In a bit of a brewed awakening, the world’s oldest tea has been discovered inside the tomb of a Chinese emperor by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Up until now, the oldest unambiguous text reference to tea being consumed as a beverage dates back to 59 BCE, during the Western Han Dynasty. Meanwhile, the oldest physical evidence of tea was from 960-1127 CE, during the Northern Song Dynasty.
But, according to the paper, which is published in the journal Nature, new physical evidence places tea in China are 141 BCE—or around 2,150 years ago.
It was discovered in the Han Yangling Mausoleum, which was built for the Jing Emperor Liu Qi. Liu Qi died around 141 BCE, and was buried with weapons, pottery figurines, ceramic animals full-sized chariots, and various plants: Millet, rice, and chenopod (a flowering plant of the amaranth family), which were identifiable by shape and chemical analysis. Also found was a dark brown brick that seemed to have been composed of leaves—although their shape had long been lost.
The Emperor only drank the best brews
Using mass spectrometry, the researchers were able to examine the leaves for their caffeine content (as caffeine is an uncommon plant alkaloid) and theanine (an amino acid only found in certain plants of the family Theaceae, especially Camellia sinensis, the tea plant). Further, the researchers detected high levels of calcium oxalate crystals that fit the morphological shape of crystals in modern tea leaves.
Taken together, all three—theanine, caffeine, and crystals—pointed to the brown brick containing tea leaves. But not just any tea leaves: The composition showed that the tea was mostly composed of tea buds, granting it the distinction of being “fine plucked” or “Imperial” tea. Naturally, the Emperor only drank the best.
“The discovery shows how modern science can reveal important previously unknown details about ancient Chinese culture,” Professor Dorian Fuller, Director of the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology, told the Independent.
“The identification of the tea found in the emperor’s tomb complex gives us a rare glimpse into very ancient traditions which shed light on the origins of one of the world’s favourite beverages.”
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Feature Image: Houyuan Lu
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