Every year on January 12th, National Hot Tea Day is the ideal occasion for a cup of tea. Tea has been in our cups since the second century B.C. Tea, which originated in China, has grown to become the world’s second most consumed beverage, after water. This delicious spice blend energises, detoxifies, relaxes, and does a lot more.
National Hot Tea Day: History
Tea has been around for nearly 5,000 years. Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty in 2737 B.C., some tea leaves fell into a pot of boiling water for Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. He drank the brew, which he found delicious and relaxing.
Tea was discovered in the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han in Xi’an in 2016, indicating that tea, from the genus Camellia, was drunk by Han dynasty emperors as early as the 2nd century B.C. The first known reference to boiling tea is found in the Han dynasty work “the Contract for a Youth,” written in 59 B.C. The first record of tea cultivation is also from this time period, when tea was grown on Meng Mountain.
During the 16th century, Western priests and merchants in China first encountered tea. The Dutch East India Company moved a cargo of tea from Macao to Java in 1607, making it the first recorded shipment of tea by a European nation. Tea was first sold in a coffee shop in London in 1657, Samuel Pepys tried it in 1660, and Catherine of Braganza introduced tea to the English court when she married Charles II in 1662.
Tea smuggling in the 18th century made tea available to the general public. In 1785, the British government abolished the tea tax, effectively ending the smuggling trade. The popularity of tea influenced historical events; the Tea Act of 1773 sparked the Boston Tea Party, which erupted into the American Revolution. Tea had become an everyday beverage for every social society by the late nineteenth century.
The Tea Council of the United States of America was established in 1950, and the council established National Hot Tea Day in 2016.
NATIONAL HOT TEA DAY DATES
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | January 12 | Thursday |
| 2024 | January 12 | Friday |
| 2025 | January 12 | Sunday |
| 2026 | January 12 | Monday |
| 2027 | January 12 | Tuesday |
