Ibbotson with expedition artist Amelia Guild in Glenburn Tea Estate. Picture courtesy: www.tracingtea.com

Darjeeling, Aug. 5: Legend has it that the Chinese emperor, Sheng Nung, accidentally discovered tea in 2737 BC when a few leaves fell into a pan of water that was being boiled by his servants to help slake his thirst.

The discovery might have been “accidental”, but the most popular beverage in the world today has shaped kingdoms and government polices and created its own tradition.

The 5,000 year history of tea is now being traced across 15,000km from Darjeeling to London through 18 countries in the most unconventional mode of long-distance travelling — an autorickshaw.

Sophie Ibbotson and three of her friends had conceived the idea of Tracing Tea Expedition in 2005 when they were students at Cambridge. Now the young film-makers, all in their twenties, along with seven professionals from across the world, are making a documentary based on their “epic journey” with Ibbotson as the assistant producer, writer and presenter.

“We are starting from Darjeeling and will travel through Pakistan, China …essentially piercing through the heartland of Central Asia. We plan to cover the distance in seven months and our documentary should be available for a worldwide audience next autumn,” said Duncan McDade, one of the seven professionals in the 11-member Tracing Tea team.

During a weeklong stay in Darjeeling, the team has shot extensively in four hill tea gardens — Makaibari, Glenburn, Happy Valley and Badamtam.

McDade, who is the editor, added that they decided on tea as their subject because it is the world’s most popular brew. As for the autorickshaw, he said: “We have decided to travel in two autorickshaws as this is the best way to capture the charm of India. We will also have two cars following us during the trip.”

The team is not only looking to document the lives of ordinary people and their love for tea, but also to explore the myths and realities of the brew and how it has shaped the socio-economic and political realities of the region.

“It is more than just a travel documentary. We are trying to explore different aspects of tea from its origin to its influences,” said Barry Smith, Ibbotson’s friend from Cambridge and a researcher for the team.

Marlon Paul, the director of photography, with Michael Pye, the logistician. Picture courtesy www.tracingtea.com

After all, the history of tea has its own share of anecdotes that the team hopes to relive.

For example, Hui-tsung, a Chinese emperor (1101-1125), was probably the first to hold tea-tasting tournaments in his royal court. “It is said that he was so obsessed with the tournament that he did not even notice that the Mongols were taking over parts of his empire,” the research team says in its website, www.tracingtea.com.

The film will also focus on other titbits from history, like the war-like situation that was created when Dutch doctors praised the curative powers of tea, while the French and the Germans termed it harmful.

The film will also not be able to ignore the developments of 1767, when the British government passed the Townshed Revenue Act to impose import tax on tea and also ban the brew being imported to the colonies by the Dutch East India Company. It led to the famous Boston Tea Party in 1773 — an act of direct protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea bricks belonging to the British East India Company on ships in the Boston Harbor.

The story is expected to find a place in the documentary, though the team is not going to the US or any of the tea-producing countries outside Eurasia.