Do you know the story of how the first tea was made
The world’s biggest tea producing countries are China and India – so possibly it’s no surprise that each country has its own story of ancient tea origins.
History of tea in India
There’s a story that as a boy, Prince Siddhartha – who later became the Buddha – was meditating deeply on the side of a hill, where he accidentally fell asleep. Annoyed by his loss of concentration, on waking the prince is said to have pulled out his eyelashes and threw them in the air. Miraculously, a flowering bush sprang up where they landed. This was the first ever tea plant. It’s leaves became known for stimulating energy and great aroma.
The Buddha gave the plant to his own followers, empowering them to stay awake and alert, in order to carry out their own meditative devotions.
History of tea in China
A story is told that around 5,000 years ago, the Emperor Shen Nung was relaxing beneath a Camellia tree when a leaf fell into his cup of hot water. As aroma pooled out from the leaf, so too did a light green liquor. The Emperor tasted the liquid, and found the aromatic brew delicious and energizing. And with this, tea was discovered.
Do you know how Tea is Made ?
All tea comes from the plant known as Camellia sinensis. The tea plant grows best in tropical climate. Tea plants are shallow rooting and can grow mainly in tropical regions. They have evergreen stiff, shiny, pointed leaves.
So how is tea plants are planted?
Tea plant can grow at almost any altitude, from sea level to 8000 feet. To flourish, it will need to receive 100-125cm of rain each year, in soil that’s deep and slightly acidic.
You can propagate tea plants from seeds, or by taking cuttings from another bush and rooting them in nursery beds.
How long do tea plants take to grow ?
It usually takes four to five years for a tea plant to mature into a pickable plant or bush. Then, it’ll probably be about three and half feet tall which is a good height for plucking. If left alone, it can grow into a tree up to 30 feet tall.
What’s the difference between all the teas?
You have probably heard words like ‘green tea,’ ‘black tea,’ ‘white tea’ and ‘oolong’. And different grades like, Dust, CTC, BP, BPS, CD etc. These all come from the same plant. Their differences are from the way that they’re processed. They all start off as the same fresh leaves and are always a green colour. White, Green and Yellow tea are produced by steaming the leaves after plucking, thus eliminating the oxidation process. Oolong tea is allowed to oxidize for a short period of time, and Black tea is allowed to react with the air and oxidize, turning the green leaves black. The most complex teas grow at higher altitudes and many bushes can be cultivated for over 100 years.
Which teas are healthiest?
Very common question is ‘Which tea is better? Green, black or white?’
The simple answer is, all are good in their own way. During processing, depending on how the tea is handled, different healthy compounds will come about. All of them contain natural goodness.
Where does the tea grow?
The tea plant can grow in many places but to thrive, it needs lots of sunshine and rain. That means tropical regions are perfect to grow tea all year round. And as you move north of the tropics through Assam and Darjeeling for example, or south to Argentina tea growing becomes very seasonal.
There are more than 40 countries producing tea today, with a natural divide between those which produce green tea (China and Japan), and those producing black tea. Among black tea producers, some of the biggest include India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
How is tea made or produced?
One of the natural and best way is to simply drop a fresh leaf into hot water.
While it’s true that the first teas were probably tasted that way, over the time tea making has turned into an art form.
Step 1
Step 1- Harvesting. The bud nearest the end of each shoot and its two nearest leaves are plucked for the best tasting tea. As a rule, the younger and softer their leave, the better the quality.
Step 2
Initial Drying. It involves naturally reducing some of the moisture. Leaves are spread out as evenly as possible, and left for about 12-16 hours until they’re floppy, and easy to work with.
Step 3
Crushing. This is where the leaves are rolled or cut into smaller particles.
Once the leaves are nicely chopped up, they naturally start to oxidise. Oxidation takes just a couple of hours, but is vital for bringing through black tea’s distinct flavour.
Step 4
Drying (Final). It is the process in which the moisture level in the made tea is brought down to around 3% level using dryer by stopping all sorts of enzyme activities and arresting the oxidation for a stable product with good shelf life.
Step 5
Sorting. This is where different sizes of leaf are sieved/filtered and separated. Tea is segregated into four main sizes namely, whole leaf, broken, fanning’s and dust. Tea is further sub-divided into different grades of as per the qualities within each of these sizes. The sorted teas are then packaged for storage and shipment.
