Ginseng is a plant with a very important role in traditional Chinese medicine. They believe that it relieves stress, improves circulation, increases quality of life, cures flu, cures impotence, and even that it can stop cancer. In fact, like many traditional remedies, it has been claimed to be a cure for almost everything.
Obviously, scientists are quick to point out that it is difficult to test whether ginseng actually has any effects at all in a scientific sense, but that doesn’t stop it from being wildly popular. It is one of the biggest-selling items at Chinese-run shops, sold both to Chinese people and believers in traditional medicine.
This huge demand has led to problems with the supply of the more potent wild ginseng, as it is being harvested faster than it can grow back, meaning that ginseng users have recently had to rely more on farmed ginseng. Today, ginseng is grown not only in China, but also in many East Asian countries such as Korea and Vietnam, and in the United States and Canada.
Although ginseng is usually thought of as a Chinese remedy, the ginseng that grows in America was independently discovered by Native Americans, who also used it for its medicinal properties. The fact that two cultures discovered it separately without influencing each other makes it seem more likely that there could be some truth in the traditional claims about ginseng. Areas where scientific tests seem to indicate that it might make some difference include impotence and cancer, but nothing has been proven conclusively.
There are many ways to eat and drink ginseng: the most popular is tea, but it is also possible to make soups, put it in food, or even just eat the plant’s leaves as it is. Ginseng isn’t that expensive in small quantities, so if reading this has made you curious, why not give it a try?
Early Origins
Tea can be traced back to china to around 3000BC, where there are many stories and legends as to the origins of tea but perhaps the most famous of these is the story that the second emperor of china discovered tea after a few leaves blew into his drink. Tea started to become widely cultivated by 500AD both for its perceived medicinal properties and its taste. It was also around this time that tea was first exported to Japan where it also became popular but because of its expense was only really enjoyed by the aristocracy.
Introduction to England
It wasn't until far later that tea was first brought to England when Charles II wed a tea drinking bride form Portugal Catherine of Braganza, making tea drinking popular among her court. Tea quickly took off in England as London coffee houses introduced the new drink selling in both liquid and dried form. As its popularity grew sales of ales and liquors fell slowing the steady tax stream from their sale, as a result the sale tea was forbidden in public houses and coffee houses where forced to apply for a licence. By around 1750 taxation on tea had reached an insane 119%, making smuggling tea a highly profitable business.
A Matter of Time
Because of the huge distances the tea had to travel to reach Europe and England the tea was often in transit for a year, this coupled with the huge demand for tea lead to the development of clippers first lead by the Americas followed by England and Europe, these new faster ships could make the trip in significantly less time with peak speeds of around 30km/h. One of the most famous of these was the Cutty Sark which is still preserved in dry dock Greenwich, United Kingdom.
Rise of The Tea Bags
The next major development was the introduction of tea bags making the transportation and production of tea for easier. The bags where first seen in America in the early 20th century and where intended to be used solely for the easy distribution of samples but customers soon realised that they could just leave the tea in the bag and many left them to dry and re-used them.
The Modern Tea Pot
Tea bags went on to be the primary means of distribution across the world accounting for around 97% of tea sales in the United Kingdom, this is despite the fact that many consider the flavour to be inferior to loose tea. The tea drinking habits of the nation are so predictable that the national grid prepares each weekday for a huge surge in demand for power following the end of the BBC TV soap Eastenders as millions go off to make a cup of tea.
Nowadays tea is primarily produced in India with around 26% of tea produced there closely followed by China, outside of tourism it is India's largest industry.
Both John Gibb & Chris Jensen are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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