Tea

Tea has been consumed in China for nearly 5,000 years, with legend attributing its discovery to Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 BCE when tea leaves fell into his boiling water. The British East India Company's tea trade shaped the modern world — the Boston Tea Party was a tea tax protest; the Opium Wars were fought partly over the tea-opium trade imbalance. Tea is the world's most consumed beverage after water — over 3 billion cups are drunk daily. All true teas (not herbal infusions) come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis; the differences between green, black, white, and oolong tea are in processing. Britain's afternoon tea tradition, Indian chai, Japanese tea ceremony, and Chinese gongfu tea represent profoundly different cultural relationships with the same leaf.