| Types of Tea |  |
If you are cold tea will warm you
William Ewart
Gladstone |
Any One For A Cuppa ?
Tea
Tea is the name universally given to the leafs and leaf bud of the evergreen
tree or bush, Camellia Sinensis, also known as Chinese camillia.
This flourishes in the warmth of tropical and semi-tropical regions.
It likes an acidic soil and needs at least 50 inches ( 125cm ) of rain
during the year to encourage the growth of the tender green leaves and leaf
buds, known as the "flush". The leaves of the tea plant are similar
to those of the myrtle or privet and are small, dark green and glossy. If
the plant is allowed to develop naturally it develops white flowers, not
unlike those of a wild rose.
The principal tea-growing areas are China ( the first country in which
tea was grown and where more varieties of tea are produced than in any other
country , India ( which now produces 30 per cent of the world's tea
and exports to 78 different countries ). Sri Lanka ( though the teas
are still called Ceylon teas ), East Africa ( chiefly Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe ), Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Japan,
Russia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Indonesia, Iran, and some
parts
of South America.
Some of the teas are sold under the name of the country of origin,
others are an important component of tea blends.
Processing
There are various methods of processing, according to the type
of tea required. Although there are about 1,500 different types of
tea, they all come from the same plant - Camilla
Sinensis. It is the
altitude, the type of soil and the weather conditions in the area in which
the plants are grown, and the treatment of the leaves after plucking, which
give the individual flavour and character to a particular tea.
The traditional ( orthodox ) method of processing varies with the
type of tea required .
The three Main types of tea are :
Black or fermented tea
The tea from most countries is processed to become the familiar black dried
leaf used throughout the world. The fresh leaves are taken to the factory
and spread out on withering troughs. These allow the air to circulate
through them and after 8-16 hours, depending on the moisture content of the
leaves and the weather conditions, the leaves become limp. The process
is known as withering. When the weather is cold and damp, warm air
is passed through the leaves to speed up the process.
The leaves are then passed through an orthodox rolling machine which
twists them and breaks their veins, releasing natural juices and enzymes.
On contact with air these begin to ferment and oxidize. The amount
of rolling will vary according to the type of to required. The leaves
are then spread out clinically clean tables and left to ferment in a cold
but humid atmosphere for three hours, by which time they turn bright orange
in colour. The final stage is to dry the leaves until they become
black.
Green or unfermented tea :
The leaves, which keep their green colour, are steamed, rolled and dried
but not fermented. Japan, parts of China, Russia and some Arab countries
consume green tea.
Oolong or semi-fermented tea
These teas are treated like green teas, but are partially fermented.
Taiwan uses Oolong tea.
The History of The Tea
There are two fascinating legends about the origin of the tea
bush. One of these tells the story of the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma
from India, who travelled to China to preach the message of the Lord Buddha.
He fell asleep during his devotions. When he awoke he was overcome
with remorse, so he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. The
eyelids immediately took root and grew into the evergreen tea bush. The
monk plucked some of the leaves from the bush, infused them in boiling water,
drank the infusion and instantly felt refreshed.
The second legend is of a Chinese Emperor called Shen Nung, who lived
around 2737 BC. He sat under a tree as he boiled water for drinking.
A leaf from Camellia sinensis fell into the boiling water and
gave the emperor his first cup of tea.
It is recorded that tea bushes grew wild in China some 5,000 years
ago and it was there that tea was first produced. Tea is mentioned
in a Chinese dictionary dated AD 350 and the Book of Tea ( Ch'a
Ching ) was written by Lu Yu, a scholar who lived during the Tang dynasty.
in about AD 780. This was the first of many Chinese books to be written
about tea.
Lu Yu covered the choice of tea, the correct method of brewing it,
together with ways of serving the beverage and the value of tea as a healthy
drink. As far as one can gather, the tea leaves were formed into a
kind of cake, steamed, crushed and then moulded. To prepare the drink
the cake was toasted, then shredded and steeped in boiling salted water
before being served. The first tax on tea was imposed during the Tang
period.
The cultivation of tea spread fairly rapidly from China to Japan where
the first mention of tea in Japanese literature was in AD 593 and a Japanese
handbook on tea was written in the thirteenth century. Throughout the
ages the drinking of tea and the importance of the ritual tea ceremony has
been appreciated in that country.
Countries bordering China, such as Northern India, Burma, Thailand
and Indo-China, also discovered the pleasures of drinking tea and this was
encouraged by Buddhist priests to combat the excessive drinking of
alcohol.
The word 'tea' was not used originally. A Chinese local Amoy
dialect gives the name as 't`e', pronounced 'tay'. The Cantonese used
the word 'ch`a', pronounced 'char'. This word was also used in Japan,
India and other countries when they first grew tea plants. Nowadays
if people in Britain talk about a cup of 'char' it may be regarded as slang,
but in fact they are using on of the earliest words for this drink.
Parts of the Arab world learned about tea as early as the middle of
the ninth century, for they were great seafarers and traders who obviously
discovered it in their travels to the east. The Arab love of the beverage,
especially mint tea, continues today.
The Dutch, through their active and successful trading companies,
first brought tea to Europe in about 1610 - the Venetians, Portuguese and
Russians being the first western people to enjoy it. It is thought
that tea reached England in 1633 ( it was recorded as being sold as a drink
in England in 1657 ), Paris in 1648, and America just two years later.
Tea would have been enjoyed much later in Australia when settlers,
as opposed to convicts, made there homes in that country in the early nineteenth
century.
| Types of Tea | |