The Legendary Origins of Tea A. The story of tea began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to legend, Shen Nung, an early emperor was a skilled ruler, creative scientist and lover of the arts. One summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. The servants began to boil water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from the nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and a brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, the Emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. And so, according to legend, tea was created. B. Tea consumption spread throughout the Chinese culture reaching into every aspect of the society. In 800 A.D. Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea, the Ch’a Ching. This amazing man was an orphan and raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China’s finest monas
