How did tea become a luxury in the tea-horse trade in history?

Tea-horse trade is a way of trade between the Central Plains and Tibet. In the Tang Dynasty in China, people used horses and tea to buy things instead of money. At first, money was used to buy horses, but it was found that residents in border areas did not use money, but they would use money to forge weapons, which posed a certain threat to the Central Plains, so after careful consideration, they began to exchange tea for horses.

Tea is a necessity in people in Xizang, but it can't be planted in Tibet, so tea has become a luxury in the tea-horse trade. Tibet has high altitude, low temperature and large temperature difference between morning and evening. People here have to eat meat and drink milk to keep warm. These things are not easy to digest, and they may remain in the stomach for several days after eating. They need something to relieve greasy food and help digestion, and tea is just what they need.

Tea can help them supplement vitamins, promote digestion and relieve greasy food. It is a rare treasure in Tibet. Businessmen are more concerned about their own interests. Seeing that Tibet needs tea so much that they can't produce it themselves, these people try their best to lower the price of horses and raise the price of tea, so that tea has become a luxury in the tea-horse market.

At that time, 20 kilograms of tea can be exchanged for a horse, which shows how expensive tea is. According to the current price, a horse should be 1 10,000 yuan, which means that at that time, 1 kg of tea was 500 yuan, and now tea should not be sold at such an expensive price. It is conceivable how important tea was to the Tibetan people at that time.