with Turkic Peoples

500      A oldest medicine book , Shen Nong's Canon of Medicinal Herbs

618 - 907    Tang Dynasty , Tea drinking became an art

729         Tang Dynasty, Emperor Shomu served tea to a 100 Japanese Monks, then the Japanese surmise that
                 brought back tea was their mission to China

733 - 804    Lu Yu achieved a famouse book " The Book of Tea "

960 - 1279    Song Dynasty allowed for more subsidiary crops , this became possible for tea to move from
                  Luxury role to a necessity

1107      A book by Song Dynasty King Hui Zong , Treatise on Tea (Da Guan Cha Lun)

1012      The greatest tea tasters probably were burn in

1285      Kublai Khan Marco Polo in his Polo Travels wrote, finance minister had been reprimanded for
              enforcing the tea tax too ruthlessly

1610      The first tea reached Europe on Dutch ships from Java

1610      The value of tea as a commodity had been recognized

1630s on     The Dutch, Europe's first tea drinkers did not begin us milk , but often with saffron, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.

1637      In Dutch East India Co. Journey dairy : As tea begins to come int o use by some of people , we expected some jors of Chinese as well
              as Japanese tea with each ship"

1637      Peter Mundy , a Chinese samovar , chronicled his arrival with 1st Brithish ship to Macao, developed a Chinese teapot taht sat atop a brass
              charcoal burner. said by famous tea authority Willianm Ukers

1655     A member of Dutch East India Co. delegated to the Chinese emperor. Officials who entertained them at dinner in Guangzhou (Canton) served
              very hot tea boiled down by a third and drunk with one-fourth warm milk and a little salt.

1658      a solid evidence of the sale of tea in England is a newspaper advertisement for the Thomas Garway coffeehouse in London. It read: " That
              excellent and by all Physitians approved drink called by the Chineans tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tea is sold at
              the Sultaness Head a cophee house in sweeting Rents by the Royal Exchange London." The price up to 6 ~ 10 pounds sterling
              per pound of tea (210 ~335 HKD/Kg today)

1660      Charles II came to the throne in Restoration , the East India Co. presented the royal couples two pounds of tea to anxiousely win their favor,
              although the tea was brought from a coffeehouse.

1660     The Carway's London broadsheet declares : "being prepared with Milk and Water, strengtheneth the inward parts. "

1670     The East India Co. started to import tea from Orient.

1675      Tea was availabel in food stores and was in general use in Holland

1670     Tea added Milk was invented by Madamede la sabilere. by madame de Sevigny, whose letters published remarked the idea origin, even some
              think it was from Germany or France . But the custom of milk, carried over to Britain,
              and became to England norm.

1684     The East India Co. established his 1st company at Canton , soon tea made over 90% export trade of China to England, then silk, chinaware ,
              other ceramics. Tea authoriities Joel, David, and Karl schapira perceptively observe: " tea was served a smuch for
              its strangeness as for its taste. Drinking tea was one way aristocrats of the West could participate in the exciting
               voyages of discovery being made in their age. Tea trade was a respectalbe occupation, who took it, for example
              in East India Co., economists James Mill and his son John stuart Mill, novelist Thomas Love Peacock, & essayist Chales Lamb.

1689-1880    Treaty of Nerchinsk accutioned , at board of north Ulan Bator, started USS-China tea special for brick tea and furs caravan trade, then to
                  Guangzhou and HanKo

1700      Russia was receiving over 600 camel loads of tea annually

1701      "The Tea-Smitten Ladies" : The craze for tea parties finally resulted in the ruin of many homes

1717      A great Tea businessman opene dhis 1st teahouse , but took his 1st cup of tea in 1660 and a druggist recommended tea to his wife for her cold
              in 1667

10000