Tea

After water, tea is the most frequently consumed beverage on Earth. Since its mythical discovery in China some 5000 years ago, it has been an important companion to physicians, monks, and poets.

Over time, tea spread as a luxury beverage to all parts of the world, reaching pinnacles of tea culture in the complex tea ceremonies of Japan and China, and in the tea houses and caravanserais of the Orient. But also in the elegant tea circles of London and Paris, where one could hotly debate whether milk or tea should be poured into the cup first.

Tea eludes the spirit of the age; it is not fast-paced, not boastful, it hides its spirit in the cup. It smells of everything our nose can detect and evokes memories of snow-capped mountains, of mist-shrouded valleys, where the ancient spirit has its last home.

The origin of tea is the tea bush Camellia Sinensis and its varieties, from whose leaves and stems a multitude of different teas are created through various processes such as steaming, roasting, drying, and fermenting.

According to a legend, Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Chinese Chan (Jap.: ZEN), meditated in a cave, and when his eyes kept closing, he tore out his eyelids and threw them beside him. From them grew the first tea plant, and even today it is said: "The taste of Cha (tea) and Chan (meditation or Zen) is the same."