Everything Stops for Tea Trivia Quiz

Answer: Camellia sinensis

Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis, more commonly called the tea bush. It is indigenous to south east Asia. Nowadays it is cultivated in various tropical and sub-tropical countries, including Kenya, Iran, Australia and Argentina.

Answer: Herbata

The Polish word for tea has a Latin root - herba, meaning herb, of course. Perhaps the Poles, like the early Chinese, used tea as a medicinal drink. Nowadays, herb teas are common. My grandmother used to brew up a dandy rosehip tea and used it as a preventative during the cold and 'flu season.

Answer: At least 3000 years

The earliest references to tea drinking in China date back to the year 1000 B.C.E. During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E to 220 C.E.), tea was widely regarded as a medicinal potion. By the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) tea drinking was widespread in China.

In 760 C.E., the Chinese writer Lu Yu wrote the 'Cha Jing', a comprehensive book about tea, in which he describes how the tea plants were grown, harvested, and processed, and how tea was prepared. It even rates different teas, and describes where the best teas were grown. Back then tea was very different from the tea we drink today.

The processed tea leaves were compressed into brick-like form. In order to make tea, one had to grind the tea brick into powder with a pestle and mortar. Either hot water was added to the powdered tea, or the powdered tea was boiled in earthenware kettles.

It was then whisked and served in large, shallow bowls resembling soup plates.

Answer: Around 1662

When the Portuguese princess Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Braganza, married Charles II in 1662, she introduced the English to the enjoyable tradition of a cuppa (only tea was drunk out of small bowls back then). Portuguese explorers had brought back tea from Japan as early as 1560.

While Catherine never gave England an heir, she gave them tea, and somehow, that seems much more worthwhile!

Answer: The Americans

Before that little fracas took place in Boston, the Americans drank 'way more tea than the British. The British, seemingly, preferred coffee in those days. After the taxation protests, the Americans stopped drinking tea as an act of defiance and patriotism.

As a payback, the Brits reduced their consumption of coffee. It all seems pretty childish to me, but that's probably the reason why more coffee than tea is imbibed in the U.S., (a good thing, since I've never had a good cup of tea in the States yet!), while the Brits are now known as tea connoisseurs and their coffee is just plain awful!

Answer: Emperor Hung-Wu

The Emperor Hung-Wu, (or Hong-wu, spellings vary) was the first Ming Dynasty emperor. In the late 1300s, the Emperor issued a decree that all tea tributes paid to the court were to be in leaf form rather than the traditional brick form. Perhaps he had run out of storage space. No longer, then, did the Chinese drink whisked tea, but changed to drinking steeped tea, and there were rules about how steeped tea was to be prepared. First, one needed a teapot, a relatively new invention, and the tea pot had to have a separate chamber from that which held the water. Boiling water was poured over the leaves into the pot, submerging the leaves.

When the proper infusion had steeped, the leaves were removed. Because the infused tea had to be kept hot, tea cosies - or at least wrappings for the pot - were introduced at this time,too. Tea caddies, for the storage of leaf tea, also made their first appearance during the Ming Dynasty, because tea leaves must be stored in air tight containers in order to maintain their freshness and aroma. And along with tea pots, tea cosies and tea caddies, along came tea cups.

The earliest tea cups were small, deep bowls which greatly enhanced the enjoyment of tea drinking, since the fragrant steam rose from the tea to the nose, allowing for even greater appreciation of the flavour and aroma.

Answer: Dutch traders

While Marco Polo mentions tea in his writings (specifically, the deposition of a Chinese finance minister suggesting an increase on tea taxes in 1285), Marco never thought to bring home a sample of the fragrant brew. Later travellers to the east also refer to tea in their journals, but none of them thought to invest in the possible economic benefits to be accrued from trade in tea. That idea was seized upon by the Dutch East India Company.

In 1610, the first shipment of green tea from China arrived in Amsterdam, and it was from Amsterdam that the perfect potable spread to the rest of Europe, with the exception of Russia.

In 1618, the Chinese emperor offered to send a gift of tea to Czar Michael I of Russia. The Russian ambassador to China tasted the brew, didn't like it, and turned down the gift, thus delaying Russia's introduction to tea by 50 years. Records dating from 1689 indicate that tea was regularly imported from China into Russia, via camel trains, and that it was a precious commodity.

Answer: Thomas Sullivan

Sullivan was a tea merchant in New York. In 1908, he inadvertently invented tea bags by packaging samples of his tea blends in small silk bags before sending it out to clients. The clients mistakenly steeped the bags whole, and when they ordered Sullivan's tea, they complained that it was not packaged in the little silk bags, as the samples had been. Silk, of course, was too expensive, so Sullivan started packaging his tea in gauze bags and the tea bag was born. Nowadays, most of the tea in North America is sold in tea bag packaging.

The late British actress, Hermione Gingold, became a citizen of the U.S. but not, she said, until she had overcome her aversion to tea bags! She also found the American habit of steeping tea in little metal pots, with the string of the tea bag hanging out, quite disgusting. Tea, as everyone knows, does not taste as good if it is made in a metal pot rather than an earthenware or china pot. For my money, the Brown Betty is the best of all tea pots! Scots-born Sir Thomas Lipton made a fortune in tea and while many credit him with the invention of the tea bag, that honour remains with Thomas Sullivan. Thomas Edison invented a great many things, but the tea bag was not one of them. Thomas Mitchell was an American character actor in films.

Answer: The time taken to process the leaves

Tea is white, green, black (sometimes called red tea),or yellow depending on the length of time it is processed. The leaves of Camellia sinensis will wilt and oxidize if they are not dried quickly. The leaves turn progressively darker as the chloryphyll breaks down and the tannin is released.

The oxidization process can be controlled by removing the water from the leaves by heating them. This is called fermentation, although there is no true fermentation because the process does not involve microbes.

However, if care is not taken with moisture and temperature control, fungus will grow on the tea leaves, and contaminate them with toxic substances. If that happens, the tea must be discarded because it is carcinogenic. In the production of green tea, the oxidation process is stopped earlier than in the production of black tea, so that fermentation does not occur.

Answer: None

There's not a drop of tea in Long Island Iced Tea! It's an alcoholic drink. To make a glass of Long Island Iced Tea, take one part vodka, one part tequila, one part rum, one part gin, one part triple sec, one-and-half-parts sweet and sour mix, and a splash of Coca Cola. Mix them all together in a cocktail shaker, give the mixture one brisk shake and pour over ice in a tall glass, making sure there's a froth of fizz at the top of the glass. Garnish with a slice of lemon, drink slowly, and wait a while before you drive anywhere.