BRAUNSFELDER

Osama Al Rayyan – curated by Sandra Teitge

Info: The history of tea is, like so many others, one filled with myths and legends. According to some sources, the Chinese emperor and renowned herbalist Shen Nung was the first to drink what we now call tea. In 2737 BC, he was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves blew into the pot. Shen Nung tasted this accidentally created infusion .. and therewith introduced and established tea into the Chinese tradition. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, known today by its common name Tea Plant. Whether this is a true story or not is not important here. We know today that many centuries before it had even been heard of in the West, tea drinking was an essential part of Chinese culture, becoming the national drink, in fact. Books were written on tea, the Ch’a Ching, or Tea Classic, and cultural traditions around tea such as the Japanese Tea Ceremony were developed in and outside of China in the following centuries. (…)