Sales of green tea are rising in the U.S and the U.K., driven largely by evidence of the health benefits of this stimulating elixir. So it's ironic that a little over a century ago, this so-called superfood was demonized as super toxic.

"For most of the 19th century, there was less concern about the perils of taking cocaine than there was about the negative side effects of drinking green tea," writes Matthew Sweet in Inventing the Victorians: What We Think We Know About Them and Why We're Wrong. "Readers of Victorian fiction and journalism were used to seeing green tea evoked as a stomach-churning, nerve-jangling threat to health."

The disastrous press green tea received during the Victorian age was partially responsible for why so many tea drinkers made the switch to black. When tea was first introduced to England in the mid-1600s, it was largely green tea that was imported from China.

The backlash against green tea was caused by a mix of baseless fears (that it triggered hysteria and insomnia) and genuine concerns about it being toxic as a result of widespread adulteration. There was also the commercial angle. Though both black and green teas are made from the leaves of the same plant, black, which is oxidated, is drier and more compact than the wetter green tea. The transatlantic transportation of black tea was more profitable, since more could be packed into the ship's hold with lower risk of spoilage. - Read More at NPR

Before Green Tea Was A Superfood, It Was Feared As a Supertoxin

1,000 Years Ago, Caffeinated Drinks Had Native Americans Buzzing