The history of the origin of tea is full of mysteries. No one can tell now who opened the drink to the world, and moreover, acquainted the Europeans with a drink.
According to the one of legends, the tea leaves fell into a boiling vat of water in ancient times. And the Chinese imperator tried the infusion, and then appreciated the invigorating effect of the drink. The plant was originally used only for medicinal purposes because of its` toning properties.
It was grown and harvested by Buddhist monks as a healing drink. It is considered that there were exactly the monks who brought tea to Japan in the 6th century. And much later, only in the XVI century, the Portuguese missionary brought tea to his homeland. But most of the inhabitants of the country did not cognize the taste of tea.
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On an industrial scale, the plant was not harvested, besides, the leaves very poorly tolerated transportation, and transportation of raw materials over long distances was rather difficult. During the whole century the tea was occasionally drunk in Portugal by the royal dynasty only.
Europe for a long time did not know tea, considering this drink to be exotic. Tea trade became widely spread only in the beginning of the XVII-th century – the Dutch merchants bought a batch of tea in Macau in 1610 and began selling it on the European continent.
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And from the year of 1637 the Dutch East India Company starts uninterrupted supply of tea to Europe on each of its` vessels. The tea drink is being tried in England, France, Germany, Italy.
Instead of tea in Russia there drank kaprej narrow-leaved, all known as ivan-tea. It was being brewed to relieve fatigue after a long work in the field. And small city manufactories until the beginning of the twentieth century had been supplying a national drink in beautiful packages in dozens of countries. However, later this tradition was lost.
The birthplace of Russian black tea was Sochi. It was in the Krasnodar Territory where the first plantations were smashed, contrary to the prevailing opinion, that Russia was a place unsuitable for growing tea. Temperature and precipitation really did not comply with generally accepted norms for the cultivation of this valuable culture. The tea-grower Kashman spread all doubts. That was he who broke the first tea plantation in the Solohaul Village in 1901. Nowadays the village is located in the Lazarevsky district of Sochi. Since then, the tea gourmets can enjoy the taste of their favorite drink, grown and produced in Russia. By the way, this tea is not inferior in its flavor qualities to the universally recognized leaders.