The very first cup of tea, according to Chinese legend, was created quite by accident. In the year 2737 BC, the Emperor Chen Nung was warming some water when the winds of fate carried a wild tealeaf into his bowl. Chen Nung was so delighted by the flavor, he had to tell his friends about it, and the rest is history.

Today, more than one-and-a-half billion cups of tea are drunk each day worldwide in various forms and in every imaginable setting. It is a quintessential afternoon social rite for the English lady, a spiritual potion to be savored by the Buddhist monk, the livelihood of the farm laborer toiling on the rolling green hills of the plains of Darjeeling.