IN EXPLAINING the intriguing world of tea to the drinker and non-drinker alike, Dr Henry Lowes Exotic Teas, The Caribbean and the Rest of the World packs in many an interesting fact. It is, in its way, history in (what else?) a teacup.

The first sip of times past, though, is the stuff of legendary. Both China and India lay claim to originating Oriental tea (which Lowe says is over 4,000 years old as a product), the Chinese attributing it to Emperor Shen Nong 1 observing leaves falling into boiling water while he was on a long trip to a distant region of the empire. The Indians claim that Prince Siddharta Guatamais, on a trip to China, vowed not to sleep but did. He promptly cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground; they grew into tea bushes and he boiled the first cuppa.

most popular

In the extensive section on chocolate tea, a favourite in Jamaica, Lowe writes that while chocolate for eating is most popular today, before 1847 when first chocolate bar was created, chocolate was strictly a beverage.

And while we are quite used to teabags, they were one of those commercial accidents that made it big. In 1908, Lowe writes, Thomas Sullivan began to ship tea samples in individual bags to New York area restaurants. Sullivan soon discovered that the restaurants were preparing the tea without extracting it from the bag. Hence bagged tea was born.

Notable Dates

Even to the last, on the back cover Lowe puts Some Notable Dates in Tea History. Among the more striking is that in 1840 afternoon tea was invented by Anna, Duchess of Bedford (1783-1857), wife of the 7th Duke, as a way to quell the inevitable hunger pangs between lunch and dinner. So what became a class and cultural statement was, in fact, due to the commonest of reasons. Plain old hunger.

So much for high notions of afternoon tea.