The earliest mention of tea occurs in a Chinese dictionary, the Erh Y’a, about the year 350 B.C. People say it was first cultivated in Szechwan province of China. Buddhist priests then took tea to Japan where the Japanese soon started growing and using it.
There’s a lovely Japanese legend about the discovery of tea. The story goes that tea first grew in China where the Buddhist priest Bodhidharma meditated for nine years in front of a wall. Once he fell asleep. He was so annoyed with himself when he woke up that he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground! There they took root and became a tea plant.
