Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

Chances are, like me, you probably enjoy a good cup of tea.

But how did the world come to be so obsessed with this now ubiquitous hot

beverage? Where did it originate? How did its trade trigger wars? And when did people first

experience the delight of an elegant afternoon tea? Well, in today's Everything You Wanted to

know episode, Ellen Evans puts

your top questions on tea to historian, writer and tea specialist, Jane Pettigrew.

I'm really glad to have you here today, Jane. Thank you so much for joining us.

My pleasure. We're going to kick right into it with where did tea originate? When did people start

drinking it? That's a very open question with a slightly dubious answer really because there's no

actual written evidence, but lots and lots of legends and stories. But it started in China.

And some people will say almost 3,000 years ago, some will bring that

data a little bit further forward, but it's definitely in China and it's actually always said

that Yunnan province, which is the most southwesterly part of China, bordering on Vietnam and

Lao and Myanmar, etc. It's always said that that is the cradle of tea.

And there are still today 1,000, 3,000-year-old trees, tea trees.

We don't think of it as a tree.

We think of it as a bush.

But there are famous mountains in southern Yunnan

where these ancient tea trees still stand. So that's where it started.

And then as tea was beginning to be cultivated, the northerly province from Yunnan, which is Sichuan,

also became important for cultivating and for spreading the use of tea as a beverage and as also a

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