(First published in Small World Ezine on some time in 2002)
Everybody knows tea is originally from China. Until today... several cultures have developed their ways of making and drinking tea and tea has become the most consumed beverage of the world.
In 2737 BC, during a hunting trip, a tired Chinese Emperor was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water. A leaf from the tree dropped into the water and the Emperor decided to try the brew. The tree was a wild tea tree. The drink was so refreshing to the exhausted Emperor that he brought the leaves back to the palace. Eventually, tea had become China's National drink. And human cultivation of tea plants had begun at around 500 AD.
Later, when Chinese and Japanese started to exchange cultures by trade, tea found its way to Japan as well. Indian legend first mentioned tea 2500+ years ago describing how Buddha, in his drowsiness from sleepless contemplation, plucked a few leaves from a nearby bush and chewed them which dispelled his tiredness. The bush was a wild tea tree.
Trades on the silk road is also how tea arrived at the Arabian Peninsula at around 800 AD. Studies believed that it was the Arabs who brought tea to Europe via the Venetians in the 1500s. However, the Dutch and Portuguese also claimed the credits of bringing tea to Europe with their traders' ships.
Who brought tea to England?
Though East India Company had the license to import goods from the Far East to England at the time, it did not trade tea since the beginning. One of East India's sailor brought tea as gifts in 1644, and it was then introduced to London's coffee houses (Can't believe coffee was there before tea!).
Chinese dialect words - such as Tchai, Cha and Tay -- used both to describe the beverage and the leaf -- remain in most languages when referring the drink, i.e. English's "tea", German's "Tee", Russian's "cha'l", Japanese's "ocha", or Thai's "sha".
At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China.
The Chinese categorise their tea into 5 groups...
- Green tea: Green tea is the variety which keeps the original colour of the tea leaves without fermentation during processing, such as Longiing tea.
- Black tea: Black tea, known as "red tea" (hong cha) in China, is the category which is fermented before baking; it is the most popular, good with milk. This kind of tea is mostly from Yunnan.
- Wulong tea: This represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas, being made after partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on China's southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.
- Compressed tea: This is the kind of tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for transport and storage and is mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the border areas of China. Most of the compressed tea is in the form of bricks; it is, therefore, generally called "brick tea", though it is sometimes also in the form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
- Scented tea: This kind of tea is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of processing. The flowers commonly used for this purpose are jasmine and magnolia among others. Jasmine tea is the most well-known favourite.
How to make tea...
A new tea-plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this way, a plant may serve for about l00 years .
The season of tea-picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. In Northern Thailand (ah-hem), they can pick tea leaves everyday. After being picked, the tea leaves will be parched (baked or grilled or dried in the sun), grinded, and put to the desired shape/form.
More:
There are also so-called "tea" drinks, which are not actually made from tea leaves; they are from other kinds of leaves, flowers, or fruits. This kind of tea could be categorised as "herbal tea" such as Chrysanthemum tea, Lychee tea, Mulberry tea, and lots more. My neighbor in the Philippines is selling their Ampalaya tea made of local ampalaya plant. It is said to be good with blood sugar and cholesterol.
When we buy tea, it could come in form of dried leaves in cans (or other tight packages), tea bags, tea packed, or tea powdered. Chinese and Japanese brewed their tea, but to most other tea drinking nations, tea in bags or instant powdered tea are more popular because they are more
convenient to make.
The first tea bag was said to be used by Thomas Sullivan, a New York City tea merchant. It was made of silk. By around 1935 Messrs Joseph Tetley brought it to UK, and now 85% of tea consumed in the UK is done so with tea bags.
In China people drink tea after meal, at their leisure time, and during neighbourhood tea-house chit-chatting. A popular proverb among them says, "Rather go without salt for three days than without tea for a single day." In Japan, it had become a ceremony with certain performances for the host and his/her guests. In Great Britain, the afternoon tea custom was originated by the 7th Duchess of Bedford by early 1800s.
Though American said they originated iced tea, Thais put ice in their tea since it (ice) was brought into the country some 150 years ago. We had then developed different kinds of iced
tea such as iced plain Chinese tea, iced tea-sugar, iced tea-sugar-milk, and iced tea-lemon. Those are common drinks in Thai households, tea houses, coffee shops and restaurants.
Medically, the tea leaf contains a number of chemicals, of which 20-30% is tannic acid, known for its anti-inflammatory and germicidal properties. It also contains an alkaloid (5%, mainly caffeine), a stimulant for the nerve centre and the process of metabolism. Tea with the aromatics in it may help resolve meat and fat and thus promote digestion.
Tea is also rich in various vitamins and, for smokers, it helps to discharge nicotine out of the system. After wining, strong tea may prove to be a sobering pick-me-up.
However, too much tannic acid from tea will irritate the membrane of the stomach and cause indigestion or constipation. Strong tea taken just before bedtime will give rise to occasional insomnia. Constant drinking of over-strong tea may induce heart and blood-pressure disorders in some people, reduce the milk of a breast-feeding mother, and put a brown colour on the teeth of young people. But it is not difficult to ward off these undesirable effects: just don't make your tea too strong.
And don't drink it too hot. Statistics shows higher rates of cancer in esophagus and pharynx area, which have been thought to be results of hot food and drinks eating habits.
Our Information (date/history) is from http://www.tea.co.uk
