Tea

Harsk goes nowhere without his teapot.

Tea is an extremely popular, warm beverage drunk in many regions of Golarion. Green tea and black tea are the main types depending on provenance and preparation of the leaves. To prepare tea, the leaves are infused with boiling water and brewed for a few minutes. Tea can then be drunk black or with the addition of milk, and may be sweetened with sugar, lemon, or spices. Tea costs between 4 and 8 cp per pound of leaves.

Origins and history

Old-Mage Jatembe takes tea with Baba Yaga in the Dancing Dolphin in Taldor.

The origin of tea has become legendary with numerous stories associated with it. Scholars tend to conclude that a famous Tian imperial advisor, called Luyu and styled the Father of Tea, discovered the tea plant and introduced the drink to the imperial court. Luyu discovered the plant in Nanang Province near to Xa Hoi and Tang Mai.

Tea plants have now been cultivated in many parts of Tian Xia for some 10,000 years, but some wild tea trees still exist on the slopes of the Kao Shan mountains.

Four thousand years ago saw the introduction of tea to Vudra, where it also quickly became popular. Vudrani planted and started to cultivate their own tea plants which grew to be different from the original Tian species. Indeed, Vudra started exporting its tea variety to Tian Xia.

In Tian Xia

Korakai serves tea to kami.

Tea culture is a unique facet of Tian life, as the Tian take their tea very seriously. Tea is prevalent in all walks of life and all levels of society in Tian Xia, and it is more popular than alcohol in much of the continent.

In Goka, roadside eateries known as kopi-tiams serve season novelty teas known as sparkle teas, which feature chilled goat milk from Linvarre and tea from Songbai combined with azuki, tapioca, and jellied fruits.

Tea ceremonies

Courtiers from the ancient empire of Yixing first began to formalize the drinking of tea, or cha in their language, in 2664 AR, when the first chadao, or xhadao, tea ceremony was performed for their emperor.

This first ceremony was secretly the result of a conspiracy to depose Aolin, the imperial dragon secretly controlling Yixing's leadership. Pu Duo and a small loyal team from the Silk Network kidnapped and imprisoned Aolin, then announced to the public that the supposed imperial advisor had retired because of a longstanding illness. The conspiracy also forged the emperor's will on edicts that changed Yixing's writing system, ordered older histories to be burned as heretical, and seeded anti-literacy beliefs in order to erase Aolin from its history.

With the public kept in the dark about this conspiracy, these customs eventually grew in popularity and became the highly ritualized chadao, or tea ceremony. Some decades later, visitors from Teikoku (the modern day Minkai Empire) copied them by creating their own chanoyu tea ritual. Today, chadao is practised in the lands that were once Lung Wa, in addition to Xa Hoi, and Tang Mai; whilst chanoyu takes place in Minkai. The goddess Shelyn also reinforces the importance of traditions, such as tea ceremonies, across Tian Xia.

A tea ceremony set costs around 25 gold pieces and contains a teapot, tray, whisk, bowl and four small teacups. The set is housed in a beautifully decorated box.

In the Inner Sea region

A customer gets more tea than they bargained for at a tea house.

Tea is consumed in many places in the Inner Sea region, with black tea competing with salt in its presence in culinary markets. Black tea is a common drink in the morning and afternoon, and is often drunk with additives like lavender and rose water.

Tea houses of Oppara are legendary both in the social and culinary world of the Inner Sea region, equalled only by the spiced teas of southeast Garund, where mint teas are so popular they have made their way to parts of Avistan.

When Kintargo was under martial law in 4715 AR, Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune banned drinking tea after curfew.

In the Great Beyond

Nualidu azatas are strongly opposed to tea, considering it (and any other brewed beverage) a corruption of water.

In religion

Even the gods try to enjoy a spot of tea in social situations.

Followers of Milani show their obedience by brewing and sharing fragrant teas and praying while inhaling their scent. The kishin oni Guyuku's portfolio includes tea.

Types

Many types of tea exist, including:

• Cabble-weed tea, bitter with sedating properties
• Chelaxian tea, a black tea
• Desna's star tea, which can make sleep more restful
• Jalmeray Black
• Spiderberry tea
• Tiger clove can be brewed into a breath-freshening tea
• Tintalviel tea, brewed from the plant's seed casings, can help relieve nausea

Magical teas

Numerous teas exist that have been infused with magic, including:

• Covenant tea
• Energizing tea
• Leng tea
• Longnight tea
• Moon blossom tea
• Peace in dreams tea
• Resurrection tea
• Spiritsight tea
• In Irrisen, a magical tea is known that affects the mind called suggestive tea.

Drugs

Some brewed teas have properties that make them more akin to drugs than beverages:

• Dreamtime Tea, brewed from a mix of rare herbs and flowers, inspires vivid dreams
• Pesh paste, a much less addictive form of pesh sometimes brewed as a tea
• Riddleport Tea, a hallucinogenic brew of dream spider venom and spiderberry tea

Producers

Tea is exported from a number of countries, including:

• Hwanggot
• Minkai
• Quain
• Songbai
• Vudra

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

External links

• Tea (real-world beverage) on Wikipedia