 |
|
|
|
| |
|
| Tea - Camellia Sinensis |
|
 |
What happens to tea after plucking? |
|
The tea bush belongs to the Camellia family, hence its Latin name ‘Camellia Sinensis’ or Chinese shrub. The tea bush is a hardy evergreen and its leaves are shiny and pointed with a wonderfully fragrant aroma. The flowers of the tea bush resemble white buttercups. All tea requires to flourish is acid soil and a warm wet climate with at least fifty inches of rainfall every year.
Tea is grown in around fifty countries worldwide from Russia to Argentina, Brazil to Mozambique. The tea bush thrives in mountainous regions bordering the tropics and can grow at heights of up to 7,000 feet above sea level. Left to grow wild, the tea bush would blossom in to a tree. However on commercial tea gardens the bushes are pruned to waist height for easy plucking. This is still performed by hand and is extremely skilled process as only the bud and top two leaves from every branch are picked. Once the tea is gathered, it is transported to the tea factory where the fresh green shoots are transformed into the black tea that we drink.
- Firstly the tea is withered by spreading the tea leaves out on racks in a very warm room, thus removing much of the natural moisture from the leaves.
- Then the leaves are rolled through machines which crush and tear the tea.
- Next the leaves are fermented. At this stage the green tea turns a rich coppery colour as the oxygen circulates around the crushed leaves. It’s rather like a bitten apple turning brown when left for while.
- Finally the tea is fired in very hot ovens, turning the leaves black, ready to be sorted, graded and packed into wooden chests and shipped all over the world.
- The tea is sorted by machine or by hand for the more fancy teas.
There are two basic categories for grading tea: “leaf” and “broken”. From these two distinct grades, further grades are listed. These can also change from country to country so the list of tea grades is extensive and different for each country; believe it or not, grading tea has nothing to do with quality – grading only gives the buyer an idea of the size and appearance of the leaf.
Basic Leaf Grades
The basic ‘leaf’ tea grades are:
- Orange Pekoe – long, thin leaves
- Pekoe – small leaves producing a stronger liquor
- Souchong – broad leaves producing a less delicate liquor, often smoked
Broken Tea Grades
The basic ‘broken’ tea grades:
- Broken Orange Pekoe – contains some of the golden leaf tips
- Broken Pekoe – small leaves with fine tips produce a strong, bright liquor
- Fannings – smallest broken leaf grade that gives a rich liquor
- Dust – the very finest smallest broken tea, used in tea bags so the liquor can flow more easily through the tea bag. Not the sweepings from the factory floor!
Tippy and Flowery Terms
There are also Tippy and Flowery grades that apply almost exclusively to Darjeelings (Tippy also applies to some Assams).
For example, Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe is an early picked Darjeeling while ‘tippy’ indicates that only the finest tips have been selected. Large leaf teas contain many buds and these are plucked at the beginning of the season. The ‘first flush’ is the first plucking of the year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tea & Coffee Finder
|
If you can't decide what tea or coffee you'd like to buy let our Tea and Coffee finder do the hard work for you.
You can choose by
type, place of origin, by our product range, or a combination of all. Just click on the links below.
|
|
| |
What's in My Basket? 
|
|
Your basket is empty.
|
|
|
|
