THE ART OF TEA

Green Tea from The Natural History of the Tea-Tree

ASSOCIATIONS Hot Cup Leaf Flavoured Tasty Spoon Tea pot Lemon Sweets England Family Herbal tea Sugar Talk Saucer Granny China Green Traditions

THE GROUP’S PREFERENCES

beginning

Listening

Listen to the recording and fill in the gaps. According to legend, 5,000 years ago, the Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung, ordered everyone in China to 1)_____ water to avoid disease. One day, he was going to drink some water, when some – 2)_______ from a tree fell into it. Shen Nung tried the brown liquid and found it extremely 3)____________. That was the start of tea. By the 9th century AD, tea had spread to Japan, where it became terribly popular with – 4)________ monks. In the – 5)______century, 'tea mania' arrived in Europe and then America. It even provoked a war between America and Britain. In – 6) ______ , a group of Americans, incredibly angry about taxes on their tea, threw boxes of tea into Boston harbour! Nowadays, tea is a common drink in many countries. China, India and Kenya are the largest tea producers and the Japanese still take part in the rather long and complicated tea – 7) __________. In Russia, people drink slightly sweet tea with lemon and some people still use traditional samovars for the hot water. The British are pretty keen tea 8) ________, too. Nowadays, 'afternoon tea' with cakes and 9) _____________ is much less common but many Brits drink several 10)_______ of milky tea every day. boil leaves refreshing Buddhist 17th 1773 ceremony drinkers sandwiches mugs

TEA NUMBERS & DATES 1610 4 $100 Between 5 to 6 5,000 1904 80 % o’clock – tea was brought to Europe by the Dutch o’clock – “low tea” in Britain – the cost of a pound of tea in the Netherlands o’clock – “high tea” in Britain – years ago tea appeared in China –“iced tea” was born – of tea which Americans drink is “iced”

CHECK YOURSELVES The history of tea goes back 5,000 years ago. Tea was brought to Japan by a Buddhist monk. From China tea was brought to Europe in 1610. Soon it replaced beer as a national drink. Tea houses were the centre of Chinese social life. The Japanese tea ceremony contains four principles of Zen. The British tea holds a high place in daily life. The British usually drink black tea with milk. One of Queen Victoria’s ladies started a new custom. High tea is served around 5 or 6 o’clock. Low tea consists of light cakes and thin sandwiches. Americans drank coffee instead of tea, associated with Britain

TRADITIONAL JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY

BRITISH TEA-DRINKING TRADITIONS

duchess Sinking feeling

Builders’ tea

Builder’s tea “overly strong, excessively tannic” ”very strong, milky, two sugars” ”very strong and sweet” ”ordinary tea with no frills, fairly strong”

SAMOVAR

PREFERENCES

Travelling lunch box

Caddy – a small box, can, or chest in which tea is kept for daily use.

The teaware

tea chest tea strainer tea trolley

TEA IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Tea idioms

A cuppa is said to solve all problems.