Monday, February 11, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 08:30 AM |
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Tea
Tea originated in China and reached Japan between the 6th and 8th centuries, spreading to Tibet and the rest of Indochina soon afterwards. When the Chinese Embassy of Zhènghé 鄭和 visited Bengal in 1406, they were therefore surprised to discover that the court offered its guests betel nuts instead of tea.
The daily drinking of tea was introduced to India by the British. While there is a variety of tea native to India (’‘Camellia assamica’‘) whose leaves were eaten or infused as a medicine, it was never used as a beverage regularly consumed even in health, in the way that Chinese tea was.
In 1889, George Watt observed that “while India has not only challenged but beaten China, during the past 30 years, no progress has been made in the teaching the native population of India the value of tea”[1].
The turning point came during the First World War, when the Indian Tea Association established tea stalls at factories, coal mines and cotton mills involved in production for the war. The Tea Association hoped that “having learnt to drink tea at his work. [the employee] will take the habit home to his home, and so accustom his family and friends to tea.” However, India transformed tea to its own taste, adding milk, spices (cardamom, cinnamon and cloves) and plenty of sugar to the concoction, which also allowed them to use fewer of the expensive tea leaves. This is the concoction now known as “Marsala chai” which is a uniquely Indian beverage. Because of the heavy use of milk and sugar, a mug of marsala tea may contain as many as forty calories, thus providing both refreshment as well as energy for manual laborers.
1. Watt, George (1889). A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta: IV, III, p475.
