Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over
cured or fresh leaves of ''
Camellia sinensis'', an
evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and
northern Myanmar.
Tea is also rarely made from the leaves of ''
Camellia taliensis''. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world.
There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and
astringent flavour,
while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy
notes. Tea has a
stimulating effect in humans primarily due to its
caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...
content.
An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the third century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician
Hua Tuo
Hua Tuo ( 140–208), courtesy name Yuanhua, was a Chinese physician who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty. The historical texts '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'' and '' Book of the Later Han'' record Hua Tuo as the first person in Ch ...
. It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
, and tea drinking subsequently spread to other East Asian countries.
Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century.
During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the
English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in