Ever since its lucky “discovery” by Emperor Chen Nung in 2737 B.C. ( a leaf from a wild tea plan reportedly fell into  his bowl of hot water), first three thousand years in the history of tea were a purely and intensely Chinese affair. In the Chinese Art of Tea, John Blofeld noted that every layer of Chinese society played a part in this history, including “emperors and peasants, Taoist recluses, Buddhist monks, wandering physicians, mandarins (the scholar officials of old China), lovely ladies, craftsmen, potters, poet, singers, painters, architects, landscape, gardeners, nomadic tribesmen who bartered horses for bricks of tea, and statesmen who used tea to buy off would be invades…..”Even though China, unlike Japan, never transformed the drinking of tea into a sacred ceremony, it never the less initiated the time honored ritual of offering a bowl of tea to a guest as a sign of welcome. This tradition was reportedly begun by a disciple of Lao Tse named Kuanyin who one day offered the “old philosopher” a cup of the golden elixir. Thus by 500 B.C., tea had become what it remains today in many countries, especially in

Asia – a marl of friendship and hospitality. Once associated with Taoist philosophy and therefore intimately linked to the rise of Zen Buddhism, tea was also thought to provide the energy required for meditation.

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