Tea is native to China and India. In China, tea legends go back to the 3rd millennium BCE and there is a long recorded history of tea consumption and tea culture. Tea cultivation was brought to India by the British from China in the 19th century. However, even before the British established commercial cultivation, the indigenous tea plant in Assam was known and used by local hill tribes, such as the Singphos. A Scottish tea trader mentioned this to his brother before his death. His brother, Charles Bruce, travelled across Assam and collected the first specimens in the early 19th century. The wild Assam tea tree has a height of 6 to 20 meters. Cultivated tea is trimmed to waist height for easy plucking. Camellia sinensis assamica is the technical name of the native Indian tea.
Source: The Tea Story, J. M Scott
The sketch is by Prabhu Guha Thakurta to promote tea as a drink for everyone in India.

The word tea comes from the Chinese Amoy word t’e, pronounced tay. The Dutch, who were the first to import tea into Europe from the port of Amoy in Fujian Province, called it thee, which became ‘tea’ in English.
The Mandarin word for tea is cha, which became ch’a (pronounced tcha) in Cantonese. Wherever tea spread through land route it is generally called Cha, such as in India, Afghanistan, Persia, Russia, and Turkey.
Where it was imported through sea trade, it was called Tea. Cha or char was the form in which it first appeared in English in the late sixteenth century and the word still survives colloquially in the expression ‘a cup of char.’
Source: Tea, A Global History, Helen Saberi
The picture is an advertisement for Lipton Tea, which calls it the mainstay of Britain.

The Indians and the Japanese have different stories. In both cases the patriarch Dharma was the discoverer. Dharma devoted seven years to sleepless contemplation on Buddha. During the fifth year he began to feel sleeру. He picked and chewed some leaves from a near-by bush. He was immediately once more in full command of all his senses. He had eaten tea-leaves! The Japanese story is similar. But Japanese believe Dharma cut off his eyelids to ward off sleep and threw them away. They sprouted up as tea plants.
Source: The Tea Story, J. M Scott
The picture is from the Spence’s Hotel of Calcutta in 19th century depicting a Babu waking up with a cup of chai.

By late 18th century, Britain was importing enormous quantities of tea from China but was unable to balance it with exports. East India Company obtained a monopoly to produce Opium in India. It started exporting it to China even though it was banned in China. By 1830, they had increased exports of Opium to China by thousand times.
East India Company kept its involvement indirect. British merchants sold Opium, brought silver from China in exchange and sold the silver to East India Company. The silver was sent to London which was used by importers to pay for tea. This tilted the balance of trade in favour of Britain. Opium trade involved at least a million people in Bengal.
Chinese took drastic measures and burn a year’s supply Opium in a vast bonfire which triggered the first Opium war of 1839-42. Chinese faced a humiliating defeat including the handover of Hong-Kong. The illegal Opium trade left a lasting civilizational memory among Chinese.
Source: The Empire of Tea, Alan and Iris MacFarlane
The sketch is a self portrait by Prafulla Chandra Roy depicting himself as a tea-addict.

Britain was earning a lot of taxes from the import of tea. Dutch tea was not taxed and this made the Dutch tea competitive in America. To make British tea competitive in America, Britain reduced tax on tea that was re-exported to America. It tried to compensate the revenue loss by imposing taxes on its American colonies under the Townshend Revenue Act.
Americans protested by throwing the cargo of three tea ships into the sea in Boston Harbour. At the Boston Tea Party of 1773 the Americans rejected both tea and British rule, emphasising that the two were a ‘package.’ After this many Americans switched hot beverage allegiances and start drinking coffee instead. In 1774 the town of Dedham, Massachusetts outlawed the consumption of tea. Closer home, in Sri Lanka, a fungus outbreak devastated coffee plantations. This forced planters to shift from coffee to tea.
Source: The Empire of Tea, Alan and Iris MacFarlane
Picture is of the earliest (early 20th century) manual in Indian language on tea plantation and preparation, by Girishchandra Chattopadhyay.

Brick Tea is a type of tea made from coarse leaves and even stems of the tea shoots. The rolled leaves are piled into heaps and left for several days to develop a mould, which is believed to be responsible for its unique character. The leaves are then mixed with a thick rice paste, compressed into bricks, and dried until they become hard. Tea bricks have been used as currency since ages in China and this was a common practice in Tibet. Even now, Tibet and Himalayan regions such as Bhutan consume brick tea with butter and salt. It is a unique tea.
Source: Tea Industry, JC Kydd
Annada Munshi painting for promoting tea as an indigenous drink and to strip it of its imperial image.

Darjeeling Tea got is Geographical Tag (GI) in 2004. It was the first product in India to receive a GI tag and the tag has been issued in the name of the Tea Board. It is grown in Darjeeling or Kalimpong districts of West Bengal. It is also marketed as the Champagne of Teas.
Kangra Tea (Himachal), Assam Tea and Berinaag Tea(Uttarakhand) have also received GI tag. Tea from Berinaag was also used to make brick tea earlier and was used in Tibet.
Picture is steeped Darjeeling tea leaves from Wikimedia Commons, by David Fred

Kolukkumalai in Tamil Nadu is home to the highest tea garden in the world. It borders Munnar and tea is grown at altitudes between 7000 and 8000 feet. Though the tea garden is in Tamil Nadu the Kolukkumalai tea factory is in Kerala. The factory maintains the British equipment from 1935. It still preserves the manual process from hand plucking to final stage of making tea.
Source: The Hindu
Annada Munshi drew a woman labourer sipping tea, while taking a break against the background of a moving power-loom in a textile mill.

To boost productivity around 1930s, mechanization of the black tea manufacturing process took place at the Tocklai Experimental Station in northeastern India. It is called CTC for crush-tear-curl.
In the CTC process, the old-fashioned, space-consuming bamboo trays and withering racks were made redundant by a continuous withering machine. Rolling by hand or machine was replaced with the Rotorvane, a cylindrical contraption that minces the leaves into a finished product of fannings or dust. The accelerated CTC process induces a violent oxidation of the tea leaf. It yields a tea that is strong and infuses quickly. The increase in output and lowered prices made possible by the CTC process opened up new markets in India, Africa, and the Middle East, and made tea affordable.
Source: The True History Of Tea Victor H. Mair & Erling Hoh
Ranen Ayan Dutt painting depicting the power play at a Plantation Raj, with a British manager on a tea table and native workers.

Tasseomancy foretells future by reading tea leaves. Tea leaves a residue in the cup after drinking. A bit of water is added to the cup and then the cup is swirled. It is then turned upside down gently, slowly, and with care, over the saucer. The moisture drains away and the tea leaves or residue leave a pattern. These patterns are used to predict the future.
Source: Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves, Cicely Kent
Poster for the movie Parashuram depicts Sreela Majumdar, holding a bowl of tea to her lip.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic and philosophical concept that values simplicity, imperfection, and impermanence. It grew out of Zen Buddhism and deeply influenced art, design, gardens, poetry, and the tea ceremony. Zen priest Murata Juko elevated tea drinking into an art form, blending Zen philosophy and ritual to create the earliest version of the tea ceremony. The cultural principle of wabi-sabi (beauty in imperfection and simplicity) explains why tea masters valued locally made bowls with imperfections over ornate Chinese imports.
Source: Tea Trivia, History and Recipes, Emily Kearns
The sketch is by Ananda Munshi – a folk rhyme which introduces tea within Bengali tradition.

High tea is often misconstrued as an incredibly lavish affair with sumptuous cakes and plenty of fine-quality tea, but the term actually originates from the Victorian era and is how the British working classes would refer to their evening meal at their ‘high table’ after a long day’s work. Afternoon tea, such as that taken by the Duchess of Bedford, was referred to as ‘low tea’ simply because one might sit in an armchair with the tea served at a side table that might be rather low.
Source: Tea Trivia, History and Recipes, Emily Kearns
Picture is a railway hoarding by Tea Cess Committee depicting a Sikh, Muslim and Hindu drinking tea, with the caption Wealth, Health and Happiness under each of these figures.