Learn More About Tea
Welcome to the world of tea. Firstly, let us proudly declare that, "this is not your father's tea".
Here in the US, people are discovering the cornucopia of flavors, nourishment, and healthy properties of high-quality loose leaf tea. While loose leaf tea has been available in co-ops and health food stores around the nation for about the last 20 years, it is only now leaving the underground and slowly hitting the mainstream. Thank goodness.
Join us as we outline the basics of tea; types, grades, regions, steeping methods, blends, and an overview of the history of tea from its origins as a health beverage over 4000 years ago.
Perhaps you have some basic questions, like:
What exactly IS tea? Where does it come from and how is it produced?
How is it good for your health?
What is the difference between white, green, oolong, and black tea?
Why is loose-leaf supposedly better than tea bags?
What makes a good herbal tea?
Great questions. Let's see if we can answer them in the course of this outline.
Let's get started:
All real tea comes from the same plant, the evergreen Camellia sinensis. While there are several thousand varieties, and uncountable production methods, all real tea comes from the same plant! Much like fine wine, differences in soil, elevation, climate, (and climate change!) all affect the overall character of the tea leaves.
Camellia sinensis grows in Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and is also cultivated in smaller amounts in several other countries. There is still one tea garden in the US, in South Carolina.
Tea leaves are plucked by hand or machine (virtually all Zhi Tea is hand plucked and hand processed). High-quality loose-leaf teas are made from the top-most shoots.
Now that we understand that, let's look at the four basic categories of tea. We will proceed from the most common in the US to the more rare types.
Let's now go to Black Tea
I want to go straight to Oolong Tea!
I want to go straight to Green Tea!
I want to go straight to White Tea!
I want to go straight to Herbal Tisanes!
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