Tea has existed as a beverage since 2000 B.C. The brewing, serving, and drinking of tea are time-honored rituals throughout the world. While there is general agreement that the tea trade began in China, both China and India lay claim to discovering the dietary properties of tea leaves. The Chinese tell the story of a mythical emperor named Shen Nung who was so particular about his nutrition that he boiled his drinking water before he drank it. One day, the story goes, the wind caught some of the leaves on the tree branches that he had used to build a fire. The leaves floated into his boiling water and tea--as a beverage--was created.

In India, the discovery is attributed to Bodhidharma, an actual person who founded the Ch-an School of Buddhism. In A.D. 527, after four years of a self-imposed nine-year meditation...