The Origins of Tea

Tea has been considered to be functional food for centuries in China, due to one of the legends surrounding the origins of tea as a beverage. The legend follows that while boiling some water for a drink to allay stomach pains after overindulgence at dinner, the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung, who lived around 2700 BC, failed to notice that some leaves from a nearby shrub had dropped into his boiling vessel. He drank the resulting brew and found that it not only tasted delicious but it also caused the spontaneous disappearance of his stomach pains, thereby demonstrating for the first time the beneficial healthy effects of tea.

Nowadays green and black teas are beverages prepared and enjoyed by people of different cultures and societies because of its taste and medicinal benefits.