A. Tea is an infusion made from the leaves of the evergreen shrub Camellia sinensis, and after water it is the most widely consumed beverage on Earth. Its use is thought to have begun in south-western China, where the plant grows wild. By the Tang dynasty, roughly twelve centuries ago, tea drinking had spread throughout China and had been transformed from a bitter medicinal tonic into a refined social ritual. Scholars composed treatises on its cultivation and preparation, and potters crafted specialized bowls and pots for its service. From China the custom gradually spread to neighbouring Japan and Korea, where it developed its own distinctive ceremonies.

B. Tea reached Europe only in the seventeenth century, carried by Dutch and Portuguese merchants. It arrived as an expensive luxury, taxed heavily and stored in locked caddies. In Britain it soon became a national obsession, and the demand it created reshaped global commerce: swift clipper ships raced across the oceans to deliver the season's first crop, and the tea trade helped finance the expansion of vast commercial empires. So valuable was the leaf that the taxes placed on it helped provoke political unrest, and smuggling flourished wherever duties were high. Whole trade routes were built around satisfying the world's growing thirst.

C. All true tea comes from the same species; the differences among green, black, oolong, and white tea arise entirely from how the picked leaves are processed. After harvesting, the leaves may be withered, rolled, and allowed to oxidize to varying degrees before being dried. Green tea is heated quickly to halt oxidation, preserving its colour and fresh flavour, while black tea is fully oxidized, producing a darker, stronger infusion. The finest teas are still gathered by hand, a slow and labour-intensive practice, and the character of any tea depends heavily on the altitude, soil, and climate of the garden in which it was grown.

D. Tea has long been credited with health benefits, and modern research has examined the high concentration of antioxidant compounds, called polyphenols, that it contains; some studies associate these with modest benefits for the heart. Tea also contains caffeine, though generally less than an equivalent cup of coffee. Today tea is a global industry worth many billions of dollars, cultivated on plantations from Kenya to Sri Lanka and consumed in forms ranging from delicate ceremonial infusions to sweetened iced drinks and convenient teabags. Yet for all its modern commercialization, the simple act of brewing a cup remains, for millions of people, a daily moment of pause.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.