When was tea invented? Who discovered caffeine? Legend has it that the first cup of tea was brewed in 2737 B.C. when dried leaves landed in a boiling cup of water served to the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. From China, the idea of tea spread throughout the world. It was introduced into the United States in 1650 by Peter Stuyvesant when he brought it the colonists inhabiting New Amsterdam (what is now New York). Iced tea was invented at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.