Drinking tea has been part of traditional Chinese culture for more than 4000 years. Noone really knows when tea was first brewed, and most stories are more of a myth than reality. It is said that a Chinese herbalist doctor, Sheng Nong, was boiling water under a tea tree and the leaves fell into the boiling water. After drinking the tea, he put it on his list of medicinal and after finding the benefits of tea for the human body, he put it on his list of medicinal herbs. The consumption of tea was introduced to the United States by Europe as part of a tea trade. Chinese immigrants who immigrated to the United Stated started serving tea in their restaurants before 1945.