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The Origin of Tea - It was one the lazy Sunday afternoon when I decided that I should call up a few of my old friends and indulge in a get together of sorts at the neighbourhood teashop in Uptown Kuala Lumpur. At the teashop, our conversation was going nowhere when one of my smarty pants companion asked us about the origin of tea or any brewed drink for that matter.
The conversation took a debate-like tone as the stories came in fast and furious. Of course, fully knowing that none of my friends could ever be trusted with knowing anything historical in nature. Answers like tea were the nectars of the Gods; that Lady Kwan Yin was compassionate enough to offer some brewed substance with a squeeze of lemon were promptly disregarded.
It was then when an old auntie who overhead our ruckus decided to educate us on her version of the origin of tea. It was said there was once an old Taoist monk who was living in solitude in the highlands of old China. It was autumn time and the leaves were turning brown and the air chill. The monk decided to take a break from a long day of performing penance, chanting scriptures and meditating. So he put a pot of water on the fire and walked though the garden to watch his jungle "friends", the monkeys, play in the evening.
He noticed a peculiar behaviour among the monkeys that he had never paid much attention to before. He had always observed the monkeys eating fruits and vegetables around the jungles but this time around, the monkeys were dining on dried flower buds and leaves. The Taoist monk was amused by what he thought was a new addition in the monkeys' diet. This tempted him to pick some of the flower buds and leaves that had fallen from the monkey's clumsy grasp. To his amazement, he found the flowers were still fragrant and the leaves oily.
The monk was curious on how the leaves would taste but decided that it the best way to extract the content of the leaves and buds would be to boil it, as he would do in preparation for a broth. Thus, he went back to his room and soaked his untried recipe in a bowl of boiling water and was almost immediately greeted by a sweet fragrance.
The brown leaves transformed the crystal clear water into a deep amber liquid. The monk was so delighted with his steaming recipe that he sipped his first cup of boiled brew or what we would now know as cha.
We found it quite a charming tale on how a little observation on the way that nature works. Not to mention ingenuity on the monk's part. Eventually providing us with that cup of refreshing crhysantenmum tea.
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G. Nathan
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