Tea time for the soul

Better Nutrition, Jan, 1998 by Lisa Turner

If you've given up coffee for health considerations, the most widely consumed beverage in the world just may be your cup of tea.

According to The Tea Council of the U.S.A., on any given day, about one half of all Americans drink tea, and the greatest concentration of tea drinkers can be found sipping in the Southern and Northeastern regions of the country.

The exact origin of tea is subject to some interpretation. By romanticized, and somewhat gruesome, accounts, this ubiquitous beverage had its beginnings in China with the Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, around 500 A.D. According to legend, Ta'Mo', as he was called by the Chinese, had vowed to meditate for nine years in a garden near the emperor's palace. After many years, he closed his eyes one day and fell asleep. Upon awakening, he became so enraged with himself that he sliced off his eyelids and flung them to the ground. They took root in the soil and grew into a tea bush. Thus began the long and illustrious history of tea.

Tea fancying takes hold across the globe

More factual -- if not as dramatic -- accounts hold that the Chinese, or more specifically the emperor Shen Nung, actually discovered the tea plant as early as 2700 B.C. Shen Nung made a point of boiling his water as a matter of health. One day, when his servants started a fire to boil his water, some of the leaves from the twigs of firewood blew into the pot. The emperor, intrigued by the fragrant scent of the liquid, tasted the brew and found it palatable. Not long after, the cultivation of tea began to spread to Japan and the rest of the Far East.

Britain, considered second only to Asian countries as the tea-imbibing capital of the world, didn't actually popularize the legendary beverage until the mid-1600s, when an entrepreneuring tea merchant lauded the health benefits of tea in a local publication. His recitation extolled the virtues of tea as a potent stimulant, claiming that tea, among other qualities, "removeth lassitude, vanquisheth heavy dreams, strengtheneth the memory ... [and] overcometh superfluous sleep." Tea quickly became a custom of much ritual and pomp in Britain, and its popularity eventually spread to the colonies. Legend holds that tea was first introduced to American settlers by William Penn, when he brought the plant from England to his fledgling colony -- what is now Delaware -- in the late 1600s. Less than a century later, tea had a firm hold in the culinary customs of American settlers, as well as Brits.

A profusion of infusions

The popularity of tea has increased of late as many health-conscious Americans have taken to the brew as a healthier alternative to coffee. A resulting profusion of blends has sprung up, but, in the simplest of terms, tea is tea. All teas, excluding herbal varieties, come from the tea plant (Camellia sinensis or Thea sinensis). Black, green, and Oolong are considered the basic types of teas, but thousands of varieties exist. Variations in flavor, color, and strength are based on soil conditions, climate, altitude, the part of the plant used, and the time and manner of harvesting. The method of processing further determines the variety and flavor. Black tea, for instance, is fermented and has a more robust flavor, while green tea is quickly steamed just before packaging to yield a milder taste and aroma.

The late 1960s heralded a dramatic increase in herbal teas -- technically not "tea" at all -- when the so-called alternative health movement saw its tentative inception. Infusions of peppermint, chamomile, and hibiscus became popular as a growing number of naturalists shunned caffeine. But these still-popular herbal teas have been enjoyed for thousands of years, for both palate-pleasing and healing reasons. As early as 400 B.C., both Plato and Aristotle referred to herbal teas for healing, and Roman statesmen endorsed herbs for culinary and medicinal uses. Herbal teas were popular in England as early as the 1400s (about two centuries before "tea" came on the scene), and the Pilgrims trundled off to the New World with herbs for healing beverages.

Because of the stiff tariffs later imposed on tea in the colonies, those who couldn't afford true tea continued to brew their beverages from herbs. After the Boston Tea Party made history for colonists and the C. sinensis plant, imported tea was shunned by true patriots, who promoted "liberty teas" brewed from domestically grown herbs. Once the Revolutionary War opened importation, black tea became affordable -- and popular -- once again, and herbs were reserved for medicinal purposes. Herbal tea didn't see a resurgence in popularity again until the early 1970s, when Americans began to embrace the health-foods "movement" as a way of life and turned to caffeine-free herbal blends in favor of black tea and coffee. While herbal blends are indeed healthful, current studies indicate that green tea and other derivations of the C. sinensis plant can also be beneficial to good health.

Healing brews: may your cup runneth over