Search

Tea In Canada

Farah Quaishi
Jul 3, 2016
2 min read

Hello Everyone,

I was sitting today, sipping my tea after dinner, looking outside the window, when I start wondering about…well, about tea. Where did it come from? Who discovered it really? And how did it come to Canada, since Canada doesn’t grow its own tea?

Tea cup with hot water, lemons, and sugar.

Wondering these questions, I went to my trusty laptop and then to even more trusty internet aka Google.

Here’s what I found out. Some 3000 years ago, an emperor of China, Emperor Shen Nong, excellent ruler and a scientist, discovered tea by accident. While sitting under a tree one day with a kettle of hot water, he didn’t realize that a few leaves of the tree fell in the kettle, got infused in the hot water, and tasted amazing when he drank the water. This got the emperor curious about the tree and its properties and tea as we know it, was born.

Pretty interesting, right. I wonder why people don’t talk more about this genius emperor. An apple fell on Newton’s head and he discovered gravity, next thing you know world went crazy what with string theory and physics and vectors and space and other stuff. I think this emperor deserves enough credit. He may not have found a way to this modern world but he did find something important enough to form many cultures.

Now how did the tea come to Canada you ask? Well…I’ll skip all the other history of tea (a blog post just won’t do justice to 3000 years of history).

The first shipment of tea came to the land of Canada in 1716 through Hudson Bay Company. It took the tea one year to bless Canada with its presence. Like in other countries, tea quickly became popular in Canada as well. With the popularity of tea came the mannerism for serving perfect tea and hosting perfect tea parties.

Porcelain also became popular for serving tea. By the end of 18th century teaware were being exchanged for fur in New Brunswick, French and Chinese porcelain were becoming in demand in Canadian market, and tea decorations were becoming a profession.

Tradesmen would order plain tableware from overseas and then would decorate them according to the demand of their client in Canada. Professional china painters opened up their own shops to paint the teaware and housewives took up china painting as an activity.

Green teapot and cup with yellow lemon and green lime.

Over the centuries tea has become a big part of Canadian culture. So now that I drink my cup of tea I’m not just relishing the taste of an amazing tea but also appreciating Emperor Shen Nong. Further thanks to Hudson Bay Company for bringing tea to Canada.