Although all green tea comes from the same plant, different types of green tea are currently grown and produced around the world, including China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Hawaii and even South Carolina.
However, green tea is believed to have originated in China. It is said that even today, the term "tea" in China only refers to green tea, not like Western tea. China's Yunnan Province is considered the original home of the camellia plant. In fact, 260 of the 380 kinds of tea in the world can be found in Yunnan.
A popular legend indicates that the emperor of China and the so-called Chinese tea inventor Shennong discovered tea beverages as beverages around 2737 BC, when fresh tea leaves from a nearby tea tree fell into the water he had just boiled.
Others praised the various Buddhists who discovered tea in 500 BC and subsequent centuries. Buddhists will spread their religion, culture and tea ceremony between India and China. Buddhist monks grow, harvest and produce tea from the grapes and wine in European monasteries, just like their Catholics. Monks are used to drinking tea for physical recovery, helping meditation and replacing alcohol develop into spiritual and social practices throughout China. 　
It is said that green tea gained popularity in Japan around 1190, when a Zen master who visited and studied in the great Buddhist temples and temples in China returned to Japan with tea tree seeds and shrubs. The young monk used his experience of growing and drinking tea in China to popularize tea ceremony as a meditation ritual in his own Buddhist monk community, and eventually spread the custom of tea drinking in other parts of Japan. So far, China and Japan are the world's two largest green tea producers and exporters.