Study finds Chinese tea culture at least 6,000 years old
New archeological evidence suggests that tea culture in China is much older than previously thought. Archeologists found that tea cultivation existed at least 6,000 years ago around the city of Yuyao in east China. Following the excavation of roots and pottery from the Tianluo Mountain, researchers from Japan's Northeast University and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences took many years to study the artifacts and recently confirmed that these contained theanine, an amino acid produced by tea plants. The latest discovery pushes proven Chinese tea heritage back by about 3,000 years.