History of Tea

Most of the greatest discoveries of the world happened unexpectedly, just like with the history of one of the world’s well loved beverage- TEA. 2737 BC, Sheng Nung, a Chinese Emperor, was boiling the water he was about to drink, when suddenly, a tea leaf fell into his water. The tea then was boiled together, when the Emperor, who happened to be a scientist too, noticed that the water became so tempting, exhilarating and refreshing. From that time on, he never drank a cup of water without boiling it with the tea leaf. And that accidental falling of a tea leaf gave way for the birth of traditional drinking of tea.

Camellia Sinensis

Tea is a beverage using dried leaves from a tree called Camellia Sinensis. People often thought that each type of tea came from different plants, but in reality, it all rooted to the plant of Camellia Sinensis.

Teas made from herbs, flowers or fruits are not actually teas. They do not contain Camellia Sinensis at all, and the caffeine content and the health benefits are not as same as with the real tea that came from the plant of Camellia Sinensis. These are called as “Tisanes”, often associated or called as tea simply because the method of steeping is also involved in its preparation.

Types of Tea

Generally, all kinds of tea originated from a single plant called Camellia Sinensis, these type of tea were differentiated after the processes it had undergone. The three basic types of tea are as follows:

Green Tea

It is steamed, rolled out on mats and heated

Oolong Tea

This type is the hybrid of green and black tea. To produce this type, leaves are wilted, withered, rolled out and semi-fermented.

Black Tea

 This type of tea has the highest caffeine content. Its leaves are fully fermented. Fermentation refers to the breaking down of chlorophyll which makes the leaves black (science calls this enzymatic oxidation).

Green Tea

Black Tea

Oolong Tea

History of Chocolate

History says that chocolate before started out as an alcoholic beverage, fit only for a king. The process used was same with the process of making wine. Anthropologists discovered a cacao residue on a pottery which appears that the sweet pulp of cacao fruit was fermented into an alcoholic beverage date back as far as 1400 AD. It was also believed that chocolates were served before as a spicy drink, flavored with chili powder. Ancient tribes in Central America serve this drink only to the most high rank officials and important visitors of their tribe.

The etymology of the term “chocolate” came from the Aztec word “xocoatl”, which refers to the frothy and bitter drink made from the cacao beans. The Latin name of the Cacao tree has a scientific name of Theobroma Cacao, which means "food for the Gods”.

Chocolate in the ancient period was also used as a monetary unit. 1000 AD, cocoa beans are used as a form of payment. Taxes are paid using these beans. Over the centuries, only the Kings and Queens can afford to drink this and the poor cannot. Cocoa beans are also used as a unit of calculation. Like for example, 100 cocoa beans can bought a slave, 10 cocoa beans can bought the services of a prostitute and four cocoa beans got you a rabbit for dinner. After 30 years, the price of rabbit was equal to 100 cocoa beans, and one single cocoa bean could buy a ripe avocado or tomato.

When chocolate reached Spain, it was first called “the bitter drink for the pigs”. Spaniards did not like it spicy, until the Spanish Princess Anna tried drinking it with sugar. Chocolate then became a famous drink to them, and again, only the elite and royalties could enjoy.

The Emergence of Coffee as a Beverage

Coffee first emerged in the form similar to tea today. The leaves from coffee shrubs were boiled in water and the liquid was consumed "black."

This preparation technique gave way to the use of cherries and later the roasted seeds of cherries known as coffee beans.

It did not take long for the opportunity of coffee to spread, and as a result a great demand was created for drink.

Coffee is both functional beverage as well as a sensual experience. An understanding of the romance and history of coffee is integral to truly enjoy a fine cup of coffee. Few people realize the history they hold in their cup.

The History of Coffee

The History and development of the beverage called "coffee" has come from 1,300 years of violence, piracy, pilgrims, warriors, smugglers and politics, which contributed to a cup of your cappuccino being what it is today.

Most popular is the Legend of Kaldi, a third century monk and a goat herder living in Ethiopia. He happened to notice that his goats would get hyperactive after eating the red cherries from a certain plant. He tried a few himself and was soon as overactive as his herd. Hearing about Kaldi's new fruit, other monks were said to use it to keep them awake during long hours of praying.

A few hundred years later, coffee crossed the Red Sea to Arabia. Wherever the Islam traveled, coffee went to - North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and India.