The birthplace of China tea is in the mountainous areas of central and western China. Tang Lu Yu's Tea Classic said: "Tea drinkers started from Shennong and Duke Zhou of Lu". "Tea drinkers, Jia in the south, are all one foot, two feet or even dozens of feet. Its Bashan Gorge and Sichuan are now in the west of Chongqing and Hubei, which is today's Shennongjia area. The two embraced and cut it down. Therefore, it is indisputable that the birthplace of tea is in China. In Britain, some people say that the habit of drinking tea was not invented by China, but by Indians. The fact is this: 1823, a major of the British invading army discovered the so-called wild tea tree in India, and some people began to think that tea originated in India. But these tea trees were actually stolen from China by the British-in the history of tea for thousands of years, no wild tea trees have been found in India, and no one has made tea locally. They all made a basic logical mistake. Other plants, including tea trees, have always existed, even longer than human history. It cannot be said that where there are tea trees, there is the birthplace of tea making and drinking. The earliest records of human tea making and drinking are all in China, and the earliest tea products are also in China. Of course, there are wild tea trees in China, and they are even older. An ancient tea tree 6000 years ago was unearthed at Tianluoshan site in Yuyao, Zhejiang. At present, China's wild tea trees are mainly concentrated in Yunnan and other places, including parts of Gansu, Hunan and Hubei.

There are different opinions on the origin of tea drinking in China: tracing back to the origin of tea drinking in China, some people think that it originated from Shennong in ancient times, while others think that it originated from Zhou, Qin, Han and Three Kingdoms. The main reason for the disagreement is that the orthographic method of the word "tea" was "tea" before the Tang Dynasty, and Lu Yu, the author of "Tea Classics of the Tang Dynasty", wrote "tea" by subtracting a picture, so some people say that tea originated in the Tang Dynasty. But in fact, this is just a simplification of words, and in the Han Dynasty, people already used the word tea. Lu Yu only summed up the history and culture of tea drinking by ancestors. The history of tea was many years earlier than that of the Tang Dynasty.

1, Shennong said

Yu's Tea Classic: "Tea is a kind of drink, which originated from Shennong." In the history of cultural development in China, the origin of all things related to agriculture and plants always belongs to Shennong. The view that China's tea drinking originated from Shennong also gave rise to different opinions due to folklore. Some people think that tea was discovered by Shennong when he was boiling water in a large pot outside the field. The boiled water is yellowish in color, which can quench your thirst and refresh yourself. According to Shennong's past experience of tasting herbal medicine, it was found that it was a kind of medicine. This is the most common statement about the origin of tea drinking in China. Another way of saying it is to attach it to pronunciation. It is said that Shennong has a crystal belly, and it can be seen from the appearance that food crawls in the gastrointestinal tract. When he tasted tea, he found that tea flowed everywhere in his stomach and the gastrointestinal tract was washed clean. So Shennong called this plant "tea" and then changed it into the word "tea", which became the origin of tea.

2. Western Zhou theory

Jinchangqu's Eight Records of Huayang Country: "Zhou Wuwang really is the teacher of Bashu, and ... tea honey ... is paid tribute." According to records, when Zhou Wuwang attacked Zhou, Pakistan (now northern Sichuan and Hanzhong) had already paid tribute with tea and other valuables. It is also recorded in Huayang National Records that there were artificially cultivated tea gardens. Huayang Guozhi is the first ancient book to record tea in words, so it is of greater historical significance and more reliable.

3. Qin and Han Dynasties

Wang Bao's contract in the Western Han Dynasty: The earliest and most reliable information about tea science was in the Han Dynasty, based on the contract written by Wang Bao. This article was written on the fifteenth day of the first month in the third year of Emperor Xuandi (59 BC). It is the most important document in the history of tea science before tea classics. At that time, the development of tea culture was explained in pen and ink, and the contents were as follows: there were guests at home. Take a jar and hold it tightly. Draw water. Hello. Wash the whole box of cups. Pull garlic in the garden. Cut the breast with soy sauce. Establish meat and taro. It's hard to catch. There is everything you need to make tea. Feeding has covered up hiding. There are trees behind the house. When cut into boats. Go up to Jiangzhou. Go to the frying master. Ask government officials for money. Push spinning failure. Silly keyhole pavilion. Buy a seat and go back and forth. We should work for the interests of women. Sell it in a small market. Return to the capital. Open the bypass. Penny sells geese. Wuyang buys tea. Young's pool bears the load. Gather in the city. Be careful to protect thieves. "brew tea is a perfect instrument" and "Wuyang buys tea" prove that this kind of tea is today's tea. It can be seen from the article that tea has become a part of the social diet at that time, and it is a rare thing to treat guests with courtesy, which shows the importance of tea in the social status at that time. In recent years, in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha, it has been found that there are "□ Yi" and "□ Yi" bamboo slips in the catalogue of funerary objects. After textual research, □ is a variant of "truth", which shows that there was a custom of drinking tea in Hunan at that time.

Edit this paragraph of the habit of drinking tea.

Now, we can think that tea has been recognized and used for a long time in China, as well as the cultivation and harvest of tea trees. But why did humans drink tea in the first place? How did you get into the habit of drinking tea? 1, Sacrifice said: This statement holds that tea and other plants were first used as sacrifices. Later, someone tasted it and found it harmless, so it was "eaten by sacrifices, eaten by vegetables and used medicinally" and eventually became a drink. 2. Pharmacology: This view holds that tea "originally entered human society as a medicine." Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica wrote: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered seventy-two poisons every day, he was relieved by tea." 3. Eating: "The ancients drank water like grass" and "the people put food first". Eating first conforms to the evolutionary law of human society. 4. Synchronicity: At first, tea may be used as chewing food, baking food, and gradually used as medicine. 5. Communication theory: "Jing Tang Ji" contains: "Tea belongs to Yao Cao or is the treasure of plants. These ancient treasures were named "Mingming". Er Ya Shi Mu says,' Elegant, bitter tea.' Rice, vanilla and tea are fragrant, hence the name rice. Tea leaves are always picked at night. Ming is also the general term for tea. The use of tea is not only for medicine and food, but also for customers. "There is a poem" Guests Come ":"On the ninth day of the first month, guests come and goose yellow willows burst out in court. Because sitting on the fine paper, the tea is fragrant and wins the wine. " (Excerpted from Shi Jing's Poems on the South of the Yangtze River) This theory introduces tea into the track of treating people, which highlights the elegance of communication occasions and the end of the "communication theory" of tea drinking.

The word "tea" and the change of the word "tea" did not have the word "tea" in Jiujing, or it was suspected that there was no tea in ancient times. I didn't know there was no light character in the Nine Classics. In ancient times, candles were used as lights. So there is no word tea, not really no tea, but tea is used as tea. Not only does the Nine Classics have no tea characters, but the Banma characters also have no tea characters. Until the Tang Dynasty, a picture of a tea character was arbitrarily restored, thinking it was a tea character, and the pronunciation of tea also changed. Tea, with the same initial sound, reads like a disciple. So is the so-called "who says tea is bitter" in the poem. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yinfu edited it. After the Six Dynasties, pronunciation began to change. Although Tang Lu Yu wrote the Book of Tea, although he used the word "tea", Tang Daiyue saw Wang Yuan's inscription on the tablet, but there are still two words of tea, which shows that Tang people have not used all the words of tea. (Xi Shichang's Record of Xi Reading and Speaking in Qing Dynasty, Volume I) It can only be said that it is the sound reading of tea, and the tea system changed from Liang to Tang. (Excerpted from Huang Xianfan's A Preliminary Study on the Interpretation of Ancient Books, Guangxi Normal University Press, July 2004,No. 1 Edition) The word "tea" is simplified from "tea" and originated in the Han Dynasty. In ancient Chinese and Hindi, some words "tea" were subtracted and changed into the shape of "tea". Not only the font, but also the pronunciation of "tea" was established in the Western Han Dynasty. For example, Chaling in Hunan was once the territory of Liu Xin in the Western Han Dynasty, commonly known as "Tea City", and was one of the subordinate counties of Changsha 13 at that time, and was called "Chaling County". The word "tea" in Yan Shigu's annotation of Han Geography is "tea": loud and rebellious, arrogant and rebellious. This inverted phonetic notation is the pronunciation of the word "tea" now. Judging from this phenomenon, the pronunciation of the word "tea" was established earlier than that of the word "tea". China is vast in territory and abundant in natural resources, with many nationalities and different languages. The same thing has many names, and there are many ways to write the same name. On behalf of the word tea, there are Ming characters. There are many names about tea in ancient historical materials. By the middle Tang Dynasty, the sound, shape and meaning of tea had tended to be unified. Later, due to the wide spread of Lu Yu's Tea Classic, the shape of "tea" was further established until today. In the ancient literature of China, there are long records about eating tea, and the names are different from place of origin. China's tea spread abroad as early as the Western Han Dynasty. When Emperor Wu sent envoys to zhina Peninsula, he brought with him not only gold, brocade and silk, but also tea. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, China tea was exported to Turkey together with silk and porcelain. The widespread popularity of tea can also be verified. Tea was widely consumed at all levels of society, probably after Lu Yu's Tea Classic was handed down in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, there is a poem in the Song Dynasty that "since Lu Yu was born, the world has learned from each other's strengths and made spring tea". That is to say, after tea was discovered, 1000 years was unknown to the public.

The main famous teas in China.

West lake longjing tea

West Lake Longjing is produced in the mountains around the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Hangzhou is famous not only for the West Lake at home and abroad, but also for Longjing tea.

Dongting Biluochun

Dongting Biluochun Tea is produced in Dongting Mountain, Taihu Lake, Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province. Biluochun tea strips are slender, curled into snails, covered with fine hairs and green in color.

Huangshan Mao Feng [green tea produced near the famous Huangshan Mountain]

Huangshan Mao Feng Tea is produced in Huangshan, south of Taiping County and north of Shexian County. Tea buds are particularly fat, soft and tender, with thick leaves, foam resistance, rich aroma and sweet taste, which is the top grade in tea.

Lushan yunwucha

Lushan Yunwu Tea is produced in Lushan Mountain, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. Lushan Wu Yun tea is green in color, fragrant as blue, thick, mellow, fresh and tender.

Tieguanyin

Anxi Tieguanyin tea is produced in Anxi County, Fujian Province. Anxi Tieguanyin tea has a long history and is known as the king of tea. "Sand-green frost" has become a symbol of Tieguanyin's high taste and won the reputation of "green leaves with red edges and seven fragrant bubbles".

Junshan Yinzhencha

One of the famous yellow teas in China. Junshan is an island in Dongting Lake, Yueyang County, Hunan Province. In Qing Dynasty, Junshan tea was divided into "pointed tea" and "velvet tea". "Sword tea" is like a tea sword with white hair, so it is called tribute tea, so it is called "Gong Jian".

Lu' an guapian tea

Lu 'an melon slices (also called sliced tea) are a special kind of green tea. It is a kind of flaky tea with melon seeds as raw materials, collecting local unique varieties, pulling, removing buds and tea stems, and making it by a unique traditional processing technology.

Xinyang Maojian Tea

Maojian tea, a famous tea in China, is one of the famous specialties in Henan Province, which is produced in the mountainous area of Xinyang, Henan Province. Xinyang is the watershed between north and south of China, surrounded by Tongbai Mountain, Jigong Mountain and Dabie Mountain. Xinyang Maojian tea has always been famous at home and abroad for its unique style of "thin, round, bright, straight, white hair, high fragrance, strong taste and green soup color".

Wuyi Yancha

Wuyi Rock Tea is produced in Wuyishan City, Fujian Province, China. The shape of the rope is fat, tight and even, and it is twisted, commonly known as "dragonfly head", and the frog-shaped sand grains are raised on the leaves, commonly known as "toad back".

Keemun Black Tea

Qi Hong, a famous black tea product, is produced in Qimen County, a branch of Huangshan Mountain in the southwest of Anhui Province, China. Qi Hong is called "Baoguang" because of its compact and uniform appearance, beautiful front seedlings and deep color.

Beiyuan yucha

It is a kind of green tea, the best of China famous teas, and the king of ancient emperors' teas. Jian 'an (Jian 'ou) Beiyuan Imperial Tea was set in the Five Dynasties (933) and stopped in the 24th year of Ming Hongwu (139 1). After four dynasties, 26 emperors paid tribute to the court for 458 years.

Oolong with short legs

It is a top-class oolong tea with a cultivation history of 100 years. It originated from Dongfeng Town, Jian 'ou City, Fujian Province. According to experts' research, there are 6,090 ancient tea trees in Guilin Village, dongfeng town, Jian 'ou City, Fujian Province, with a history of 14 mu over 120 to 150 years, which is the birthplace of internationally renowned "Qingxin Oolong" and "Frozen Top Oolong" teas in Taiwan Province Province. In February 2009, this precious tea forest was listed as the first batch of excellent tea germplasm protection areas in Fujian Province by the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture. The highest potential of this dwarf oolong tree is only about 120 cm, with flat branches and leaves, dark green leaves, smooth and non-luminous, downward curved leaves and blunt tips. The main pulse is particularly obvious. The dry sample of spring tea with one bud and two leaves contains 3.65438 0% amino acids, 65438 09.6% tea polyphenols, 65438 03.8% total catechins and 5.7% caffeine. Very beneficial to the human body. Caffeine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. It can refresh the spirit, strengthen thinking, relieve fatigue, relieve fever and pain, promote diuresis and defecate, and disinfect and reduce bacteria. Phenols (mainly catechins) are the most effective anticancer drugs in the world to prevent and treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It can reduce blood lipid and cholesterol, prevent and treat hypertension, resist injury and cancer, inhibit the formation of carcinogens, lose weight, clear food, resist aging and beautify.

Pu'er tea

Pu 'er tea is a new variety cultivated on the basis of Yunnan Daye tea. Pu 'er tea, also known as Dianqing tea, originated in Pu 'er County, hence its name, with a history of 1700 years. It is named after processing tea from 1 1 counties such as Youle, Deng Ping and Yibang in Pu 'er County. Tea trees are classified into tree types or large tea trees, and the bud leaves are extremely fat and dense, with good tenderness and excellent quality. The production method is a method for making secondary fermented green tea, which includes eight procedures: enzyme fixation, primary rolling, primary fermentation, secondary rolling, secondary fermentation, primary drying, secondary rolling and drying. In ancient times, Pu 'er tea was used as medicine. Its quality characteristics are: high, sharp and lasting aroma, with the unique aroma of Yunnan Daye tea, strong and exciting taste; Bubble-resistant, still fragrant after brewing for five or six times. The soup is orange, with strong buds and thick leaves. The leaves are reddish, between yellow and green, with thick cords and thick white hair. Pu 'er tea is divided into bulk tea and bulk tea.

Duyun Maojian tea

Duyun Maojian Tea, also known as "White Maojian Tea", "Fine Maojian Tea", "Hook Tea" and "Tongque Tea", is one of the three famous teas in Guizhou and one of the top ten famous teas in China. Produced in duyun city, Guizhou, it belongs to the Buyi and Miao Autonomous Region in southern Guizhou. Duyun is located in the south of Guizhou Province, Dongshan stands in the southeast of the city, and Mangshan is far away in the west. Duyun Maojian tea is mainly produced in Tuanshan, Shaojiao and Dacao, where the valleys are undulating, with an altitude of 1000 meters, canyons and streams, lush forests and misty clouds. There is no severe cold in winter and no heat in summer, and the four seasons are pleasant, with an average annual temperature of 65,438 06℃ and an average annual precipitation of 65,438 0400 mm. In addition, the soil layer is deep. 19 15 won the Excellence Award of Panama World Food Expo, and later generations praised it as "northern benevolent Maotai, southern Duyun Maojian tea".

Laoshan green tea

Laoshan tea enjoys a high reputation in the national green tea and is praised by consumers as "the first tea in Jiangbei". Laoshan has a long history of growing tea. According to legend, old tea was transplanted from Jiangnan by Taoist priests such as Qiu Chuji and Sanfeng in Song Dynasty and cultivated by themselves. For hundreds of years, it has been the treasure of the Laoshan Taoist temple. Qinggu is good at writing poems praising Laoshan Mountain, and Pu Songling once drank Lao tea (serial) and wrote crimson snow. The finished product of old tea belongs to green tea, which is refined from selected fresh tea by modern technology. The climate in this area is warm and humid, and the frost period is longer than that in the south. In addition, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the growth and development of tea trees are slow. It has plenty of time to accumulate nutrients, rich in nutrients, and contains a lot of polyphenols, caffeine, aromatic substances, protein amino acids, vitamins and other ingredients beneficial to human health. It has the advantages of relieving fatigue, promoting blood circulation, softening blood vessels, clearing away heart fire and improving eyesight, etc. Especially, the content of amino acids and caffeine in tea is high, and the tea soup is mellow, fresh and refreshing. Liubao Tea Liubao Tea is a kind of black tea, named after Liubao Town, Cangwu County. Its production history can be traced back to/kloc-0 over 500 years ago. As early as Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, it was famous for its special betel nut fragrance and was listed as one of the 24 famous teas in China. Liubao tea is also called "antique drink". It is said that a long time ago, the Queen Mother came down to learn about human folk customs and passed by Heishi Village in Liubao Town. She saw the trees on Blackstone Mountain here are green, lush and misty, so she took a rest here. When the Queen Mother lifted the clear spring water at the foot of Heishi Mountain, the entrance felt sweet and mellow, and the fatigue of the long journey was swept away. In its heyday, the Queen Mother ordered the fairy to put two fairy tea seeds in the crevices of Blackstone Mountain. Many years later, these two tea seeds grew into a lush tea tree. So the villagers picked the tea leaves of the fairy tea tree, cooked the tea and entertained guests from all directions. The guests in the distance found that the tea was mellow and sweet, and everyone was full of praise. As a result, the immortal tea in Heishi Village spread from one generation to ten, and after the hard-working villagers' reproduction, cultivation and refining, Liubao tea, which is a household name today, was formed. Although myths and legends can't be verified, people who have been to Liubao Town know that it is really beautiful, with fertile soil, abundant rainfall and mild climate. It is the unique geographical and climatic environment that breeds Liubao tea with excellent quality, mellow taste and long history. Liubao tea is famous for its four unique qualities: red, strong, aged and mellow. According to Cangwu County Records, "Tea is rich in six treasures of fragrance, with a strong taste, which remains unchanged at night ... with good color, fragrance and taste". In recent years, Liubao tea is famous at home and abroad for its long history, mellow taste, unique betel nut fragrance and unique health care function.

Zhenghe kungfu

Zhenghe Gongfu belongs to the black tea series. Zhenghe is a county under the jurisdiction of Nanping City, Fujian Province. It is located in the north of Fujian Province, with rolling mountains, vertical and horizontal rivers, dense forests and fertile soil. The altitude is between 200 and 1000 meters, with mild climate and abundant rainfall. The annual temperature is about 18.5℃, the annual frost-free period is about 260 days, and the annual rainfall is more than 1600 ml. The tea garden opens on the forest path with gentle slope. 1 1 15, Song Huizong gave the title of "Zhenghe" to Guanli County at that time and changed it to Zhenghe County. Zheng He's Kung Fu can be divided into two types: big tea and small tea. The big tea is made of Zhenghe Dabai tea, which is compact and round in appearance, rich in red soup color, high in aroma, fresh and sweet, rich in taste and rich in red leaves. Small tea is made of lobular seeds, with thin and tight strings, Qi Hong-like fragrance, mellow taste and even red leaves. Zhenghe Kung Fu black tea has a long history and is well-known at home and abroad. It sells well in Russia, the United States and Europe, and has won many awards at home and abroad, such as the gold medal in Panama World Expo. 20 10 "Zhenghe gongfu" won the well-known trademark of China.