THE INFANCY OF TEA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1671, 5 March 1890, Page 3

THE INFANCY OF TEA.

Tea (says the " Hospital ") came into use almost by accident. Some Buddhist priests, going on a missionary expedition from Northern India to China, took with them the dried leaves and also some cuttings of an indigenous shrub, which was said to have the power oE correcting any injurious property in the brakish water they might meet on the way. The decoction thus made pleased the missionaries so well that they continued, as a matter of taste, to drink it after they had reached China, and introduced it to their converts. They also set about planting the precious shrub, and, although it did not thrive so well in China as in its native Assam, becoming smaller in stem and leaf, it was «o> well liked that it soon formed the foundation of the favourite beverage of all China. Thence it was brought to Europe, to be drunk and desired by Englishmen of every degree. And it is only of late years that Assam tea has come into the European market; to be looked upon rather suspicious as the* rival of its own degenerated Chinese daughter.