Over the two millennia since Wang Bao first described the preparation of tea, the drink’s popularity has spread from China across the globe. Once the highly coveted drink of the rich, tea has become the world’s second-most popular drink after water. According to Cliff Burrows, the group president of Starbucks, it is not just the commonplace teabag that is being brewed. Why the resurgent popularity? Travel, says Burrows. Generation Y have journeyed to more exotic climes and heard all about tea’s health-giving properties. And, like all modern generations, they enjoy tasting new things – silver-needle iced tea, perhaps, or a cup of sparkling Golden Monkey. Last November, at Hong Kong’s first ever rare tea auction, teas more than half a century old and worth more than $1m went under the hammer. “We have had a tea-drinking tradition for a really long time,” says tea expert Vincent Chu Ying-wah. “Chinese people have got wealthy, and tea is a necessary thing. This is why the price of tea still keeps going up.” Something, no doubt, to which tea traders will raise a cup. teasenz.com
