Tea ... This invigorating, energizing drink is known all over the world. A huge variety of types of tea will not leave you indifferent - each person will be able to choose a drink "like".
Healthy drink - tea
Each type of this delicious drink has its own healing properties.
- White tea is popularly called the elixir of immortality. This type of tea is the most useful of all existing, as it has in its composition the largest number of useful elements. It strengthens the immune system, slows down aging and promotes the rapid healing of wounds. It has strong antibacterial properties. Also, one should not forget about its another important property - white tea can slow down the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system.
- Green tea is able to give strength and vigor.
- Yellow tea normalizes heart function and blood pressure. It also contributes to mental activity. Under the influence of yellow tea, the immune system begins to work more intensively, toxins and toxins are removed from the body. This type of tea lowers temperature and blood pressure. Yellow tea can improve vision.
- Black tea contains a lot of caffeine, which means it improves heart function, increases blood pressure, and helps increase concentration.
- Red tea activates memory, improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, reduces blood clots and stimulates blood circulation. Also, this tea is able to reduce the fat deposits in the vessels.
- Puer normalizes cholesterol, and also improves the digestive system. Interestingly, Puer tea is the safest energy drink on earth. This type of tea can help those who want to lose weight while maintaining the health of hair, nails and skin.
A tea drink can be harmful to the body only if used unreasonably. It is believed that tea can be addictive. It is not recommended to drink more than 2-3 cups per day.
Given the abundance of medicinal properties and types of this drink, it is interesting to know where it comes from? Perhaps the birthplace of tea is the country of China? Or Vietnam? Perhaps the homeland of tea is India? Burma?
Homeland tea - China?
The country of China was considered the birthplace of tea for a long time. China gave the name to this drink, and taught the world to use it correctly. It is the Chinese who are the discoverers of this plant - the tea bush, which was first mentioned about 4700 years ago.
A legend was created in China that dates back to the first centuries of our era. The legend says that the tea bush grew out of the holy age. The monk was angry with himself for falling asleep during prayer and wanting his eyes to never stick together again.
For the first time from a tea leaf has become a drink that drives away fatigue and sleep, at the very beginning of our era. Initially, it was used only during religious vigils.
All these facts spoke in confirmation of the fact that the birthplace of tea is China. So that was until 1825.
After that, the question of which country is the birthplace of tea again became relevant.
Thickets of tea in the jungle of India
In 1825, huge groves of wild-growing tea tree were found in the mountain jungles of Vietnam, India, Berma and Laos. Wild tea was also found on the southern slope of the Himalayas and in the Tibetan highlands.
From that moment, the opinions of scientists ceased to be unambiguous. Some continued to consider China the birthplace of tea, others began to give preference to the Himalayas.
The factor of uncertainty complicated everything: no one knew if the groves found were wild or just wild.
The find of Chinese nerds
The question of which country is the homeland of tea is even more acute after botanists from China found giant tracts of tea forests in the south-west of the country. Already in this area, the tea plant was apparently wild, as it was located at an altitude of over 1,500 meters above sea level. But is it true? Chinese scientists could not find scientific evidence for this, since there was no evidence that tea is a one-of-a-kind plant, or whether it has brothers and sisters.
Tea family
The next step of scientists in solving the issue of the homeland of tea was to study the origins of the tea genus, which led to unexpected results.
An interesting fact is that tea, camellias and roses belong to the same family. Moreover, tea is closer in kind to camellias - these are his cousins.
One of the first genetic scientists was Karl Linney. In 1763, he compared two plants. The first is a three-meter tea bush native to China, which has juicy, glossy small leaflets. The second is a seventeen-meter tea tree from Assam, which has dense leaves of large sizes.
The conclusion of Carl Linnaeus was unambiguous - these are two different tea species. This separation has existed for a long time. The consequence of this was that for about two centuries there were two equal homelands of tea - China and India.
That was until 1962, when the question of which country is the full birthplace of tea did not interest the Soviet chemist K. M. Dzhemukhadze. It was he who experimentally managed to prove that the shape of tea trees growing in the province of China - Yunnan, is the most ancient in comparison with the rest of the existing ones.
This discovery meant that tea from China is a unique species, and, therefore, the remaining subspecies of tea are of Chinese origin.
So which country is considered the homeland of tea?
The study of the Soviet chemist gave another indirect evidence in favor of the original version of the scientists. It confirmed that China is the birthplace of tea.
However, in addition to the territory that belonged to China, the oldest tea trees were found on the lands of Vietnam and Burma, from where tea, according to scientists, began to spread to the south and north.
The meaning of tea
Tracing the spread of tea trees, you can find a lot of interesting facts about the climatic conditions people lived thousands of years ago, as well as about their life and trade. That is why the question of the homeland of tea is so important.
Today we can safely say that the country of China is, if not the birthplace of tea, then the birthplace of tea culture and tradition.
A tea drink can help the body relieve stress and protect itself from many diseases. As long as the tea warms in the cold and refreshes in the heat, it does not matter in which country it appeared. A tonic tea drink brings together billions of people across the globe.