The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words “Tea house” is probably the imagination of some British women wearing colored hats, seated at a table in some big room having some tea and engaging in the age-old art of gossip. But that is not always the case.
The history of tea is long and complex, spreading across multiple cultures spanning thousands of years. Tea most likely originated in southwest China during the Shang dynasty as a medicinal drink. Which now has lately been revived by green tea and many variations thereof and tea is now a favorite in many countries around the globe. As per the Harvard Medical School “Tea, especially green tea, is often said to be good for your health. Tea contains substances linked to a lower risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. “
Time & WebMD document some great benefits of drinking tea:
- Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack – Drinking a cup or two Tea might help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases a great reason to start if you don’t consume tea.
- Tea has been assessed to be an effective agent in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
- The antioxidants in tea might help protect against many types of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers.But just don’t rely on tea alone to do miracles to your health
- Tea could keep your waist in check. A study proved that participants who regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than non-consuming participants.
- Tea can boost exercise endurance – green tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance. Make it your pre-gym drink
- Tea could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes.
- Tea helps fight free radicals. Tea is high in oxygen radical absorbance capacity, basically it helps destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body.
- Tea is hydrating to the body
- Drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.
- Tea might provide protection from ultraviolet rays.
- Regular tea drinking might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking and might even lessen the risk of lung cancer. Doesn’t mean you start or continue to smoke and negate the effects with tea.
- Black Tea May Help People Recover From Everyday Stress – says WebMD
“An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by Hua Tuo.[2] Tea was first introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the 16th century.[3] Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century. The British introduced tea production, as well as tea consumption, to India, in order to compete with the Chinese monopoly on tea”– source Wikipedia
History of Tea in Japan
The history of tea in Japan has earliest known references in a text written by a Buddhist monk in the 9th century. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys sent to China to learn about its culture brought tea to Japan.
I wanted to explore the culture of drinking tea and how it has en grained into the Japanese society over the centuries and still has a prime importance in the social fabric of human interaction, friendship and social events.
In Japanese culture, a tea house was not just a structure where people went to have tea. It was more of a sacred place designated specifically for tea drinking.
Tea drinking in Japan has existed as a ritual. The ceremony of tea drinking is supposed to take place in a place called chashitsu, which means “tea room.”
Lately Organic Tea has taken a big up swing, with a heightened focus on health and diet people are buying and consuming more organic products than ever before. Organic tea is not only popular in Japan but is gaining popularity world wide.
The chashitsu is usually a place designated for intellectual meetings and meditation.
