But before the poisons could end his life, a leaf drifted into his mouth.

疲倦的神農氏意外使自己中毒了72次

He chewed on it, and it revived him, and that is how we discovered tea.

但在他被毒死之前，一片葉子飄落他口中

Or so an ancient legend goes at least.

他咀嚼後便恢復了精神，這就是我們發現茶的來由

Tea doesn't actually cure poisonings, but the story of Shennong, the mythical Chinese inventor of agriculture, highlights tea's importance to ancient China.

至少一個古老的傳說是這麼說的

Archaeological evidence suggests tea was first cultivated there as early as 6,000 years ago, or 1,500 years before the pharaohs built the Great Pyramids of Giza.

茶並不真的可以解毒

That original Chinese tea plant is the same type that's grown around the world today, yet it was originally consumed very differently.

但神農氏的故事，中國神話中農業的發明者

It was eaten as a vegetable or cooked with grain porridge.

強調了茶在古老的中國的重要性

Tea only shifted from food to drink 1,500 years ago when people realized that a combination of heat and moisture could create a complex and varied taste out of the leafy green.

考古證據說明茶最先是在那裡栽種

After hundreds of years of variations to the preparation method, the standard became to heat tea, pack it into portable cakes, grind it into powder, mix with hot water, and create a beverage called muo cha, or matcha.

大約在6000年前

Matcha became so popular that a distinct Chinese tea culture emerged.

或在法老建造了古夫金字塔的1500年前

Tea was the subject of books and poetry, the favorite drink of emperors, and a medium for artists.

原始的中國茶樹與如今全世界種植的是同一種

They would draw extravagant pictures in the foam of the tea, very much like the espresso art you might see in coffee shops today.

不過一開始是以非常不同的方式食用

In the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty, a Japanese monk brought the first tea plant to Japan.

茶最初是被當作蔬菜來食用，或是與穀物粥一起煮

The Japanese eventually developed their own unique rituals around tea, leading to the creation of the Japanese tea ceremony.

茶在1500年前才從食物轉變為飲品

And in the 14th century, during the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese emperor shifted the standard from tea pressed into cakes to loose-leaf tea.

當人們發現熱度與濕氣的結合

At that point, China still held a virtual monopoly on the world's tea trees, making tea one of three essential Chinese export goods, along with porcelain and silk.

可以從綠葉創造出複雜又多樣的味道

This gave China a great deal of power and economic influence as tea drinking spread around the world.

製備方式經過數百年的演變

That spread began in earnest around the early 1600s when Dutch traders brought tea to Europe in large quantities.

標準流程變成了加熱茶葉

Many credit Queen Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese noble woman, for making tea popular with the English aristocracy when she married King Charles II in 1661.

包裝成餅狀

At the time, Great Britain was in the midst of expanding its colonial influence and becoming the new dominant world power.

研磨成粉

And as Great Britain grew, interest in tea spread around the world.

與熱水混合

By 1700, tea in Europe sold for ten times the price of coffee, and the plant was still only grown in China.

製造出一種稱做「末茶」或「抹茶」的飲品

The tea trade was so lucrative that the world's fastest sailboat, the clipper ship, was born out of intense competition between Western trading companies.

抹茶廣受歡迎以至於形成了一種獨特的中國茶文化

All were racing to bring their tea back to Europe first to maximize their profits.

茶是詩書的主題

At first, Britain paid for all this Chinese tea with silver.

是皇帝最愛的飲品

When that proved too expensive, they suggested trading tea for another substance, opium.

也是藝術家的媒材

This triggered a public health problem within China as people became addicted to the drug.

他們會在茶的泡沫中繪出闊氣的圖畫

Then in 1839, a Chinese official ordered his men to destroy massive British shipments of opium as a statement against Britain's influence over China.

與現今咖啡店常見的咖啡拉花十分相似

This act triggered the First Opium War between the two nations.

在9世紀的唐朝

Fighting raged up and down the Chinese coast until 1842 when the defeated Qing Dynasty ceded the port of Hong Kong to the British and resumed trading on unfavorable terms.

一位日本僧侶帶了第一株茶樹回到日本

The war weakened China's global standing for over a century.

日本人最終發展出了自己獨特的飲茶儀式

The British East India company also wanted to be able to grow tea themselves and further control the market.

創造出了日本茶道

So, they commissioned botanist Robert Fortune to steal tea from China in a covert operation.

而在14世紀的明朝

He disguised himself and took a perilous journey through China's mountainous tea regions, eventually smuggling tea trees and experienced tea workers into Darjeeling, India.

中國皇帝將標準流程

From there, the plant spread further still, helping drive tea's rapid growth as an everyday commodity.

從把茶葉擠壓成餅狀改成鬆散的茶葉

Today, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and from sugary Turkish Rize tea, to salty Tibetan butter tea, there are almost as many ways of preparing the beverage as there are cultures on the globe.

那個時候，中國仍然壟斷世界的茶樹