History of Green Tea: Learn all
about the History Of Green Tea

There is an old Chinese legend that says a man was out walking one day when he accidently tasted the juices from a leaf of a tea plant. He though it tasted great and even felt the tea had special medicinal properties.

Maybe these two men were even one in the same person. Whichever story is true I don't know but thankfully it was discovered!

From this time on the history of green tea began to develop. In those days all tea was green. It was only later that Oolong and black or red teas were developed. Black tea is fermented and Oolong is semi-fermented. At that time tea was drunk fresh with the new leaves being mixed with hot water. It was already being noted that the tea was beneficial to the nervous system and aided digestion.

Tea drinking grew in popularity and became a pastime of the rich. Fine teas wereonly available to those who could afford them and green teas were even used as acurrency. Elaborate tea ceremonies developed involving large sets of tea makingequipment. Tea houses sprung up and tea connoisseurs prided themselves on thequality of their leaves and their tea making skill.

Eventually green tea made it's way to Japan in the 800's and the Japanese developed their famous teas such as Sencha, Matcha and Bancha. The history ofgreen tea developed further by the introduction of Oolong and black teas. It isbelieved this happened sometime after 1600 AD. Oolong tea then became verypopular in the South of China.

It is believed that Oolong tea, which is partially fermented green tea, becamepopular because green tea itself was so efficient in helping the body to riditself of fat that people decided they needed to keep the fat as times were sohard. They switched to drinking oolong tea which contains less fat oxidizingelements. Oolong tea is still one of the most popular teas in China today.

Green tea drinking was not just about the tea itself. A whole sub-culture of teapots, tea cups and tea sets developed. Tea became an art form with differentproducers vying for business in the manufacture of stylish and functional teamaking equipment. Some of the most famous tea pots come from the town of Yi Xingwith it's world famous purple clay tea pots.