Thank you for joining us for today's Spotlight Advanced. I'm brucekulland and I'm Lis
Wade. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for
people to understand no matter where in the world they live. Some people drink
it with food in the afternoon. Some people drink it to give themselves energy
in the morning. Some people drink it as part of a ceremony. Some
people drink it when they're sick. Some people drink it hot, some people
drink it very cold. People have been drinking it for hundreds of years in
hundreds of countries. What is it tea? Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis
plant. People pick the leaves off the plant. They set the leaves to
dry. The tea leaves are ready when all the water from the leaves is
evaporated. There are many ways to prepare the leaves before making the tea drink.
Some tea leaves are left open to the air before they are dried.
This makes the leaves darker they will taste stronger. Some people mix tea leaves
with flowers, oils, and other plants to give teas different tastes. The
people who originally discovered tea developed these methods many years ago. The story of
tea begins in China. Chinese history says that over five thousand years ago,
Chinese emperor Chennung discovered tea. Stories say that a dry leaf from the tea
plant fell into the emperor's cup of hot water. The empress saw that his
water turned dark. He tasted the water and liked it. This was the
first cup of tea. However it started, tea became very popular in China.
People believed that tea was healthy. People in China also created many different
ways to prepare tea. In fact, a man named lu Yu wrote a
book just about tea late in the eighth century. Soon after this, tea
traveled to Japan. Japanese Buddhist priests traveled to China, and they brought tea
back with them. In Japan, people developed special ceremonies to serve tea.
Serving tea became a new form of art. It was most common among wealthy
people. Tea was an important part of both Chinese and Japanese culture. It
had traveled to other Asian countries too, but tea had not yet traveled anywhere
else in the world. Finally, in the late fifteen hundreds, Portuguese travelers
brought small amounts of tea back to Europe. Portugal was one of the first
European countries to trade with China. Portugal worked with the Netherlands to move the
tea through Europe. Dutch ships took tea to France and other countries on the
Baltic Sea. Only very wealthy people had enough money to drink tea in Europe.
It took many months to transport the tea from Asia and only a limited
amount was transported. But more countries started to trade with China, they also
brought tea back to Europe. Prices became lower and more people could drink tea.
Today, England is the European country most known for tea. British traders
started shipping tea to England in the late sixteen hundreds. Tea trade had become
a very profitable business. England imported about eighteen thousand kilograms of tea a year
in sixteen sixty nine. Ten years later, the country imported six times that
amount of tea. British colonists also brought tea wherever they settled. Tea became
very important in India. It is still a very important crop there, and
Indian tea is known around the world. Tea played an important part in one
British colony you might know. This colony is now known as the United States
of America. England sent tea to America, but as time went on,
England raised the taxes on the tea and other goods it sent. The people
living in the colonies did not like these taxes. To protest the high taxes,
a group of colonists took a large shipment of tea and threw it into
the ocean. Today this event is known as the Boston Tea Party. It
was one of the most important events in the American Revolution. Tea has also
changed over many years. In the past, people drank tea by putting the
leaves directly into the water, but around nineteen hundred eight, an American inventor
developed a new method, tea bags. Thomas Sullivan put the tea in a
small silk bag. This bag of tea could be put directly into the hot
water. At first, people in Britain did not like tea bags, but
during World War Two people could not get their normal tea, so they had
to use tea bags. Today, most tea bags are made of paper and
they are very popular in many parts of the world. Today, people on
every continent drink tea, but people in different places drink tea differently. In
the United Kingdom, tea became part of the daily meal. Traditionally, two
meals involved tea in British homes. These meals became popular in the sixteen hundreds.
The first was afternoon tea or low tea. This was popular among wealthy
people. They would drink tea and eat small sandwiches of meat and bread.
This meal happened around three o'clock in the afternoon. The other meal was called
high tea. High tea was a larger meal eaten later in the night.
It was popular among poorer people in Western Asia and the Middle East. A
popular way to enjoy tea is as massala chai. Massala chai is a drink
made from black tea, but this drink has sugar, spices and milk in
it. Around the world, people boil plants and flowers to make drinks similar
to tea. These are called tissans. A tisan is any drink made from
hot water and any plant material except from the tea plant. They are also
often called herbal teas. In areas of South America, people enjoy a particular
tissan. The drink is called matte. People make it from the leaves of
the yerba mate plant. A person puts dry yerba mate leaves into a dry
gourd. This is a container made from a dried vegetable skin. He then
adds water to the gourd. He drinks the liquid through a thin metal tube.
A Bombia. People in Southern Africa make a drink called roibos. This
hot drink is made similar to tea, but instead of tea leaves, it
uses the leaves from the roibos plant. The drink is a red color and
is often called red tea. However, you drink tea, the next time
you have a cup, think of all the people around the world who are
joining you enjoy. Do you drink tea? What kinds of tea do you
drink? Tell us what you think. You can leave a comment on our
website or email us at Radio at Radio English dot net. You can also
comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash Spotlight Radio. The writer of
this program was Joshua Leo. The producer was Mitchyozaki. The voices you heard
were from the United Kingdom and the United States. You can listen to this
program again and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English and dot
net. This program is called The Amazing History of Tea. Visit our website
to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices. We hope you
can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye one