TEA FACTS: Each country has its own unique take on tea. In Japan, they prefer green tea. China, the country that first cultivated tea and is still one of the biggest producers of tea in the world, prefers oolong tea. The U.S. is the only country in the world that prefers iced tea. About 80% of the tea consumed in the U.S. is iced and the preferred type is black tea.
If someone asked you how many different kinds of tea there are, you might be stumped for a moment while you try to count all the different flavours you’ve seen—English breakfast, Earl Grey, green tea—but it’s something of a trick question. They all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis , an evergreen shrub native to southeast Asia. Most of the differences come from how the plant is processed. The five main types of tea are green, oolong, black, white, and dark. First, the freshly picked leaves are oxidised. Most lower-quality teas do this by shredding the leaves, but producers can also macerate or roll the leaves to produce higher-quality whole-leaf tea. In either case, the goal is to break down the cells of the leaf to allow the enzymes inside to begin oxidising. If you heat the leaves right away to stop the oxidisation process you get either green or white tea, depending on how young (or green) it is when it’s harvested. If you allow it to oxidise fully, you get black tea. Cutting the oxidisation time in half creates oolong. Dark teas are fermented after the manufacturing process. All the varieties of tea you’ve seen and tastes are likely one of these types. Steeped in Mystery: HOW TEA TOOK OVER THE WORLD
The many different names either describe how it was processed or the region where it was grown. Earl Grey, for example, is a black tea with bergamot oil added. Darjeeling is named for the region in India where it is grown.
27 MAY 2017 | MELALEUCA.COM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter