Lillian Rousso, age 15, of Miami, Fla., for her question:
WHO FIRST USED TEA?
According to an ancient legend, tea was discovered in 2737 B.C. by Shen Nung, a man who was then the Emperor of China. The earliest mention of tea as a beverage, however, is found in Chinese literature dating about A.D. 35. You make tea by pouring boiling water over dried tea leaves.
About 2,000 years ago, the custom of tea drinking spread to Japan and other countries of the Orient. Tea was introduced to Europeans in about 1600 by merchants who imported it from the Far East. It quickly won very wide popularity.
Tea became the national drink of Great Britain during the 1600s. It was imported from England to the American colonies starting in about 1650.
In 1767, the British government taxed the tea being used by the colonists. Colonial resistance to the tax brought about the famous Boston Tea Party in 1773, which in turn led to the Revolutionary War.
Iced tea and tea bags originated in the United States. An Englishman trying to increase the use of tea by Americans came up with the iced tea idea. His name was Richard Blechynden and he first served the cold drink at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904.
Also in 1904, a New York coffee and tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan sent his customers samples of tea leaves in small silk bags instead of the usual tin containers. The customers started to order tea in the bags after finding that the drink could be brewed easily with them. And so a whole new merchandising method was born.
Instant tea was developed in the U.S. and was first marketed in 1948.
About three billion pounds of tea are produced each year. India grows the most, with Sri Lanka in second place. Other major tea producers are China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan.
There are three main kinds: black, green and oolong. They differ in the method used to process the leaves. All tea producing countries manufacture black tea, but most green and oolong tea comes from China, Japan and Taiwan.
To process black tea, workers first spread the leaves on shelves called withering racks. Air is blown over the leaves to remove moisture, leaving them soft and flexible. The leaves are then crushed between rollers and sent to a fermenting room. Under controlled humidity and temperature, the leaves turn coppery in color. Finally they are oven dried and become brownish black.
Green tea is made by steaming the leaves in large vats. The steaming prevents them from changing color. The leaves are then machine crushed and oven dried.
Oolong tea is made by partially fermenting the leaves. This gives the tea a rich, greenish brown color.
Grades of tea vary only according to the size of the leaves.