“I feel so blessed that this day has finally come after all these years of dreaming, planning, developing and loving our Vision of opening a chain of EnlighTea Cafes sharing Love, Light and Luxury throughout the world…I and EnlighTea Cafe are definitely in a good place and location right now…and the timing couldn’t be more perfect!” he said.

EnlighTea Cafe will be serving healthy teas, beverages, snacks, and a very unique enlightea experience. They will offer their top 12 popular choices on the menu plus their new line of EnlighTea SpecialTeas, EnlighTeaSmoothies, EnlighTeaLattes, Energy Drinks and so much more. There is also a “secret menu”, so be sure to ask about that if you are a true tea connoisseur. For snack items, there will be ChiBars, a high-energy snackbar that is rich in Omega 3, potassium, amino acids, complex carbohydrates and antioxidants.

Employees of EnlighTea Cafe have been trained by tea experts to make sure each customer has an enlightening tea experience. What is an enlightening tea experience, you may ask?

“Every person’s experience with our teas will be different. One person said he felt blissful after sipping our tea. Someone else may become more exuberant. It really is an individual experience,” explained Mr. Pham.

Being in a mall location, EnlighTea hopes to help shoppers ease their stress, especially as the holidays approach, and provide them with a healthier alternative to sustain their lives both short and long term because they care.

Check them out at the Westfield Mall Carlsbad 2525 El Camino Real #128B, Carlsbad, CA 92008., or visit their website:www.EnlighTea.com
# # #

For more information or to schedule an interview with Mr. Pham, please call (858) 519-TEAS or email james@enlightea.com

Contact:

James Pham

(858) 519-TEAS

support@enlightea.com

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website.  We are honored and are grateful to have you in our lives.

Click onto the link to watch our introduction video to find out what we have in store for you and our future.

In Love, Light, and Luxury,

James Pham, Founder/CEO

Feeling left out of the Royal Wedding or you don’t belong? No worries, EnlighTea Cafe is organizing our own Royal Tea Time at 3pm sharp! (same time as Prince William, Princesses Kate, and the Queen: ) So, this is how it works, you go find your best stash of tea (ideally an English tea, like Earl Grey Cream or something else), clear your mind of all the rubbish, find your ideal spot, brew your tea, focus on all the Love, Light & Luxury surrounding this world wide event, meditate and even send more of it to the world yourself…Hope to see you there! : )

Dearest Family, Friends, Partners, Customers and Supporters,

Welcome to the World Premiere Launch of our Website.  This is in Beta, so please excuse any imperfections you may find and know that we will always strive to do better and to deliver you only the best.  Thank you again for your engagement and support as we begin our journey and process of opening 1000+ EnlighTea Cafes for Tea, Meditation, and Retail while sharing Love, Light & Luxury throughout the world.

In Love, Light & Luxury,

James V. Pham

Founder/CEO

So many times In life we face challenges, problems and what seems like overly bearing circumstances in our lives, family, real estate and/or work that causes us to want to throw in the towel and proclaim out of fustration, I don’t care! Well, it’s ok, we’re all humans, but a better way of Being is being Thankful for it all!

Meditation with tea is, quite literally, fuel for both body and spirit.

You can switch teas and meditation suggestions, as you explore both the meditation experience and the choices of teas available to you at EnlighTēa Café.   Our objective is to bring your entire being to the meditation with tea and allow it to help you go where you want to go, or perhaps to remain just where you are.

The single most important constant is the gift of quiet, uninterrupted time in a EnlighTēa Café.

When you make time for yourself at a local EnlighTēa Café, others in your life will soon understand this is your quiet time, and they will learn to respect it.
Certainly, when the benefits of these meditations with tea are revealed, others will not only understand, they may soon follow.

Tea meditation is a time to be completely yourself in a joyful and serene atmosphere.  To meditate and enjoy becomes a means by which you renew your strength, your inner being.

But when we enjoy tea together — just enjoying our tea with a friend or loved one is enough —to share our joy and happiness in being together.  At times, when drinking tea with a friend, we are not aware of the tea or even of our friend sitting there!

Practicing tea meditation is to be truly present with our tea and our friends. It is an opportunity for us to share happiness and joy, of understanding and love in each one of us.

We recognize we can dwell happily in the present moment despite our personal difficulties.  We sit there relaxed — without having to say anything. Welcome to EnlighTea Café!

2737 B.C.
• The second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when tea leaves blow into his cup of hot water (or so the legend is told).
222 A.D.
•  Tea was mentioned as a substitute for wine for the first time in Chinese writings. Learn More

2737 B.C.
• The second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when tea leaves blow into his cup of hot water (or so the legend is told).

222 A.D.

•  Tea was mentioned as a substitute for wine for the first time in Chinese writings.

350  
• A Chinese dictionary cites tea for the first time as Erh Ya.

400-600
• Demand for tea as a medicinal beverage rises in China; cultivation processes are developed. Many tea drinkers add onion, ginger, spices, or orange to their teas.

400
• Tea and its detailed infusion and preparation steps are defined.

479
• Turkish traders bargain for tea on the border of Mongolia.

593
• Buddhism and tea journey from China to Japan. Japanese priests studying in China carried tea seeds and leaves back to their homeland.

618-907 T’ang Dynasty
• Tea becomes a popular drink in China for both its flavor and medicinal qualities.

648-749
• Japanese monk Gyoki plants the first tea bushes in 49 Buddhist temple gardens.
• Tea in Japan is rare and expensive, enjoyed mostly by high priests and the aristocracy.

708
•  Tea drinking gains popularity among the Chinese in part because a boiled drink is safer than contaminated water; tea is valued for its health values.

729
• The Japanese emperor serves powdered tea (named hiki-cha from the Chinese character) to Buddhist priests.

780
• First tea tax imposed in China.
• Chinese poet-scholar Lu Yu writes the first book of tea titled Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea) to align with Taoist beliefs. The book covers detailed ancient Chinese tea cultivation and preparation techniques.

805
• Buddhism and tea devotion spreads further.
• The Japanese Buddhist saint and priest Saicho and monk Kobo Daishi bring tea seeds, cultivation and manufacturing processes  back from China and plant gardens in the Japanese temples.

960-1280 Sung Dynasty
• Chinese tea drinking is on the rise, as are the construction of elegant teahouses and delicate teacups carefully crafted from porcelain and pottery.
• Drinking tea scented with flowers is widespread in China

1101-1125
• Chinese Emperor Hui Tsung becomes obsessed with tea and writes about tea-whisking methods and holds tea-tasting tournaments in the court. As the story goes, becaue of tea obsession, he doesn’t notice the Mongol take over of his empire.

1191
• Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, who introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan, brings tea seeds from China and plants them around his Kyoto temple, making medicinal claims for tea that will be published in 1214. 1191

1206-1368 Yuan Dynasty
• During the Mongol take over of China, tea becomes a commonplace beverage but never regains its high social status as a drink only for the upper classes and royalty.

1211
• Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai writes the first Japanese tea book Kitcha-Yojoki (Book of Tea Sanitation).

1280
• Mongolia takes over of China and since the Emperor of Mongol isn’t a “tea guy,” tea drinking dies down in the courts and among the aristocracy. The masses continue to indulge.

1368-1644 Ming Dynasty
• At the fall of the Mongol take over, all teas — green, black, and oolong — are easily found in China; The process of steeping whole tea leaves in cups or teapots becomes popular.

1422-1502
• The Japanese tea ceremony emerges. First created by a Zen priest,the ceremony is called Cha-no-yu, literally meaning “hot water tea” and celebrates everyday life.

1484
• Japan’s shogun Yoshimasa encourages tea ceremonies, painting, and drama; the tea ceremony will remain for centuries a cherished part of Japanese culture.

1589
• Europeans learn about tea when a Venetian author credits the lengthy lives of Asians to tea drinking.

End of 1500s
• Japanese tea master Sen-no Rikyu opens the first independent teahouse and evolves the tea ceremony into its current simple and aesthetic ritual. During this ceremony, one takes a garden path into a portico, enters upon hearing the host’s gong, washes in a special room, and then enters a small tearoom that holds a painting or flower arrangement to gaze upon. The tea master uses special utensils to whisk the intense powdered tea. Tea drinkers enjoy the art or flowers and then smell and drink from a shared teabowl.
• Portuguese priests spreading Roman Catholicism throughout China taste tea and write about its medicinal and taste benefits.

1610
• The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan (arguably, the initial location was China).
• Dutch East India Company markets tea as an exotic medicinal drink, but it’s so expensive only the aristocracy can afford and its serving pieces.

1650-1700
• Tea parties become quite trendy among women across the social classes. Husbands cry family ruin, and religious reformers call for a ban.

1650
• The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York.

1657
• The first tea is sold as a health beverage in London; Public sale begins as the East India Company undercuts Dutch prices and advertises tea as a panacea for apoplexy, catarrh, colic, consumption, drowsiness, epilepsy, gallstones, lethargy, migraine, paralysis, and vertigo.

1661
• The debate over tea’s health benefits versus detriments heightens when a Dutch doctor praises its curative side while French and German doctors disagree.

1662
• When Charles II takes a tea-drinking bride (Catherine Braganza of Lisbon, Portugal), tea drinking becomes so chic that alcohol consumption declines; the Queen also introduces the Chinese orange.

1664
English East India Company brings the gift of tea to the British king and queen.
• The British take over New Amsterdam, name it New York, and a British tea tradition ensues.

1669
• English East India Company monopolizes British tea imports after convincing British government to ban Dutch imports of tea.

1670
• The Massachusetts colony is known to drink black tea.

1680s
• Tea with milk is mentioned in Madam de Sévigné’s letters.
• The Duchess of York introduces tea to Scotland.

1690
• The first tea is sold publicly in Massachusetts.

1697
• The first known Taiwanese cultivation and export of domestic tea takes place.

Late 1600s
• Russia and China sign a treaty bringing the tea trade across Mongolia and Siberia.

1702-14
• During Queen Anne’s reign, tea drinking thrives in British coffeehouses.

1705
• Annual tea importation to England tops 800,000 pounds.

1706
• Thomas Twining serves up tea at Tom’s Coffee House in London.

1717
• Tom’s Coffee House evolves into the first teashop called the Golden Lyon, patronized by both men and women.

1723
• British Prime Minister Robert Walpole reduces British import taxes on tea.

Tea in Russia becomes more widespread and popular.

1735
• The Russian Empress extends tea as a regulated trade; In order to fill Russia’s tea demand, traders and three hundred camels travel 11,000 miles to and from China, which takes sixteen months.
• Russian tea-drinking customs emerge, which entail using tea concentrate, adding hot water, topping it with a lemon, and drinking it through a lump of sugar held between the teeth.

1765
• Tea easily ranks as the most popular beverage in the American colonies.

Aside from the taxes yet to be established, tea played a major role in the ensuing revolution between the Colonies and Great Britain.

1767
• The Townshend Revenue Act passes British Parliament, imposing duty on tea and other goods imported into the British American colonies; A meeting is held in Boston to protest the Townshend Revenue Act, leading to an American boycott of British imports and a smuggling in of Dutch teas.

1770
• Parliament rescinds the Townshend Revenue Act, eliminating all import taxes except those on teas.

1773
• In protest of British tea taxes and in what becomes known as the Boston Tea Party, colonists disguised as Native Americans board East India Company ships and dump hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor.
• The Boston Tea Party was not an isolated incident; such “tea parties” were repeated in Philadelphia, New York, Maine, North Carolina, and Maryland through 1774.

1774
• A furious British Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in response to the American “tea party” rebellions; King George III agrees to the Boston Port Bill, which closes Boston Harbor until the East India Company is reimbursed for its tea.

1775
• After several British attempts to end the taxation protests, the American Revolution begins.

1778
• Before the indigenous Assam tea plants are identified, British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, hired by the East India Company, suggests that India grow, plant, and cultivate imported Chinese tea. For 50 years, India is unsuccessful.

1784
• Parliament further reduces the British import taxes on tea in an effort to end the smuggling that accounts for the majority of the nation’s tea imports.

1785
• 11 million pounds of tea are brought into England.

1797
• English tea drinking hits a rate of 2 pounds per capita annually, a rate that increases by five times over the next 10 years.

1815-1831
• Samples of indigenous Indian tea plants are sent to an East India Company botanist who is slowly convinced that they are bona fide tea plants.

1824
• The Royal Navy decides to reduce its daily rum ration by one half; from half pint to quarter pint, and replace it with tea as part of their daily ration.

1825
• British colonists in Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) plant coffee bushes; the coffee industry in Ceylon will be obliterated by Rust Disease in 1899.

1826
• English Quaker John Horniman introduces the first retail tea in sealed, lead-lined packages to protect the tea’s taste.

1830
• Congress reduces U.S. duties on coffee, tea and other imports.

1833
• British Prime Minister Charles Grey (the second Earl Grey and the namesake of the famous tea), dictated that the East India Company would lose its monopoly on the trade with China… mostly in tea.

1835
• The East India Company begins its first tea plantations in Assam, India.

1837
• The first American consul at Canton trades cargo for tea and silk, earning investors a great return on their investment and encouraging more Americans to enter into Chinese trade

1838
• The first tea from Indian soil and imported Chinese tea plants is sold. A small amount is sent to England and quickly purchased due to its uniqueness.

1840
• Anna the Duchess of Bedford introduces afternoon tea, which becomes a lasting English ritual.

1849
• Parliament ends the Britain’s Navigation Acts, and U.S. clipper ships are allowed to transport China tea to British ports; Tea wholesaler Henry Charles Harrod takes over a London grocery store and grows it into one of the world’s largest department stores.

1850
• Tea becomes equally as popular as coffee among the English.

1850
• Londoners get their first look at a U.S. clipper ship when one arrives from Hong Kong filled with China tea; clipper ships soon desert China trade for the more profitable work of taking gold seekers to California.

1856
• Tea is planted in and about Darjeeling, India.

1859
• Local New York merchant George Huntington Hartford and his employer George P. Gilman give the A&P retail chain its start as the Great American Tea Company store. Hartford and Gilman buy whole clipper shipments from the New York harbor and sell the tea 1/3 cheaper than other merchants.

1866
• Over 90 percent of Britain’s tea is still imported from China.

1869
• The Suez Canal opens, shortening the trip to China and making steamships more economical.

1870
• Twinings of England begins to blend tea for uniformity.

1872
• The Adulteration of Food, Drink, and Drugs Act deems the sale of adulterated drugs or other unlabeled mixtures with foreign additives that increase weight as punishable offenses.

1876
• Thomas Lipton opens his first shop in Glasgow, Scotland, using merchandising methods he learned working in the grocery section of a New York department store.

1890
• Thomas Lipton buys tea estates in Ceylon, in order to sell tea at a reasonable price at his growing chain of 300 grocery stores.

Late 1800s
• Assam tea plants take over imported Chinese plants in India and its tea market booms.
• Ceylon’s successful coffee market turns into a successful tea market.

1904
• Englishman Richard Blechynden creates iced tea during a heat wave at the St Louis World Fair.

1904
• Green tea and Formosan (Taiwanese) tea outsells black tea by five times in the U.S.

1908
• New York tea importer Thomas Sullivan inadvertently invents tea bags when he sends tea to clients in small silk bags, and they mistakenly steep the bags whole.

1909
• Thomas Lipton begins blending and packaging his tea in New York.

1910
• Sumatra, Indonesia becomes a cultivator and exporter of tea followed by Kenya and parts of Africa.
Sources:
www.inpursuitoftea.com
www.246.dk/teachronology.html