Tea is made from the plant Camellia Sinensis. The earliest records of tea drinking are from China, where the earliest records date back to the 1st Millennium BC. The legend of the making of the first cup of tea is described as follows.
The Chinese Emperor Shen Nung always had his drinking water boiled before consuming. While he was relaxing under a wild tea tree, some leaves above him dropped into the pot of boiling water. He drank the water and found that he felt uplifted and refreshed.
Thus the drink called TEA was born.

A tea plant must grow for 5 years before it can be picked. At 30 the plant must be pruned in order to allow new stems to grow from the root. A plant normally lasts for around 100 years. Tea picking is hard work and usually a skilled picker will only normally pick around 27-36kg of green leaf per day.

Tea is made from the younger, more delicate leaves. The difference between the types of tea is based on the methods used to process the leaves, which involves roasting and fermentation. Fermentation causes the green leaves to become reddish-brown in colour. The longer the fermentation, the darker the colour of the leaf.

Now tea is hugely popular throughout the World. In the UK alone 165 million cups of tea are drunk per day and why not, when there are around 1500 different varieties of tea to choose from.

Drinking tea has the added Health Benefits,such as the presence of antioxidants, which help keep a healthy balance within the body, by mopping up damaging free radicals.
Drinking tea is hydrating and therefore useful in helping to maintain your daily fluid requirements and without milk has virtually no calories.
It has benefits in summer and in warm climates, such as it is especially good at cooling the body and providing the sensation of relaxation.