"'Do you want an adventure now,' Peter said casually to John,
'or would you like to have your tea first?'
Wendy said 'tea first' quickly, and Michael pressed her hand in gratitude..."
-- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Tea is the second most consumed beverage on earth (after water.) Tea in the United States is primarily seen as a soft drink substitute, with more than 80% of the tea here drunk in the form of iced tea. Elsewhere in the world tea is integral to daily life. Every day, more than 1 1/2 billion cups of tea are consumed worldwide. ( Beautheac)
◦ What is tea?
◦ What makes a quality tea?
◦ What gives tea its flavor?
◦ Producers
◦ How tea is processed
◦ How tea is distributed
◦ Grading
◦ Caffeine
◦ Health benefits
◦ Random tea facts
What is Tea?
In order to truly be "tea," the leaves must be from the plant Camellia sinensis ("sinensis" = Chinese in Latin). Thus, there really is no such thing as "herbal tea" as those are made from other plants.
There are two well-known varieties of Camellia sinensis.
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, aka China bush, grows 9 - 15 feet and thrives in China, Japan, and Tibet. The ideal conditions for its growth are an environment that is 50 - 85 degrees with 80 - 90 inches of rain annually and an elevation of 1000 - 7000 feet above sea level. The plant is quite cold resistant. If left wild, the plant can grow as high as 30 feet, but plants are generally pruned to waist-high to make harvesting easier and to encourage the growth of new shoots. (Each cycle of new growth is called a "flush" and each "flush" has its own flavor profile and properties.) The bush's leaves are dark green and leathery and about 2 inches long. Small white flowers are produced which have a pleasant aroma. A bush can produce leaves for more than 100 years!
Camellia sinensis var. assamica (the Assam variety of Camellia sinensis) is considered a tree, not a bush, and can grow 45 - 60 feet with leaves of 6 - 14 inches in length. It is found in many tropical areas and produces tea leaves for 40 years. It is named for a region in India where it was first found.
There is a subspecies of Camellia sinensis var. assamica that is also cultivated: lasio calyx. This is the variety common to IndoChina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). It grows to about 15 feet.
In China's Yunnan Province, near the border of Myanmar, a wild tea tree grows that is thought to be 1700 years old! The tree is 3 feet in diameter and 108 feet tall. (Moxham)
Tea was first cultivated by seed, but now it is propagated by cuttings. It takes 12 - 15 months from taking the cutting until the plant is ready to be planted in the gardens. When it is about 15" tall it is cut back to a few inches from the ground causing the plant to grow in a V shape, increasing the number of terminal buds from which tea leaves can be plucked. (Martin)
What Makes a Quality Tea?
Tea that is grown at high elevations tends to be the finest quality tea. It grows more slowly there (requiring about 5 years from cutting to harvest versus 2 1/2 years in low altitude gardens). The plants produce less tea, but it is more flavorful tea. By the same token, tea grown during the rainy season grows quickly and is thus less flavorful and lower quality.
The best teas are picked early in the tea season. These teas have a delicate flavor. The way in which the tea is harvested also impacts quality. Teas that only include the top leaf and bud are the most sought after. These young shoots are often picked by hand. A stronger more astringent brew is created when harvesting includes the next 3 - 5 leaves. Mechanical harvesters usually collect 2 leaves and the bud.
Because the weather can greatly impact the quality of the tea and the amount produced, tea growers continually measure rainfall, temperature, and humidity. Fine tea needs five hours of sun per day. As the data is collected, adjustments can be made to compensate for any less than ideal conditions. Frequent monitoring for insects and other pests also takes place. Tea estates will often share this information with one another to help block large scale infestations.
A tea producer can make many small (and large) decisions that will impact the final quality of the tea. Do they throw the bags of tea leaves in the back of a hot truck after picking or do they hang them to keep them cooler with free air circulation? Do they put them in plastic stacking baskets so the leaves are not crushed? Are the leaves packed loosely in the bag or are they packed tightly, again raising the temperature of the leaves? ( Melican)
In China, "Imperial Plucking" is considered the ideal way to collect tea. Historically, tea produced this way was reserved for the emperor and court dignitaries. Only the bud (and sometimes the first leaf) are harvested. When it was to be served to the emperor, young virgins collected the leaves wearing gloves and using gold scissors, placing the leaves in gold baskets. ( Pettigrew)
What Gives Tea Its Flavor?
Tea contains Oil of Theol which is an essential oil responsible for releasing tea's flavor. The tea's "tannin content," created by catechins and flavonoids, provides the characteristic astringency of tea. Green tea has the highest tannin content followed by oolongs then blacks. This tannin content can also vary by origin. Keemun tea from China is low in tannin content, but Assam from India is high. (Israel) These tannins are not the same as one finds in wine, however. Those are plant tannins known as tannic acid. There is no tannic acid in tea.
70% of the world's tea is produced in India and Sri Lanka. Other major suppliers include Indonesia, Mainland China, Japan, Argentina, Malawi, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mozambique, Korea, Uganda, Turkey, Tanzania, Brazil, Zaire, and Kenya. There are a number of smaller suppliers as well, including a new tea garden in England, gardens in Hawaii and South Carolina, and a garden in Tuscany, Italy.
Indonesian teas are all black teas and are from the Sumatra and Java regions (very familiar names to coffee drinkers.) In the US it is generally only imported for sale in tea bags in supermarkets.
Kenya is beginning to produce some high quality blends.
Teas grown in Taiwan will often be labeled "Formosa" and teas from Sri Lanka are called "Ceylon", reflecting previous names of those regions.
Tea didn’t grown in Japan until the first seeds came from China during the T’ang Dynasty (618 – 907). It was considered a luxury item as little was imported and little was grown. Only green tea is exported from Japan.
For more detailed information go to the "Where Tea is Grown" page.
How Tea Is Processed (Brief Summary)
For more detailed information, go to: Types of Tea
Tea leaves must be kept cool and processed within 3 hours of harvest. (The more quickly processed the better.) The steps of processing differs depending on whether one wishes to produce black tea, green tea, oolong, yellow tea, or white tea. In all cases, there are 5 stages to processing:
1) Withering: The tea leaves are softened by withering to remove approximately 50% of their moisture. This allows the leaves to be rolled without breaking and it allows the starch in the leaf to begin to convert to sugar. This is critical to avoid bitterness in the leaves. Withering can be done by spreading the leaves on screens for 24 hours of warm air circulation. (This time can be reduced to 6 hours if special tunnels or vats are used.) Alternately, the leaves may also be air dried in the sun.
2) Steaming/Roasting: Green tea is unoxidized. After withering, the teas are steamed or pan fired to kill the enzymes in the leaf that would cause oxidation. (Oxidation is the mechanism that turns a cut apple brown.) Thus, the leaves stay green, rather than turning brown. This step is skipped for black teas (which are fully oxidized), oolong teas (semi-oxidized), and white teas (which go directly from withering to drying.)
3) Rolling: The leaves are rolled or chopped by hand or by machine, twisting and crushing them. The rolling breaks down the cell walls and releases essential oils. When these oils are exposed to oxygen, enzymes start the oxidation process, and the leaves begin to turn brown. The rolling process can happen numerous times, alternating with a roasting process. Again, white teas skip this part of the process.
4) Oxidation* : (Black and oolong teas only) The leaves are kept in a cool, dark place for 1 - 3 hours. The leaves are spread to about 2" deep on a table. An enzymatic reaction occurs that heats the leaves. If the leaves are allowed to get too hot, the tea will taste burnt. If they are too cool, oxidation (the work of those enzymes) stops and the flavor will be poor. Oxidation is encouraged by high humidity (greater than 90%.) The tea maker's skill is at knowing how to manage and when to stop oxidation. The color of the leaves changes during this process. Black teas are allowed to oxidize fully. Oolong teas are only semi-oxidized so the process is stopped earlier. (One form of oolong, pouchong, is very lightly oxidized so the process is stopped quite early.)
5) Drying/Roasting: The leaves are then dried at 185 - 190.4 degrees F. Too brief a drying time results in moldy leaves. Too long a drying time and the tea loses its flavor. This roasting process for black tea can be done by sending hot air from a charcoal fire through the tea causing blackening and killing the enzymes. (Pettigrew) ( Stella) ( Martin)
6) Grading: The tea is sorted on mats according to size and condition - whole or broken. This is the grading process. The remaining tea is sifted out. Dust is the sifting that is 1/2 to 1 millimeter. Fannings are less than 1/2 millimeter.
* The terms "oxidation" and "fermentation" are frequently used interchangeably. However, the current convention is to use "oxidation" for the chemical process triggered by enzymatic activity. For tea, "fermentation" is generally only be used for the chemical processes initiated by microorganisms such as in the process to make pu'erh. However, you will still see green tea referred to as "unfermented" and oolong as "semi-fermented" in older texts or by those who were trained in particular sectors of the tea industry. ( T Ching)
For many years there are three international tea exchanges - Colombo (Sri Lanka), London, and Calcutta. In Colombo they use a reverse auction: the maximum price is announced and the tea is sold to the first bidder to match or come near the price. London and Calcutta used traditional auctions for many years. ( Stella) The London auction closed in 1998.
Grading is based solely on leaf size, not by quality. After the tea leaves have been plucked, processed, and dried, they are sifted. They are then graded based on their size. There are two different categories to start: leaf grade and broken leaf grade. Leaf grades are the larger pieces and broken grades are the smaller pieces. Thus, one harvest of tea can result in multiple grades. The specific grading categories for each type of tea will be covered on the " Types of Tea" page
Many people are confused as to whether tea has more or less caffeine than coffee. The answer? Both.
It is true that a pound of tea has more caffeine than a pound of coffee. However, one pound of tea would make 200 cups of tea while a pound of coffee makes only 40 cups. ( Israel) Thus, a brewed cup of tea has (in general) less caffeine than coffee. Oxidation increases the amount of caffeine as well so black teas have more caffeine that oolongs, greens, and whites. ( Perry)
Coffee: 60 - 180 mg caffeine per 6 ounce cup
Black tea: 25 - 110 mg caffeine per 6 ounce cup
Oolong tea: 12 - 55 mg caffeine per 6 ounce cup
Green tea: 8 - 16 mg caffeine per cup
Another important thing to note is that the caffeine in a cup of coffee is absorbed into the body very quickly. The polyphenols in tea slow the absorption of caffeine so the impact of the caffeine is felt more slowly but for a longer period of time. ( Pettigrew)
Tea contains polyphenols, which are natural antioxidants. These polyphenols provide color, pungency, and body. Various research studies have examined tea and its associated health benefits. In the future I will add more content regarding the best of these studies and what they have found.
Organic tea is a new product, largely established in the late 1990s but with a few plantations opening in the mid to late 1980s. It is a very difficult and tightly controlled process.
Compost, dung, and natural organic matter is used in place of chemical fertilizers. Any pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers must be completely free of chemicals. The goal of organic tea production is to develop a microsystem that is successful economically, protects the environment, and is sustainable.
Organic tea plantations currently exist in India, Africa, and Sri Lanka. Mullootor in the Darjeeling region of India became one of the first organic plantations in 1986. Lonrho in Tanzania followed in 1989. Makaibari in India was certified as organic in 1990. (Pettigrew)
It takes 5 years to train as a tea taster.
Green leaves can be steamed and then pressed and dried into what is known as "compressed tea." In modern China, 2 pound tea bricks are formed from tea dust that is hydraulically compressed. In addition to bricks, compressed tea may come in the shape of a ball, a nest, a bowl, or even a seven-layer cake. Compressed tea has largely been replaced by loose leaf tea. ( Pettigrew)
"Monkey picked teas" - Legend says that the finest teas of the 18th and 19th century were monkey picked. The trees in the Fujian Province were so difficult to access that monkeys had to be trained to pick them. ( Martin)
Currently Lipton has 50% of the American tea market. The second largest importer is Nestlé, which only sells "mixes" and "instant tea." Tetley Tea is the 3rd largest. According to the Tea Council of the US, only 2 British companies appear on the US's leading tea packers list: Tetley and Brooke Bond.
British conventions for drinking tea were established by Dr. Samuel Johnson in the 18th century. He consumed tea on an unbelievable scale - at one afternoon tea he was purported to drink 32 cups before the hostess balked. (Stella)
In 1942, Winston Churchill announced that it was more important to his soldiers that they have tea than ammunition! ( Stella)
The largest teapot in the world was displayed at the 1938 Empire Exhibition. It held two gallons of tea. ( Stella)
The smallest teapot was created by master potter Wu Ruishen in China in 2007. The teapot weighs just 1.4 grams and fits on the tip of a finger.
The average British person consumes 6 cups of tea per day.
Turkey has the highest per capital consumption - more than 5.5 pounds (approx. 1,000 cups) per person per year. The UK comes in at 4.85 pounds and Morocco at 3.09 pounds per person per year. ( Martin)
Queen Victoria supported "Tea Moralities." These were tea parties organized by charities for the "underprivileged" (unemployed, homeless, and prostitutes for example.) The hope was to encourage these people to choose tea over alcohol and to consider more "moral" choices. ( Stella)
Sources of Information for this Page
Israel, Andrea – Taking Tea: The Essential Guide to Brewing, Serving, and Entertaining with Teas
from Around the World – 1987 – Weidenfeld & Nicolson: New York, NY
Martin, Laura C. - Tea: The Drink that Changed the World - 2007 - Tuttle Publishing - North Clarendon, VT
Melican, Nigel - "Monitoring in Tea Production" - Tea & Coffee Trade Journal - Vol. 172, No. 11, Nov./Dec. 2000
Moxham, Roy – Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire – 2003 – Carroll & Graf Publishers:
New York, NY
Perry, Sara – The New Tea Book: A Guide to Black, Green, Herbal, and Chai Tea – 2001 –
Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA
Pettigrew, Jane – The Tea Companion: A Connoisseur’s Guide – 1997 – MacMillan: New York, NY
Pruess, Joanna with John Harney – Eat Tea: A New Approach to Flavoring Contemporary and
Traditional Dishes – 2001 – Globe Popular Press: Guilford, CT
Stella, Alain and Nadine Beautheac - The Book of Tea - 1992 - Flammarion: Paris and New York
T Ching - www.tching.com
KAM, Copyright 2007
Last update January 2010 |
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