Green Tea History

Before accidentally turned into 'black' during its transportation in the 17th century, tea had no color.

The brew that can be called tea appeared around the 2nd century in China, when sun-dried green leaves were chopped and boiled as a drink, the earliest green tea. In the 7th century, the ancient Chinese began to prepare their tea into the shape of pie. Steamed, moulded and baked dry, the pie was smashed by a roller and boiled at tea time. Pie tea was popular for a long period until banned by Emperor Hongwu in 1391.

Tea was introduced to Korea at the end of the 4th century along with Buddhism. In 805 AD, a returned Japanese monk brought with him the seeds of tea from Mt. Tiantai of Zhejiang Province and planted the first tea in Japan. (Japan has only green tea and tea-makers still use Chinese steaming method today).

When pie tea was replaced by loose leaf tea, roasting method replaced steaming method in Chinese tea production. There were 58 recorded well-known teas at that time. In 15 of them still in production today, 13 teas are green teas.

In 1673, England imported Chinese green tea for the first time. After the franchise of tea importing being suspended by a Chinese emperor, England started tea plantations in India in 1834.

The origin of the word tea

Chinese: tai	English: tea German: thee French: the Korean: ta Swedish: te
Chinese: cha	Japanese: cha Persian: cha Portuguese: cha Indian: cha Rusian: chai