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Tea History - Important Dates
Both the early Asian history of tea and the history of tea since the Europeans became involved in the 1550’s are rich, fascinating subjects. Get a quick overview of tea history by date in the list below, then check out our tea essays linked to above for an in depth look at the history of tea.
2700 B.C.:
Chinese legend said that the first man to till the earth gave the gift of tea to man.
350 A.D.:
The cultivation of tea was described in a Chinese dictionary.
520’s A.D.:
Japanese legend said that Daruma a Zen Buddhist monk, created a tea plant by tearing off his eyelids and throwing them to the ground. He was said to have made tea out of the leaves of this plant. Japanese Zen Buddhist monks include tea in their ceremonies to this day.
500 A.D.:
Tea was consumed by Chinese more for enjoyment than health.
729 A.D.:
The Japanese Emperor gave tea to Buddhist monks at a Buddhist conference. These monks spread tea across Japan.
780 A.D.:
The Chinese scholar Lu Yu wrote the Ch’a Ching, the first book about tea. The first tax on tea was imposed.
1191:
The Japanese Buddhist monk Eisai brought Zen Buddhism to Japan from China, and revived tea culture, and wrote the first Japanese book about tea.
1400 - 1600:
The Japanese developed the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
1477:
The first official rules of the Japanese Tea Ceremony were published.
1500’s:
European merchants hear rumors of tea from Arab traders and Portuguese missionaries in China.
1557:
The Portuguese started the first direct Chinese-European trade from their trading post on the Chinese island of Macao. Tea was not one of the products traded initially.
1559:
A Venetian merchant-author makes the first mention of tea in a western book.
1588:
The rules of the Japanese Tea Ceremony were simplified, making the ceremony affordable to the middle class, and giving the Japanese Tea Ceremony its current philosophy.
1600:
The British East India Company was founded. It would soon possess a total monopoly on tea, although tea trading was not one of the original objectives of the Company.
1601:
The British East India Company set up a trading post on the Indonesian island of Java.
1602:
The Dutch set up a trading post in Indonesia. Tea was not traded initially.
1610:
Dutch are the first to ship tea to Europe.
1623:
Many British traders were driven off of Java by the Dutch. The British East India Company set up their new headquarters in India.
1637:
The British reach the Chinese island of Macao. The British did not yet trade tea directly with the Chinese on Macao, instead getting the tea from Chinese and Portuguese traders on Java.
Circa 1650:
Tea was consumed in the Dutch American colony on New Amsterdam.
1657:
First large quantity of tea (from the Dutch) was sold in England.
1669:
The first shipment of tea arrived in England.
Circa 1670:
Tea was consumed by English American colonists. Tea houses began sprouting up, especially in New York.
1689:
Tea was shipped directly from China to England by the British East India Company. The Company had a complete monopoly on all Chinese trade, including the tea trade, at this time. Tea caravans were bringing large quantities of tea from China to Russia by this time.
1700’s:
Tea was widely consumed in Russia, England, and the American colonies by the middle class. Britons developed their “low tea” and “high tea” traditions.
December 16, 1773:
American colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in the event known as the Boston Tea Party.
1813:
The British East India Company lost their tea monopoly.
1834:
The British East India Company lost their total Chinese trade monopoly.
1838:
The first shipments of Indian tea arrived in England.
1858:
The British East India Company’s governmental powers in India were ended.
1860’s:
Many tea plantations are started by independent British tea growers in India.
1870’s:
Tea plantations began popping up across Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
1880’s:
Tea cultivation in Indonesia takes off.
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