Contrary to popular perception, Orange Pekoe is not a flavoring at all it simply connotes a certain size of tea leaf (usually the largest pieces of leaf available). Over the years, through marketing efforts, the name has acquired an image associated with high quality.

The first references to tea go back nearly 5,000 years and are understandably obscure. Many countries have their own version of how tea was discovered, but the Chinese version is the oldest. According to Chinese literature, Emperor Shen Nung, who was known, as the “Divine Healer” would routinely boil his drinking water before consuming it, a healthy practice even by today’s standards.

As the story goes, one day some leaves from a nearby tree fell into the pot, which resulted in an excellent tasting and fragrant beverage. For the record, tea grows on bushes which are usually kept pruned to 3 feet but, left unattended in the wild, could easily grow to a tree of 30 or more feet high. In this manner, according to legend, tea was discovered.

According to reports, iced tea was discovered accidentally by, of all people, a young Englishman ­ Richard Blechynden who had come all the way from Calcutta, India to represent teas from the Far East at the 1904 St. Louis World Fair. Not meeting with much success in the stifling heat, Mr. Blechynden poured the tea over ice and met with a near instant success.

Ceylon- Blends of teas grown on the island of Sri Lanka, which takes their name from the colonial name for the island. The traditional name of Sri Lanka was readopted by the island when it became a Sovereign Republic in the Commonwealth in 1972.