Asian Tea is popular throughout the world
In China, at least as early as the Tang Dynasty, tea was an object of connoisseurship, and formal tea-tasting parties were held, comparable to modern wine tasting's. As much as in modern wine tasting's, the proper vessel was important; the white tea used at that time called for a dark bowl in which the tea leaves and hot water were mixed and whipped up with a whisk. The best of these bowls, glazed in patterns with names like oil spot, hare's fur, and tortoise shell, are highly valued today.
The rituals and the traditional dark pottery were adopted in Japan beginning in the 12th century, and gave rise to the Japanese tea ceremony, which took its final form in the 16th century