400-600
Demand for tea as a medicinal beverage rises in China and cultivation processes are developed. Many tea drinkers add onion, ginger, spices, or orange to their teas. Plantations are established in the Yangtse river valleys and tea is further popularized by being gifted to emperors and appearing in taverns, wine stores and noodle houses.

1191
Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, a devout Zen Buddhist, brings tea seeds from China and plants them around his Kyoto temple. At this time the ancient Chinese tea drinking rituals become unfashionable in Japan and are replaced with a complicated and unique ritual, still used in Japan today, whereby the ceremony and behaviour are designed to allow quiet contemplation to promote spiritual harmony between host, guest and indeed the universe. This ceremony is known as Cha-no-yu(literally hot water tea).

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