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The Chinese were solely responsible for the development of tea over the first 3400 years of human awareness of the plant. They oversaw the transition of the herb from a medicine to a beverage and developed a succession of methodologies for growing, processing and preparing the leaf. The result of their efforts is visible to us today in the way we steep whole leaves and drink the simple infusion that is produced – a style of preparation that wasn’t fully developed until the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th centuries A.D.).

Tea was first established outside of China in 705 A.D. when it was brought to Japan by the Buddhist monk Dengyo Daishi. It wasn’t until nearly 400 years later that tea cultivation was begun in earnest on the island. Concurrently, tea in China had reached its “Golden Age” during the Sung Dynasty. The Chinese were drinking teas that had been ground into a powder and whisked into bowls of hot water before consuming. The Japanese adopted this methodology as their own then went on to perfect the preparation technique. This ancient style of tea preparation still manifests itself today in the form of the Cha do – the Japanese way of tea.