World’s oldest tea found in Chinese emperor’s tomb

The new finding of the remains of tea predates previous findings by several hundred years. Filepic

The tomb of a Chinese emperor who lived more than 2,100 years ago has yielded the oldest remains of tea, said researchers who used it to re-date part of the ancient Asian Silk Road.

The plant remains were retrieved from burial pits around the tomb of Liu Qi, the fourth emperor of the Han dynasty who lived between 188 and 141 BC, and his wife, a team of researchers from China and Britain wrote in the journal Scientific Reports.