We’ve imbibed, traded, fought over, revered, studied, and waxed poetic on Camellia sinensis, or Tea, for centuries upon centuries. Volumes have been written on the history of this much beloved plant. Our relationship reaches back long before we humans began writing. Tea has touched the shores of every continent in the world, and managed to stir-up trouble on more than a couple of them. We could spend gallons of ink and not cover Tea’s whole story.
Tea History, Briefly
For perhaps centuries, Camellia sinensis grew in the tropical and mountainous region in Asia now known as Yunnan Province, China, stretching into modern day Laos and Myanmar and Vietnam. The tradition of drawing on C. Sinensis, now known simply as Tea, for food, shelter, and medicine dates well beyond the written record. We know it began with small, indigenous groups of people in those regions. We know by the time humans in that region began to record information about their medicinal, cultural, and daily practices Tea was an established part of their life. We know that as long ago as 4000 years humans revered Tea for its Medicine.
Camellia sinensis began interacting with humans in formulation, as far as we can tell. The earliest accounts of use of Tea were in combination with other plants for medicinal use. The majority of our history with Tea was, in fact, probably more a healing and nurturing relationship rather than the love affair it became by the rise of China’s great philosophical religions roughly 3000 years ago: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.
What had been a medicinal herb primarily brewed in combination with other barks, fruits, leaves, and flowers to cure or heal became a simple, or single-herb medicine. Tea became a medicine of sorts, helping early Holy people calm their minds, still their hearts, and energize their bodies for long and intense daily meditation practice. Camellia sinensis became a daily drug akin to modern coffee in American culture, except rather than take it for granted as we do coffee today, monks and priests treated it with reverence. Tea became a Holy drink, one that was accessible to and soon appreciated by people in through out society.
Tea’s appeal was enhanced by local culture on all levels. At the lower levels of society, people applied the practical knowledge they had from their medicine-making traditions to preparing Tea. They dried tea in the sun to enhance it’s Yang qualities or they dried it in the shade to enhance its Yin nature. They warmed it by letting it stand awhile after drying to oxidize or they fried it over a fire to warm its effects. They thought about what they needed in their particular environment, and then they used the appropriate techniques to create the right Medicine for their locality.
Among the wealthier classes, techniques for brewing pushed their Tea experience further along the evolutionary path. Emperors contributed technique, etiquette, and focus to their Tea. Wealthy people commissioned tea ware, artwork, and architecture devoted to creating a more sophisticated and stylized Tea Experience. Artisans and Merchants made a living solely from their work with Tea and the culture that grew up around Camellia sinensis.
And then, Tea Traveled West
By the time Europeans got their first taste of Tea, Camellia sinensis was already a five-clawed Dragon in his homeland. Tea Gardens flourished across China. The primary types of tea (White, Yellow, Green, Red we now call Black, Blue we now call Oolong, and Black we now call Pu’er) were well-established and within each type classes, varietals, and quality rankings were defined with general consensus. We Westerners were rather late to the table.
That didn’t stop us from embracing Tea and making it our own. The British cup of tea, complete with a splash of lemon or milk and a lump or two or sugar, was one of the West’s contributions to Tea culture. Europeans in general quickly adopted Tea as a daily staple at all levels of society. Rumor has it that one of Queen Victoria’s ladies invented Afternoon Tea, which quickly swept European society as both a break from the day’s work and an opportunity to stoke one’s fire, so to speak, so that days could last a little longer and workers could be a little more productive late in the day.
Tea’s popularity made it center-stage in a whole lot of politics, trade, and even war worldwide. For centuries, China guarded the secrets of growing and processing Tea carefully. Tea was traded along the Spice Route alongside silk and a variety of spices, fetching super high prices and being sometimes accompanied by armed guards. Camellia sinensis became one of the leading and most lucrative exports for China, and Kings and Queens taxed the heck out of each sale. Tea became a major commodity by the time Europeans began to settle North America. What might the Sons of Liberty have thrown overboard in 1773 had Tea not been in such high demand in the colonies?
Despite Tea’s huge popularity worldwide, Camellia sinensis has remained an Asian treasure even today. Most effectively, early Chinese Tea Masters established the story that Camellia sinensis cannot grow outside of its home region. Emperors forbade export of seeds or live plants, and what few were smuggled out and planted up elsewhere just didn’t produce the deductible beverage we’d come to know and love outside of China.
Tea Today
Modern humans worldwide drink a lot of Tea. Most of today’s Tea is grown and produced on the Asian continent, but Westerners are beginning to experiment back home. In the USA and England, home gardeners are starting to try their hand at growing and producing their own small-batch, home-grown teas. Where ornamental camellia’s thrive, so, too, might Camellia sinensis. After a couple of centuries of diplomacy, trade, and sharing of knowledge, Westerners have enough knowledge to process their own more effectively. The Great Tea Masters may never find these little producers on-par with the artful teas of Emperors, but herbalists might well find that the best, most magical Tea medicine actually can come from their own back yard.
The Magic of Tea
Camellia sinensis Magic is the magic of early morning fire. He prefers to grow amid the dappled shade of a larger forest or in areas where the sun’s rays are like those of the early morning, clear and strong and filled with the peaceful expectation and excitement of a new day dawning. We humans have long recognized the peace and energy an early morning cup of Tea offers; it’s the magic that inspires much of the world into action each day. Tea’s fire isn’t the full-blaze of some of his cousins. Rather, it’s like the sun’s energy at dawn, reaching from the stillness into a new world of possibility. Tea helps us prepare to take those first steps.
It is in the preparation that Tea really shines, too. Tea takes a bit of time to dig his roots in, but just a little bit when you think about his long life expectancy. Three years or so to prepare for fifty or more of production seems like a bargain, when it comes down to it. Tea makes it look easy, too. He digs in for the first couple of years, establishing a good and strong root system, then he begins to sprout top-side in waves of growth called flushes. By his fourth year, Tea is surging ahead to produce new buds and leaves in as many as four flushes per season. Once he sets the pattern, Tea sticks with it for decades. Tea Magic is the magic of setting up for strong, steady, sustained motion or growth.
Setting that foundation is one of Tea’s key lessons. As a medicine, Tea offers us a measured combination of stillness and action, calming our minds and nerves while boosting our metabolism and energy for the work ahead. In the wild, Tea’s presence feels calm, like a Holy Being. Tea teaches us to be, just be, and to awaken to our lives in the calm of that Being. Tea magic is the magic of stillness balanced with action.
Tea offers shelter to many beings. Birds and insects find respite from the day’s heat under Tea’s canopy. Mycorrhiza and Earth-dwelling insects find connection and nutrition in Tea’s roots. We find peace in a cup of Tea. Tea’s reach is Magical in nature. There is no continent that hasn’t tasted Tea’s Medicine, no place where Tea has not carried the Magic of Yang wrapped in Yin. Tea projects are those who will last us a lifetime, surging ahead in waves of growth and falling back into still periods of contemplation. Tea shows us how to move with the energies of the world, creating whatever it is we wish to create in community with the many beings who share our world with us. Tea shows us that we can be ourselves, allowing our energy to fill the world with beauty one wave at a time and allow us to reawaken to our inner beauty with each moment of stillness. Tea magic is the magic of Energy wrapped in Intention.
Camellia sinensis’s gender is Masculine. He’s associated with Pitta energy and his planet is the Sun.
