History of Tea

Health benefits of Tea

As you would expect with a mythical product, there are several interesting legends about the invention of tea. Tea is first mentioned in a Chinese story from 2700 BC, the time of Emperor Shen Nung. He is said to have invented tea during one of his travels around the Chinese Empire. While taking a short rest, a few leaves fell off a shrub, straight into his cup of boiling drinking water. A lovely scent came up from the cup, and the curious emperor tasted the drink made by chance. The beverage did not only have a wonderful taste, but a refreshing, energizing effect as well. The emperor became so impressed by the new invention that he began to propagate the magic shrub. The first Chinese name of tea was ’te’ which later became ‘chia’.

Europe was introduced to tea in 1610, when the first tea freight arrived on a Dutch sailing ship. Tea import was limited for quite a while because journeys lasted very long. Sometimes the ships were on the way for nearly a year. As a result tea became a rather expensive product. During the 18th century tea become cheaper and therefore more popular.

Great Britain was the last of the three great sea-faring nations to break into the Chinese and East Indian trade routes. This was due in part to the unsteady ascension to the throne of the Stuarts and the Cromwellian Civil War. The first samples of tea reached England between 1652 and 1654. Tea quickly proved popular enough to replace ale as the national drink of England.

As in Holland, it was the nobility that provided the necessary stamp of approval and so insured its acceptance. King Charles II had married, while in exile, the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza (1662). Charles himself had grown up in the Dutch capital. As a result, both he and his Portuguese bride were confirmed tea drinkers. When the monarchy was re-established, the two rulers brought this foreign tea tradition to England with them. As early as 1600 Elizabeth I had founded the John company for the purpose of promoting Asian trade. When Catherine de Braganza married Charles she brought as part of her dowry the territories of Tangier and Bombay. Suddenly, the John Company had a base of operations.

Tea mania swept across England as it had earlier spread throughout France and Holland. Tea importation rose from 40,000 pounds in 1699 to an annual average of 240,000 pounds by 1708. Tea was drunk by all levels of society.

The biggest tea consumers of the world today are the Irish, followed by the British on the second place only. But large quantities are drunk also in Japan and other Asian countries, such as Turkey, Syria and Iran. In Holland they drink a larger amount than, for instance, in India, the United States or Germany.

Cultivation & harvest
A tropical or subtropical climate and fertile soil are needed to grow tea successfully. The crop is normally cultivated in hillside plantations, with the altitude having a considerable bearing on quality.



Cultivation
The higher tea is grown, the better the quality. China and India are the world’s main tea-growing countries, together accounting for about half of global production.
Harvesting can begin once the tea plant is about four years old. The leaves are normally picked by hand, making the harvest an extremely labour-intensive process. Tea can be harvested at any time of year, but leaves are at their best in the dry monsoon season.



The harvest
Tea shrubs can first be harvested when they are four years old. The manual harvest of the leaves requires intensive work. In some regions where labour force is deficient the traditional manual work is replaced by machines, but the quality of the tea harvested in this way can decrease essentially.
Tea harvesting has three techniques: the standard harvest, when two leaves and one bud are picked, the medium harvest (three leaves and a bud) and the raw harvest (four leaves and one bud on a stem). The finer the harvest is, the better the tea will be. On the higher located plantations, otherwise with better conditions for cultivating quality tea, fine harvest is exclusive.
Tea shrubs live long. Assamica reaches 40 years on average, while Sinensis can crop for as long as 100 years.

Production process
After picking, the leaves are processed. The black tea production process differs from region to region, but there are always four basic stages: withering, rolling, fermentation and drying. During the fermentation process the leaf juice is exposed to oxygen, which transforms the colour from green to black. 250 grams of fresh tea leaves become100 milligram of fresh tea. Green tea production does not involve a fermentation stage; after withering, the leaves are steamed.

1. The shrivelling
Shrivelling is the first stage of tea processing. The leaves are spread and left to shrivel at 25-30°C. The water amount of 75-80% typical of fresh leaves is thus reduced to 60-70%.



2. The rolling
The leaves shrivelled are then submitted to rolling for half an hour. While they are smashed, they gradually obtain their specific taste and fragrance.

3. The fermentation
In the course of fermentation the broken leaves are carried into special rooms, in which they blow air of 25° C and a humidity of 95%. It is in this stage that the colour of the leaves changes from bright green to brown and the specific aroma appears. The length of fermentation (about four hours) is essential for the final character of the product.

4. The drying
The process of fermentation ends in the drying of the leaves. This is done at a temperature of 95° C, which reduces the moistness of the tea leaves to 4-6%. In about half an hour the tea gains its black colour. About 20 kg black tea can be obtained from 100 kg fresh leaves.
After the tea gets out of the dryer, it is time for selection. This is usually done according to the size, by sieving. Different size bits are used for thready than for filter teas.

5. Storage and transport
The tea is now ready to be stored and transported. It is packaged carefully to avoid external influences occurring during transportation. They use safe wooden boxes lined with aluminium foil. However in the tea producing countries poor in timber they sometimes transport tea in paper sacks.

Origin countries

The main tea producing countries or regions of the world are:

Assam
Assam of North-India with its 2,000 tea shrubs is one of the finest tea cultivating areas in the world. The tea coming from this region is a strong, corpulent drink with a specific character and a dark colour.

Darjeeling
The mountainous region of Darjeeling lies at the foot of the snowy Himalayas, at an altitude of 2,000 m. The excellent Darjeeling teas are the common result of the cool, moist climate and the high location, as well as the outstanding quality of the air and the soil. This tea is often called the king of teas. However, due to the mountainous location of the plantations, the harvesting period is short; it only lasts from April to October. The Darjeeling tea is less strong than the Assam.

Nilgiri
The Nilgiri Mountains in the most southern region of India are an ideal tea-producing region. The harvest here is undisturbed throughout the year. The teas coming from the Nilgiri Mountains are delicious and fresh, with a soft flavour.

China
A large variety of teas is harvested from the eighteen tea cultivating regions. The range of the Chinese teas includes green tea, half-fermented tea (the so-called ’pure’ tea or oolong), and, of course, the traditional black tea. These have different characters, ranging from the flower-scented teas (like jasmine) to herb teas and the strong, corpulent drinks.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
In this country lying on a completely flat land, the best tea types are harvested in the eastern region from late June to early September, and in the west of the island from early February to mid March. In the Eastern part of the country is situated Uva. The dry wind blowing here from June to September gives a particularly pleasant taste and flavour to Uva’s tea. Dimbula of the western region has to face the monsoon in August and September. The best teas here are obtained in the dry months, January and February. In this area, they switched over from coffee to tea production in 1870. Ceylon teas have a particularly nice colour, and a wonderful scent and flavour.

Indonesia
The two main tea-producing islands are Java and Sumatra. Java produces colourful, scented, delicious teas. The teas from Sumatra often have a metallic taste and a poorer quality.

Japan
In Japan, they produce non-fermented green tea as well as black tea. Japanese tea crops are almost exclusively consumed within the country, since Japan has preserved its tea drinking traditions to the present.

Africa
Tea growing in Africa dates back only to the early 20th century. The main producers are Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. In Kenya, they grow teas with strong colour and taste, which are similar to Assam teas. The tea production of the other two countries is less characteristic and poorer in quality.

South America
The two most important tea-cultivating countries are Brazil and Argentina. Most South-American teas have a neutral character and a specifically light colour.


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