Useful Information About Tea

Tea is drunk in more countries than any other beverage. It is one of the most popular drinks today. Little wonder it is known as "the cup that cheers."
The only difference between them is the way they are made. The main types of tea available today are black, white, green, and oolong. China is a major producer of green tea. Other countries that produce tea are Kenya, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

India is one of the leading tea producers offering 720 million kilograms each year. The yearly worldwide production of dried tea leaves is over 2.6 billion kilograms.
Though mechanical pluckers are sometimes used, hand plucking is said to be a better option. Approximately 18 kilograms of tea leaves can be harvested a day to produce about 4.5 kilograms of manufactured tea. or a growth of new shoots with many leaves and a bud, which are picked by hand. Grown on hill slopes on tea estates, its botanical name is "Camellia sinensis." In about four to five years the tea tree produces a ?flush?

The tea tree is an evergreen plant with small, white, sweet-smelling flowers.
Tea is graded according to the size of the leaves, which has nothing to do with the quality of the tea. In order of size, they are orange pekoe, pekoe, and pekoe souchong. The smaller or broken leaves are used in tea bags. Each tea company has tea tasters who select only specific teas.
1773 was the year of the famous Boston Tea Party. By 1657, it was being sold in English coffee houses. In the 1600s, it was imported into Europe from China by the Dutch.

In Japan, tea drinking was elevated to a full-fledged ceremony by 600 A.D. It finds its mention in Chinese around 350 A.D. It was supposed to have been discovered by Emperor Shennong of China in about 2737 B.C. Tea has a colorful history.
Today tea is a popular beverage all over the world. The country importing the most tea is the UK, importing a total of about 180 million kilograms per year. It has been calculated that the British drink 3.2 kilograms of tea per person every year. Australians and New Zealanders are also great tea drinkers and each person would, on an average, be drinking about 1.4 kilograms of tea annually. Special varieties of tea are also gaining ground; the market is expanding and offering a greater choice to the consumer. It really is the cup that warms a lot of hearts all over the globe!
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The Future for Loose Leaf Tea and Tea Rooms

The new American tea culture places high value on stress reduction (perhaps partially attributable to the relaxing properties of L-Theanine—a natural amino compound occurring in tea), product purity and exotic teaware and other brewing accessories (the after-market for tea accoutrements is substantial compared to espresso-based drinks).
Annual retail sales had not reached $1 billion prior to 1990 and tea producers were simply uninspired. Until the boom in Ready To Drink teas (circa 1990-95) made tea drinking simultaneously easy , fashionable with colorful and appealing packaging, and healthy (a no/low calorie, antioxidant-rich alternative to carbonated beverages), tea sales in America were sleepy at best.
Snapple, Arizona Iced Tea and a handful of other specialty Ready To Drink teas catapulted the entire loose leaf tea category into double-digit growth while whetting appetites on Wall Street.
Increasing interest from America's 76 million baby boomers just beginning to embrace tea as a health-promoting product for the entire family is laying a solid base for loose leaf tea.
This exceptionally health-conscious demographic is starting to explore loose leaf tea culture through brewed tea beverages, tea-based skincare products and neighborhood cafés offering exotic teas.
over the next decade will be significant The consumer product dollars available for loose leaf tea purchases within the U.S.
Novel blended flavors and convenient packaging may be securing American consumers attracted to loose leaf tea, but news of the health promoting benefits afforded by regular tea consumption is the number one market driver. This stellar consumer interest in tea is being driven by scientific findings linking tea consumption and improved health and a seemingly endless wave of favorable media coverage.
Researchers have released survey data indicating heavy frequency consumers of herbal and hot teas spend more on healthy and natural products than the general population or coffee drinkers.
This is yet another indication of the emerging demographic pursuing loose leaf tea sales—natural foods retail outlets.
As the demand for loose lea tea grows, customers will also demand pleasant and wholesome surroundings to better enjoy the tea experience. Finally.
The tea room business, as a result, has a very strong growth path and a bright future.
Golden Moon Tea's website is found at Stout is Chairman of the Board of Golden Moon Tea is a supplier of high quality loose leaf tea and high quality tea ware. Jon M.
http://www.Goldenmoontea.com

Tea Varieties

Oxidation is the reaction of the enzymes contained in tea leaves when they are broken, bruised or crushed. In its most basic form, processing is the taking of the raw green leaves and deciding whether or not, and how much oxidation (or fermentation) should take place before drying them out. It is the processing techniques that produce the four simple tea categories are considered the art of tea making.

Shades in flavor derive from the region of cultivation and the method of processing the tea leaves. If you do like tea drinking, but simply never had the opportunity to learn more about it beyond the fact that you enjoy it, you should know that there are thousands of kinds of tea offered on today's market. Tea is made by steeping processed leaves, buds, or twigs of the tea bush in hot water for a few minutes, a great variety of tea tastes, aromas and colors can excite even the more skeptical drinker. Interestingly enough the 3,200,000 tones of tea produced worldwide come from only one plant species, named "camellia sinensis." But how a plant becomes a beverage?

The second most consumed beverage behind water is tea.
The first category is that of black tea. Black tea is nothing more than the leaves of the camellia sinensis after being exposed to 8-24 hours of open air. After the leaves are picked up they are spread out to let the water they contain evaporate. You have probably witnessed it happening to a flower that is left without being watered. The foliage curls up and begins to dry. After this part of the process, the tea leaves are balled into rolls that encourage oxidization. When fully oxidized, the leaves turn into a rich black color. Tea producers then put the tea leaves into the final drying period before sorting and packaging them.
Oolong tea is another tea category and is considered to be the most difficult of the four types of teas to process. The best way to describe oolong tea is that it is somewhere in between green and black tea. This is because the leaves are only partially oxidized during the processing. As with black tea, the leaves are spread out to dry for 8-24 hours, but after that, they are tossed about in a basket in order to create a bruising and partial exposure to the air. The final step involves steaming the leaves, which neutralizes the enzymes in the tea and prevents further oxidization.
Though the tea leaves are sometimes laid out to dry for a few hours, then, in order to neutralize the enzymes and prevent further oxidation, the leaves are rolled up, still quite green in color. The whole process of creating green tea revolves around preventing oxidization from taking place in the leaves. This type of tea is also lower in caffeine and has higher antioxidant properties. Green teas, like white teas, are closer to tasting like fresh leaves of grass that the other two tea categories.
Finally, white tea has recently become a popular item in the west as it is the least processed tea and thus tastes the most like fresh leaves or grass. White tea is made of the little buds of the tea plant. Again like green tea, white tea is steamed or pan fried to prevent any kind of oxidization, and great care is taken to avoid bruising or crushing the tea. The dried buds have a silver-like appearance because the tiny white hairs of new growth are still present.
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