The name of Chinese tea Thea sinensis was fixed with the light hand of the Swedish scientist Karl Linnaeus, and thanks to it, Europeans still call this amazing drink that way. In 1758, he was given such a name to a plant in honor of the Greek goddess of wisdom. And today, a drink made from leaves collected from a tea bush is popular. People drink it with great pleasure, gaining vigor, freshness of mind and clarity of mind.
Chinese tea: description, properties
Chinese tea bush is an evergreen shrub from the tea family (from Asia). Its leaves are used in the preparation of a tonic drink, which has long been the most common in the world.
Tea bush leaves contain up to those percent of caffeine, which is about twice as much as coffee beans. In addition to leaf (long leaf) tea, instant and pressed tea is produced. Its leading manufacturers are India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and China.
A wild-growing tea bush reaches a height of up to 9 meters, but it is cultivated in the form of bushes growing no higher than 1.5 m, abundantly branching and bearing numerous elliptical or lanceolate fine-toothed leaves. They have a length from 5 to 13 cm. The white flowers of the shrub emit a gentle pleasant smell. The leaves contain many vitamins (4 times more than in lemon), caffeine, tannin.
Legends and historical facts
According to one legend, the first ruler to drink tea was the first Chinese ruler, who appreciated the unique fragrant smell of tea bush leaves, which accidentally showered in his pot of boiling water on a fire. After that, an incredibly wonderful aroma began to spread around. Tea bush and was the owner of these leaves.
In an old Japanese tale, it is claimed that fallen eyelids, which were owned by man, turned into tea leaves. He could not sleep at all, and therefore constantly kept his eyes open.
The Dutch first brought tea to Europe in 1610, and tea came to England in 1664. London has since been considered the world's tea capital. The average Briton drinks about 5 cups of this tonic drink per day. He first appeared in America in Boston in 1714.
Tea began to grow in China in ancient times. Japan did this in the Middle Ages, and then it was cultivated in Ceylon and in India (1870). Since the 1880s, tea has been successfully grown in America (North Carolina and Texas), but due to the high cost of labor, this culture could not take root there. The tea bush was widely cultivated before World War II in vast areas of China, Japan, India, Taiwan, Ceylon and Sumatra. Then tea plantations began to appear in other countries of the world.
Growing conditions
Tea is grown in the fields and on the terraced hilly slopes. Plants usually form, cutting, do not touch only seed specimens. In the East, the tea bush develops well with annual rainfall rates of approximately 2500 to 5100 mm. This plant likes a warm climate with an air temperature of 10–32 ° Celsius and moderate heights above sea level. Sour soils are especially good for him.
In addition to a slight annual pruning in the spring, the third year is usually light heavy, and the tenth - heavy (almost to ground level). The remaining part of the bush gives shoots that form a denser plant with several main stems. As a result, every 40 days a good crop is removed from it. A tea bush has been living for 25–50 years.
There are several types of tea. In nature, it can be a short tree. Some tea bushes can live up to 100 years. In the middle of summer (July), buds appear at the tea bush, and flowers bloom in September. Flowering continues for a rather long time, almost throughout the fall, after which bolls are formed, inside which seeds have a brownish color.
From the bush, the youngest and most succulent leaves are collected for making tea. These are the first three leaves and the upper kidney, called flash. The latter are processed, after which different varieties of tea are obtained, depending on the method of processing.
Tea bush at home
At home, this plant is rarely grown, although it has many advantages: prolonged flowering with snow-white fragrant flowers (several months), unpretentiousness, long life.
The most important thing is that the tea bush is not only beautiful and original, it also brings benefits with its leaves. Brewed tonic drink raises the mood and gives strength and energy. Tea bush is easy to grow at home. Just take into account the conditions for its growth in nature and adhere to them.
Special ways to consume tea
Initially, the tea leaf was used as a vegetable seasoning, and in Burma it is still pickled. Pressed tea in the form of a brick or tile in Mongolia, after steaming in water, is eaten with butter or with toasted barley and wheat groats (“tsamba”).
Some people drink tea with salt. There are tea religious ceremonies in Japan and China: Taoists use it as an elixir of immortality, and Buddhists drink it in meditation. The Japanese also add white jasmine flowers when brewing tea, the Thais chew the leaf, and in Arab countries they drink tea brewed with mint.
Tea production waste also does not disappear, caffeine is extracted from them, which is used in medicine as a stimulant and added to soft drinks. One of the most popular drinks is iced tea. Such a soft drink is often drunk in the USA.
Tea bush varieties: dependence on harvesting and processing
The very first commercial products (“flushes”) are going for the fifth year. Sometimes the 3rd and 4th leaves are collected from above, if they are succulent and soft enough.
To produce a black (well-fermented) product, first the leaves of the tea bush on the shelves are wilted, thus ensuring their weak oxidation, after which they are twisted, destroying the cell walls (oxidation continues). Subsequently, the leaves are fired in special baskets over burning charcoals or in specially equipped machines. If the fermentation is not brought to the end, then, depending on its depth, yellow or red tea is first obtained. By pre-steaming the leaves to prevent fermentation, green tea is subsequently obtained.
The highest grade of black tea is called pekoe, which translates from Chinese as “white hair”. Thus designated the most tender young (covered with fluff) leaves of the tea bush.
