International Tea Day 2025: Did you know the origins of your beloved beverage were a comedy of errors?

In 2737 BC Chinese Emperor Shen Nong was boiling water under Camellia Sinensis tree when a few leaves from the tree fell into the concoction and tea was invented.

In the early 1900s, tea merchant Thomas Sullivan from the USA sent tea samples wrapped in silk pouches. Instead of taking the tea out from the pouches, people dipped the whole thing in boiling water and thus tea bags were invented.

In the summers of 1904 a tea vendor in World’s Fair at St Louis, USA added a few cubes of ice to the hot tea and gave birth to the concept of iced tea.

In 1980s Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan claim to have invented bubble tea by accidentally adding tapioca balls to iced milk and cold tea making for Bubble tea!