can anyone tell me about the origins of coffee and tea?

Answer 1

The history of coffee can be traced at least as early as the 9th century, in the highlands of Ethiopia. From there it spread to Egypt and Yemen,and by the fifteenth century had reached Persia, Egypt, Turkey, and northern Africa.Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I. In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked.From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Europe, where it became popular during the seventeenth century. The Dutch were the first to start the large scale importation of coffee into Europe, and eventually smuggled out some seedlings in 1690, as the Arabs were not allowed to export the plants or unroasted seeds. This led to coffee growing in Java, which was owned by the Dutch.In 1538, Léonard Rauwolf, a German physician, having returned from a ten-year trip to the Near East, gave this description of coffee.
“ A beverage as black as ink, useful against numerous illnesses, particularly those of the stomach. Its consumers take it in the morning, quite frankly, in a porcelain cup that is passed around and from which each one drinks a cupful. It is composed of water and the fruit from a bush called bunnu. ” When coffee reached the American colonies, it was initially not as successful as it had been in Europe, as colonists found it a poor substitute for alcohol. However, during the Revolutionary War, the demand for coffee increased to such an extent that dealers had to hoard their scarce supplies of it and raise prices dramatically; part of this is due to the reduced availability of tea from British merchants. Americans' taste for coffee grew during the early nineteenth century, following the War of 1812, which had temporarily cut off access to tea imports, and high demand during the American Civil War as well as many advancements in brewing technology cemented the position of coffee as an everyday commodity in America.
TEA:
The cradle of the tea plant is a region that encompasses eastern and southern China, northern Myanmar, and Assam in northeastern India. Spontaneous (wild) growth of the assamica variant is observed in an area ranging from the Indian state of Assam to the Chinese province Yunnan and the northern part of Myanmar. The variant sinensis grows naturally in eastern and southeastern regions of China. Recent studies and occurrence of hybrids of the two types in wider area extending over mentioned regions suggest the place of origin of the Camellia sinensis variant is in an area consisting of the northern part of Myanmar and the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China.
Origins of human use of tea are described in several myths, but it is unknown as to where tea was first created as a drink.In one popular Chinese legend, Shennong, the legendary Emperor of China, inventor of agriculture and Chinese medicine, was on a journey about five thousand years ago. The Emperor, known for his wisdom in the ways of science, believed that the safest way to drink water was by first boiling it. One day he noticed some leaves had fallen into his boiling water. The ever inquisitive and curious monarch took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavour and its restorative properties. Variant of the legend tells that the emperor tried medical properties of various herbs on himself, some of them poisonous, and found tea works as an antidote.Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu's Cha Jing, famous early work on the subject.A Chinese legend, which spread along with Buddhism, the Indian Bodhidharma is credited with discovery of tea. Bodhidharma, a semi-legendary Buddhist monk, founder of the Chan school of Buddhism, journeyed to China. He became angered because he was falling asleep during meditation, so he cut off his eyelids. Tea bushes sprung from the spot where his eyelids hit the ground. Sometimes, the second story is retold with Gautama Buddha in place of Bodhidharma. In another variant of the first mentioned myth, Gautama Buddha discovered tea when some leaves had fallen into boiling water.Whether or not these legends have any basis in fact, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative, and a symbol of status. It is not surprising its discovery is ascribed to religious or royal origins.The Chinese have enjoyed tea for centuries if not millennia. While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty or earlier.The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in the year 661 in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro, the founder of the Geumgwan Gaya Kingdom (42-562). Records from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks.The earliest known references to green tea in Japan are in a text written by a Buddhist monk in the 9th century. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys sent to China to learn about its culture brought tea to Japan. Ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by a priest named Saicho (767-822) in 805 and then by another named Kūkai (774-835) in 806. It became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga, the Japanese emperor, encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.As the Venetian explorer Marco Polo failed to mention tea in his travel records, it is conjectured that the first Europeans to encounter tea were either Jesuits living in Beijing who attended the court of the last Ming Emperors, or Portuguese explorers visiting Japan in 1560. Russia discovered tea in 1618 after a Ming Emperor of China offered it as a gift to Czar Michael I.
Soon imported tea was introduced to Europe, where it quickly became popular among the wealthy in France and the Netherlands. English use of tea dates from about 1650 and is attributed to Catherine of Braganza (Portuguese princess and queen consort of Charles II of England).

Answer 2

Yes, there is support for the health benefits of tea and coffee...just as there is for alcohol. Wine is good for the heart, some doctors insist...but what good does that do when people are getting addicted and dying from kidney failure? One minor benefit can't make up for the many problems caused by alcohol. Coffee is the same. People are now going on about how it helps prevent Parkinson's and supposedly helps with headaches, but really, compared to all the other crap coffee does to us, does that matter? Coffee is an addictive stimulant. Drinking it over long periods of time stunts growth, ruins the lining in the esophagus and stomach, stains and contributes heavily to tooth decay, insomnia and irregular sleeping patterns (which sounds like the same thing but isn't), migraines (in spite of what some studies are trying to claim), muscle spasms, nausea, gastrointestinal and heart problems, anxiety, depression, irritability...and so much more. Even that sense of having more energy and sharper senses is false, because coffee drinkers inevitably crash, and that extra sensory perception is on the same level as what a drug user experiences--one or two senses SEEM sharper, but the brain is really going crazy and not processing much at all. Coffee and tea are extremely unhealthy. Visit a nutritionist. They'll tell you the same. We're just fortunate that God chose to warn us early on. And if Mormons are wrong, why is it that we tend to live at least two years longer than other groups and have fewer health problems? You may cite one or two studies in favor of drinking coffee, but everything else negates that. In any case, though, caffeine is not the reason we were told to avoid coffee and tea. In truth, no reason was ever given. Health experts and those who have studied this have given us plenty, but when the commandment came out, we were only told to avoid the hot drinks. It's not really about the caffeine, though of course there's excessive amounts in both coffee and tea, and that's not healthy, either. Caffeine in moderation is fine...but coffee and tea are not.

Answer 3

Don't know about tea, it is from the plant Camella sinensis and the leaves are fermented to varying degrees and processed for consumption.
I learned this legend about coffee and cannot account for its veracity but I like the story.
A young goat herder in Ethiopia was herding his goats around, one area they stopped to rest, whilst he was resting the goats began nibbling on the red berries of a nearby shrub patch. He noticed they began to really frolic after eating the berries so he thought to try some. He did and discovered a burst of energy. He took the berries back to his village.... and the rest is history as they say.

Answer 4

They have this short video on the Discovery channel that rerun between regular programs that talked about this.
Tea drinking origin was credited to China and the ingesting of coffee beans which led to coffee drinking were credited to Ethiopia.

Answer 5

Origon of tea rumored to be 2737 BC by shen naug an herbalist for the royal court.

origin of coffe is belived to be by the middle east or more exactly ethopia.

Answer 6

http://coffeetea.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=coffeetea&cdn=food&tm=10&f=20&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.stashtea.com/facts.htm
http://coffeetea.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=coffeetea&cdn=food&tm=10&f=20&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.telusplanet.net/public/coffee/history.htm
read the above sites for the information you require.