Name: Daiana Escalante

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The spread of tea around the world

When you speak about tea, you immediately think of Britain and the five o’clock tea.However
tea has its origins in China. The story of tea ,which according to a Chinese legend, begins in
2737 BC. The legend narrates how the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a
tree while his servant was boiling water to drink.Suddenly,some leaves from the tree blew
into the water and tea was created
Although it is a legend, evidence of tea presence can be found since 206 BC but it was
under the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD), that tea became firmly established as the national
drink of China. Then, Japanese Buddhist monks, who had traveled to China ,adopted the
custom of drinking tea and brought it back home.

It was in 1606 that the first consignment of tea arrived in Europe, more precisely to the
Netherlands. Tea soon became a fashionable drink among wealthy people and from there it
spread to other countries in western Europe.

But how did Britain become the nation of tea drinkers? It was thanks to Princess Catherine
of Braganza who was a tea addict. During the XVII, she established tea as a fashionable
beverage first at court, and then among the wealthy classes. Due to this new trend between
high society, the East India Company began to import tea into Britain.
Nowadays, British companies continue to play a leading role in the world's tea trade and
British brands dominate the world market.