-StoryName- Food:Teahow-toED/RH

By Val Van Meter

WINCHESTER — The origins of this beverage are wrapped in fable and myth, but we know that mankind has enjoyed tea for more than 4,000 years.

Emily Murphy of Fairfax Station, owner of the online business Emily’s Teas, made sure that the women who recently attended her talk and tasting at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley went home with plenty of facts, a taste of flavors, and a myth or two.
 

Murphy, a petite dark-haired former French teacher, has become a student herself, learning more and more about tea.
 

She’s passing that learning along through her online business of gift teas and by presenting tea seminars, tastings, and parties.
 

As an ex-teacher, Murphy began her talk to the audience of three dozen-plus with a test. Participants tried to correctly answer a page of questions about tea.

The questions included the number of countries where tea is grown (40), and the number of tons of tea produced each year (2.3 million).
 

Tea is even grown in one spot in the United States, near Charleston, S.C.

The leaves of the shrub Camillia sinensis provide the infusion we call tea.

The three main types of tea — green, oolong and black — describe the methods by which tea leaves are processed, Murphy said. A “white” tea is also available — made from the flower buds of the tea plant, Murphy said, adding that this “rare” beverage was once reserved for nobility. “It’s a very delicate taste,” said Murphy as the participants sipped a sample.
 

The tasting also included a vanilla green tea and an orange blossom oolong, and was capped off with the Museum’s holiday blend, an applespice tea.
 

Two legends credit the discovery of tea to a Chinese emperor or an Indian prince:

Emperor Shen Nong, credited with founding Chinese herbal medicine, was boiling water in a glade, according to one myth, in 2737 B.C. when leaves from a tea bush drifted into the pot.
 

The Indian prince, so the story goes, was attempting to meditate when he fell asleep. He became so angry about his mistake that he tore off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. At the spot where they landed, tea bushes grew, with caffeine to help keep people awake.
 

In 476, “barbarians” from the East pushed the Roman Empire toward collapse and brought tea to the West.
 

In fact, Murphy said, tea was used as currency, pressed into magazine-sized blocks that were scored on the back so “change” could be made.
 

In the eighth century, China introduced teas to Japan, which returned the favor by creating the tea ceremony, a rite both symbolic and religious which takes years to learn, Murphy said.
 

The Dutch brought tea to the West again in the 1600s, Murphy added, but they had to obtain tea from Japan, because the Chinese refused to trade with them.

Tea was given to the Russian czar as a gift in 1662, opening a new trade. Tea arrived there on camel-back after a 16-month trip.
 

Russians today drink a “Caravan Tea,” with a “smoky flavor which hints at l’eau de camel,” she added.
 

England went wild for tea in the late 1600s, after Charles II’s queen introduced it to society.
 

As a money-maker, England taxed tea and that, eventually, led to the breach between the nation and its American colonies.

England felt the Americans should help to pay for the French and Indian War, which was fought to help them hold their land. Taxing tea was the way to bring in the needed cash.
 

“Tea became a symbol of British oppression,” Murphy said.

The colonists decided to boycott tea and newspapers of the day offered housewives recipes for “Liberty teas” made of berries, herbs, and flowers.

And then came the Boston Tea Party, and the rest is history, Murphy said.

Actually, 12 “tea parties” took place in various ports, she said, but Boston got the most publicity.
 

The “Indians” in Boston dumped 242 chests of tea into the harbor — the equivalent of 45 tons, Murphy said.
 

A pound of tea cost 26 British pounds, so the product was usually kept under lock and key in colonists’ homes.
 

“That got the king’s attention, and it shows the influence of tea in our history,” she said.
 

Tea has played a part in other wars. The British began trying to grow tea in other parts of the East during its Opium Wars with China, to try to break dependence on Chinese tea.
 

Tea has also affected culture and clothing, Murphy said.
 

The Duchess of Bedford is credited with beginning the British tradition of afternoon tea.
 

The tea dance, at the beginning of the 20th century, brought the affluent together at hotels to drink 5 o’clock tea and dance to such racy music as the tango. Women altered their dresses to a looser, less form-fitting style so they could move better with the music.
 

The United States gets credit for developing iced tea, after a vendor at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 decided that 100-degree temperatures would prevent him from selling a hot tea drink.
 

That’s why June 10 is National Ice Tea Day.
 

The tea bag was first developed in 1908, as a method to send tea samples. Paper tea bags came on the scene in 1953.
 

And there is no such thing as “herbal tea.”
 

These “tisanes” or “infusions” are made with herbs, flowers, fruits, and spices, but no tea, Murphy said.
 

They also have no caffeine.
 

For those counting, Murphy said five ounces of black tea has between 25 and 110 milligrams of caffeine; oolong, 12 to 55; and green, 8 to 16.

In comparison, five ounces of coffee has 60 to 180 milligrams.
 

Different teas appeal to different tastes, as the participants proved.

“I probably liked the first one best,” said Shirley Louthan of the white tea. The taste was “very mild and very gentle.”
 

“I liked the last one best,” Anne Drury said. The museum’s holiday blend with its apple and spice flavor was stronger and more appealing to her.
 

Emily Murphy’s Internet site, www.emilysteas.com, offers teas, tea accessories, and gift baskets, along with information on seminars, tastings, and parties.