Strange Tea Facts

From website www.crazyfortea.com

Strange Tea Facts - From Weird to Unusual, find out some interesting facts about tea!

Facts About Tea

• Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!



• The Irish drink more tea per head than nay nation in the world.



• Tea was accidentally invented in 2737 BC when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung spotted some tea leaves blew into a pot of boiling water and produced a pleasing aroma.



• By 1800 England alone was consuming 24 million pounds per annum of tea of every type from white and green to oolong and black, all of it organically grown and hand-made, much of it fit for Emperors and kings. Most tea consumed in England between 1650 and 1850 was green and oolong - not black!



• From 1608, when tea first appeared in Europe, in Holland, until around 1850, China, with rare and inconsequential exceptions, was the sole source of all the tea drunk in the Western World.



• The English East India company held a monopoly on all China tea exports to the British Isles and Americas for two hundred years.




More Strange Tea Facts....




• Just as in 1608, China continues to recognise and exports six categories of tea, green, white, oolong, yellow, red and Puer.



• Tin boxes were too expensive, so New York importer Thomas Sullivan looked for a cheaper way to send his tea samples to clients. Wrapping the tea in gauze "packets" seemed the perfect answer, but his customers were befuddled by the new "packaging." Instead of removing the tea, they plopped it, gauze and all, into boiling water. Without realizing it, Sullivan had created the tea bag!



• Tibetans drink tea made of salt and rancid yak butter!



• Green tea - a less processed version of the ubiquitous black tea, with far less caffeine and more healthful properties - has long been known for its immune system benefits and anti-oxidant powers. Now, US scientists say drinking green tea may also help to prevent tooth decay and bad breath. It appears that chemicals in tea can destroy bacteria and viruses, and it is possible that adding tea extracts to toothpaste and mouthwash could make them more effective. Microbiologist Milton Schiffenbauer, from Pace University in New York, says, "Our research shows tea extracts can destroy the organism that causes disease. If we can stimulate the immune system and at the same time destroy the organisms, then it makes sense to drink more [green] tea."



• 1.42 million pounds of tea are consumed per day in the United States.



• 5 out of 6 North Americans drink tea! (Whoa! What a tea fact! I would have never guessed!)It is the most popular and cheapest beverage, next to water, in the world.



• An average of three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide.