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About Tea
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History tells us that tea has been in use by the Chinese for many thousands of years. One early reference to tea drinking dates back to 2737B.C. - quite a while ago in anyone's book!

The story goes that a Chinese Emperor called Shen Nung was sitting under a tree as he was boiling some water to drink. Just as he was sitting there, a leaf from the Camellia sinensis plant fell gently into the boiling water. The Emperor, the wise man that he was, let it stay in his cup of hot water, which let the flavour from the single tea leaf diffuse. This became the very first recorded cup of tea, born through chance and fluke.

Years passed until the East and all it's cultural treasures were opened up to the western world by seafaring traders. These tradesmen first brough tea back from China to the British Isles about 300 years ago. Times have changed since then - very little of the tea drank in the west is imported from China as most of it comes Kenya, India and Sri Lanka.

After arriving in Britain, tea drinking began to gain in popularity, especially among the aristocracy, and started to proliferate into other countries. Tea first arrived in Ireland after being imported from the colonies of the British Empire. Because of it's high class reputation and the association of tea with wealth, it soon became fashionable to serve fresh tea at any self-respecting high society function in 18th Century Ireland.

Traditionally tea has been associated with glamour and wealth. This image was strengthened by the famous trading ships such as the Cutty Sark, known as tea clippers. These were elegant boats with sleek lines who were built for speed and agility - they were the speedboats of that era.

It wasn't until a relatively short time ago that tea became a drink for the whole of society. The glitzy reputation of tea trading clippers dashing between China and Britain helped to keep tea as a rather pricey, special treat. In fact, tea was so expensive that it was frequently smuggled into the country by local fishermen who could get a good price for it on the black market. It wasn't until companies realized the appeal of tea for the ordinary man and woman that prices fell low enough to become truely popular.

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