When Was Tea First Grown?

Historians have not been able out the exact time period in which the tea plant was cultivated for the first time, nevertheless the origin of tea is believed to have emerged from China.  The evidence backing this notion is the mention of tea in a Chinese dictionary, which was called the Erh Ya about the year 350.

Given this fact, it was further discovered that the first cultivation of the tea plant happened in the province of Szechwan that was located in central China.  It did not take long for the beverage to become popular and in a span of a short time, the use and cultivation of the tea plant became a widespread phenomenon throughout China and Japan with the aegis of the Buddhists.  Legends state that it was the religious and spiritual connection that gave rise to the discovery of tea in Japan and later on entrenched its importance in the Japanese culture.  Nowadays, although tea is a popular beverage and is drunk by almost half of the world, it is second in commercial importance to coffee.