The history of tea in the broad variety we know today is closely connected to
the kingdom of Dian. This kingdom located in the south of China, northern Laos
and Vietnam, seems to have been an alliance of various tribes from this area.
They had joined to resist against the power of the Han emperors in the seventh
to first century B.C. After 600 years of resistance the Han over ran the kingdom,
but still today there are teas like the Dian Hong ( red tea of the kingdom of
Dian ) which refer to the origin of this variety. Dian can be considered as the
first ‚Tea-Culture‘ and the city of ‚Pu Erh‘ was the first trading place for
tea, manufactured by the tribes in the Dian kingdom. From there tea went with
caravans to Tibet and further west, as well as to Vietnam and Laos To make
transport more convenient the tea was often pressed to bricks or discs. Still
today you will find Pu Erh teas sold as Qi Zhi Bing ( Seven Sons Cake ), Tuo Cha
and Bricks in Yunnan.
While green tea made from fresh leaf is definitely the first variety of tea,
also the use of tea leaves as vegetable must have been popular in the beginning
and still today the tribes in the mountains eat tea leaves.
It seems obvious that tea leaves belonged to the basic food of the tribes in
the forest on the south Chinese boarder. So actually it where the tribes like
H‘mong, Bulang, Dai, Lahu etc who should be considered as the discoverers of
TEA.
Even without any written evidence, we would consider this area as the home of
the tea plant. Wild tea plants have been discovered nowhere else, except in the
mountains along the south Chinese boarder.
Still today there are forest with wild tea trees, which we think, deserve to
be protected.