THE TEA PLANT: Camellia Sinensis

The tea plant is a species of tree related to the camelia. Its flowers are yellowy-white and its fruits small and hard-shelled, similar to a hazelnut. The evergreen leaves are leathery, dark and slightly serrated. Given minimum annual temperatures of 18° C, moderate and infrequent frosts, a uniform annual precipitation of 1600 l and a good balance of sunshine, a tea plant can easily grow to become 100 years old. Wild tea plants are indeed reputed to reach an age of up to 1,700 years.

Active ingredients: The cheapest drink in the world after water is also one of the most valuable in terms of its chemical composition: approx. 32 % of its ingredients pass into the infusion.

Tea contains: Caffeine (teine)
Tannins
Amino acids
Proteins
Trace elements and minerals: fluoride, potassium, calcium, manganese
Vitamins: niacin, vitamin B1 and B2

PROCESSING THE TEA LEAVES

It's a long day of picking since it takes a very large amount of fresh leaves to made the pound of tea you buy. Methods vary in harvesting the tea; either it is picked by hand(orthodox)or by a machine. Either way the goal is the same, top 2 leaves and a bud.

There are usually 3-4 pickings per year (first flush, second flush, autumal and monsoon pick). Each picking has it's subtle differences in taste. Tea is a plant which takes on the characteristics or tastes of it's environment, much like wine.

The processing of the leave is what gives us the range of teas we are use to. Black tea is cut and crushed to give it close to 100% oxidization. Oolong tea is oxidized to about 20%. Green & white teas are not oxidized (green tea is steamed). These categories of tea all come from the same plant but are processed differently.

The major blenders like Twining's, Darvilles of Windsor, Ahmad, Jackson's of Picadilly and Taylor's of Harrogate buy their tea at auction. When they recieve there tea shipments from China, India, Tiawan, Sri Lanka, Africa and Indonesia they use their long time recipes to give us the blends we are use to like English Breakfast, Yorkshire Gold, Irish Breakfast...

Some blenders, like Kusmichoff, Wissotzky's, Mariage freres and Betjeman and Barton and many others also add flavoring with essential oils to give us other favorites like Eary Grey and the many fruit flavores on the market today.

There are also many high quality single origin teas (growen at a specific plantation/estate). Most Darjeelings, Assams, Oolongs, Green, White and other teas come from a specific estates for example some Darjeeling may come from the Castleton Estate. These teas are excellent to taste and compare, for example, two or more Darjeelings but from different estates.

HOW TO BREW A FINE CUP OF TEA

BLACK TEA (use 1 tsp.per 8oz.cup)

1. Use water from the cold tap and let it boil.
2. Warm your tea pot up with hot water from your tap while the water is boiling.
3. Empty the water in your tea pot and add a teaspoon of tea per cup.
4. Add the fresh boiling water to the tea pot to let the tea infused with the tea leaves floating directly in the tea pot.
5. If it's a tea with acids like Ceylon or Assam let it infuse for 3-4 minutes.
   If it's a tea with little acids like Chinese or Taiwanese infuse for 4-6 minutes.
6. Stir and your tea is ready.

GREEN & WHITE TEA (use approx.1 tsp.per cup)

1. Use water from the cold tap and let it boil.
2. Let the water cool down to 70-80 degrees C.by letting the water rest for 5 minutes.
3. Pour the water over the tea leaves which must float freely in the pot.
4. Let the tea infuse for 6-7 minutes.

If you have a PDA here is a small tea timing program. Go to http://en.pdassi.com/product.php?pf=palmos&prod_id=3262