Tea’s history begins in a haze of legend, the kind where stories feel half-mythical yet somehow fitting for a drink that has accompanied human civilization for millennia. One tale says the Chinese emperor Shen Nong was resting beneath a tree in 2737 BCE when a few leaves drifted into his boiling water, tinting it with a faint aroma. He tasted the infusion, found it refreshing, and unknowingly sparked one of the world’s most enduring cultural traditions.