In this episode we go way back to the early history of tea in Japan; where it came from, who brought it, who drank it, and why.  We look at tea's trip from Buddhist medicine to a fancy high-end foreign drink, to a drink for the masses, and how it got from the monastery to the millet grubbing dirt farmers. Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/samuraiarchives Shopping on Amazon.com?  Use our link: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=samurai-20 Support this podcast: Shop Amazon.com, suport the podcast: http://amzn.to/wnDX2j Samurai Archives Bookstore: http://astore.amazon.com/samurai-20 Samurai Archives Shop (T-Shirts, etc) http://www.cafepress.com/samuraiarchives Contact Us: Twitter @SamuraiArchives https://twitter.com/#!/samuraiarchives Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samurai-Archives/104533213984 Samurai Archives Podcast on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/samuraipodcast/ Samurai Archives podcast blog: http://www.samuraipodcast.com Samurai Archives Forum: http://www.japanhistoryforum.com Patreon Special Thanks: Luis, Cody Makua Burks