Around the Ancient World with Tea
- helloanthropolotea
- Mar 15
- 5 min read
A write-up of my 'Around the Ancient World with Tea' event, exploring the infusions of ancient civilisations from Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica!
Is there a tea archeology?
When I was preparing to research infusions for ‘Around the Ancient World with Tea,’ I wondered whether there was a ‘tea archaeology.’ There’s a well-documented modern history of tea, but when we look further back into the ancient world there are a lot less historical sources to choose from.
There is a field of archeobotany (also known as paleoethnobotany), which focuses on ancient plant-human relations. They examine plant remains found in archeological excavations, such as material in Egyptian tombs or preserved seeds, written sources like ancient Egyptian papyri or Mesopotamian clay tablets, and draw analogies with contemporary usage (Pearsall, 2015).
Mesopotamia: barley, dates and liquorice
I started with Ancient Mesopotamia for two reasons. Firstly, because it is the region where writing first developed, and there’s a record of plants used for medicinal purposes preserved on clay tablets through cuneiform writing and secondly, because I’ve started learning Akkadian a few months ago and have a particular interest in the region.
Jastrow (1917:247) notes that medicinal plants were used to exorcise demons that caused illnesses. When it comes to the specific herbs used, liquorice was used in Neo-Assyrian medicine as a sweetener and to soothe sore throats and digestive issues (Scurlock, 2021), cumin was infused in wine (Jastrow, 1917), mint and myrrh were used for flavoring and purification in drinks and dates were used for making date beer and wine (Bock et al., 2023), and mandrake, juniper and coriander were used for ritual infusions (Boeck, 2021). Also, Elisson (1984) notes that barley was the main base for all Mesopotamian drinks and was brewed, steeped and infused (and Peyronel et al. (2014) support this through archeobotanical research, finding residues in jars that contained barley based liquids).
To make a blend inspired by this, I used roast barley as a base (which is commonly drunk these days in South Korea, where it is known as ‘mugicha’) and added pieces of dried dates and liquorice root for sweetener. The result was a nutty and sweet drink.
Ancient Egypt: Cumin, coriander, fennel
In the case of Ancient Egypt, there are chemical analyses of residue absorbed into pottery jars in places like Tutankahmum’s tomb and herbs listed in medical papyri as treatments for disease (Germer, 1993). Cumin, an indigenous Egyptian herb, is listed in the Ebers papyrus as a stimulant (Aboelsoud, 2010). For example, an Ancient Egyptian cup in the Naples National Archeological Museum has the inscription “cumin, set milk, honey” and the recipe appears in a medical papyrus as a cough prescription (Poole, 2001). It was used together with coriander, which was taken as an infusion to help the stomach and the papyri also list other herbs such as fennel, myrrh, frankincense, fennel, cassia, senna, thyme, henna, juniper, aloe, linseed and castor oil (Aboelsoud, 2010).
I prepared a blend of cumin, fennel and coriander, which is a mix that is also used in Ayurvedic medicine and is good for digestion.
Mesoamerica: Cacao, chilli, vanilla
In Mesoamerica, cacao was mixed with spices like chilli peppers, flowers or vanilla and used in rituals (Dillinger et al., 2000). There was also Tzoalli, a corn-based herbal infusion mixed with medicinal plants and chaya leaves brewed by the Maya (Tea Kulture, 2025). Also, some archeologists believe tobacco was also infused after finding nicotine residue on vases (Anderson, 2024).
I blended bitter cacao husks with cut-up vanilla pods and chilli flakes for a chocolatey infusion. It was the most crowd-pleasing blend of the day!
Ancient Levant: Zhourat
Zhourat means ‘flowers’ in Arabic (Serhan et al., 2025), but is known under different names like “zhourat” in Syria and Lebanon, “sarantha” in different parts of Greece, “tea of flowers” and “osmanlı çayı, Ottoman tea” in Turkey, and “demonush”, “dammnusch” or “dammnous” in Iran (Obon et al., 2021). The mix includes damask rose, chamomile, linden, marshmallow flowers, lavender, violet flower, hawthorn, jasmine, sometimes mixed with other ingredients like thyme, lemon balm, sage, rosemary in varying combinations (Obon et al., 2021).
They’re used in traditional medicine of the Balkans, West Asia and East Mediterranean and are closely linked to the unani medicinal system or ‘Arabic traditional medicine’ where much of the medicine consists of herbal tea blends, similar to Ayurvedic or Chinese medicines which blend multiple herbs (Carmona et al, 2005).
I bought a pre-existing zhourat mix from Sofra. Participants likened it to a bedtime tea, possibly because of the chamomile in it.
Ancient China: Green tea, ginger, orange
Tea started to be enjoyed on its own during the Tang dynasty (9th century CE). Before, it was a medicinal and stimulating drink where tea was blended in an infusion with other ingredients like ginger, spring onion and peppers (Leng, 2016). The Three Kingdoms era text Guangya explains that tea was first roasted and then brewed with scallions, gingers, and oranges to “make them sleepless” (Witherspoon, 2026).
I blended green tea with dried ginger and dried orange peel for a slightly spicy blend.
Sources
Aboelsoud, N. (2010). Herbal medicine in Ancient Egypt. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 4(2), pp. 082-086.
Anderson, S. (2024). Mesoamericans May Have Drunk Tobacco During Rituals 1000 years ago. Smithsonian Magazine. Available online at:
Barbara Böck, Shahina A. Ghazanfar, Mark Nesbitt. (2023). An Ancient Mesopotamian Herbal. Kew Publishing.
Boeck, Barbara. (2021). Mind-altering Plants in Babylonian Medical Sources. The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World.
Dillinger et al. (2000). Food of the Gods: Cure for Humanity? A Cultural History of the Medicinal and Ritual Use of Chocolate. The Journal of Nutrition,130(8), 2057S-2072S
Ellison, R. (1984). Methods of Food Preparation in Mesopotamia (c. 3000-600 BC). Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 27(1), 89–98.
Germer, R. (1993). "Ancient Egyptian Pharmaceutical Plants and the Eastern Mediterranean". In The Healing Past. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Jastrow M., Jr (1917). Babylonian-Assyrian Medicine. Annals of medical history, 1(3), 231–257.
Leng, C. (2016). Tea-History, Culture, and Trade by the Potful. JMM Museum Volunteers. Available online at:
‘Lilly’ (2025). The Ancient Herbal Teas of the Aztec and Maya. Tea Kulture. Available online at:
M.D. Carmona a, R. Llorach a, C. Obon b, D. Rivera (2005). “Zahraa”, a Unani multicomponent herbal tea widely consumed in Syria: Components of drug mixtures and alleged medicinal properties. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 102(3), 344-350.
Obón, C., Rivera, D., Fonollá, E., Alcaraz, F., & Attieh, L. (2021). A Comparison Study on Traditional Mixtures of Herbal Teas Used in Eastern Mediterranean Area. Frontiers in pharmacology, 12, 632692.
Pearsall, D. (2015). Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures (3rd ed.) Routledge.
Poole, F. (2001). ‘Cumin, Set Milk, Honey’: An Ancient Egyptian Medicine Container (Naples 828). The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 87(1), 175-180.
Scurlock JA. Insights from selected ancient Mesopotamian medicinal plants: an opinion piece. J Plant Sci Phytopathol. 2023; 7: 020-026.4
Serhan, M., Beyrouthy, M., Menhem, C., Mattar, J., Hassan, H. (2025). Health Potential of Zhourat Middle East Herbal Tea. In: Mérillon, JM., Rivière, C., Lefèvre, G. (eds) Natural Products in Beverages. Reference Series in Phytochemistry. Springer, Cham.
Witherspoon, A. (2026). People’s History of Tea: Earliest Origins. One River Tea. Available online at:
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