Yum Cha
The Cha
bush grows in various regions of China
and Tartary, and produces copiously, but more so in one region than
in another... Some tell of a drink made from it, which is taken hot,
and habitually used not only by all the Chinese empire but also by India,
Tartary, Tibet, the Mongol empire, and the inhabitants of the Eastern
Ocean, not merely once a day, but as often as they like. It is a plant
of great virtue, the likes of which, if I had not experienced it myself
upon the invitation of some Fathers of our order, I would never have
been led to credit, for joined to its diuretic faculty, it wonderfully
relaxes every blockage of the kidneys and dissipates the heaviness of
the head, so that literary men, or others who are compelled by the magnitude
of their labors to stay up late at night, find no more noble or fitting
remedy in all of nature, and although at first its taste is watery and
somewhat bitter, in time it not only loses its unpleasantness, but soothes
so well the itchings of the throat, that those who have taken up this
drink find it hard to do without.
This quote comes from China Monumentis (China, Illustrated Through its Monuments
both Sacred and Profane, Together with Numerous Marvels of Nature
and Art, and Accounts of other Memorable Matters) by Athanasius Kircher, 1667. As with other books by Kircher, this one is lavishly illustrated and combines state-of-the-art knowledge about China as informed by Jesuit missionaries with flights of boroque fancy.
Here is an interesting overview of the book. You can also read it online in its entirety.
