The Han dynasty work “The Contract for a Youth”, written by Wang Bao in 59 BC, contains the first known reference to boiling tea. Among the tasks listed to be undertaken by the youth, the contract states that “he shall boil tea and fill the utensils” and “he shall buy tea at Wuyang”. The first record of tea cultivation is dated to this period, during which tea was cultivated on Meng Mountain (蒙山) near Chengdu.
Processing and classification
The loose tea is individually measured for use, allowing for flexibility and flavour control at the expense of convenience. Strainers, tea balls, tea presses, filtered teapots, and infusion bags prevent loose leaves from floating in the tea and over-brewing. A traditional method uses a three-piece lidded teacup called a gaiwan, the lid of which is tilted to decant the tea into a different cup for consumption.
Wes Anderson afternoon tea at Design Museum
In 1848, Robert Fortune was sent by the East India Company on a mission to China to bring the tea plant back to Great Britain. The Chinese tea plants he brought back were introduced to the Himalayas, though most did not survive. The British had discovered that a different variety of tea was endemic to Assam and the northeast region of India, which was then hybridized with Chinese small-leaf-type tea. Tea was originally consumed only by Anglo-Indians; however, it became widely popular in India in the 1950s because of a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Board. Many types of Southern Yunnan Assam tea have been hybridized Tea Spins with the closely related species Camellia taliensis. Unlike Southern Yunnan Assam tea, Western Yunnan Assam tea shares many genetic similarities with Indian Assam-type tea (also C. sinensis var. assamica).
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- In Pakistan, both black and green teas are popular and are known locally as sabz chai and kahwah, respectively.
- In the northern Pakistani regions of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan, a salty, buttered Tibetan-style tea is consumed.
- Alternatively, because tea easily retains odours, it can be placed in proximity to an aromatic ingredient to absorb its aroma, as in traditional jasmine tea.
- Chinese from Amoy brought tea cultivation to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) in 1810.
- In 1669 the English East India Company brought China tea from ports in Java to the London market.
- Tightly rolled gunpowder tea leaves keep longer than the more open-leafed Chun Mee tea.
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Bottled and canned tea
Chinese pu-erh is often distributed in the form, as other teas may sometimes be. A tea plant will grow into a tree of up to 16 m (52 ft) if left undisturbed, but cultivated plants are generally pruned to waist height for ease of plucking. The short plants bear more new shoots which provide new and tender leaves and increase the quality of the tea.
London By Lily Vanilli at Four Seasons Tower Bridge
Examples of additions added at the point of consumption include milk, sugar and lemon. In the production of black teas, halting by heating is carried out simultaneously with drying. Without careful moisture and temperature control during manufacture and packaging, growth of undesired molds and bacteria may make tea unfit for consumption. Caffeine makes up about 3% of tea’s dry weight, which translates to between 30 and 90 milligrams per 250-millilitre (8+1⁄2 US fl oz) cup depending on the type, brand, and brewing method. Tea contains small amounts of theobromine and theophylline, which are xanthines and stimulants, similar to caffeine. Its characteristic colour and powerful flavour come from the fermentation or oxidation process by which it’s produced.
- At first they used seeds from China, but later seeds from the Assam plant were used.
- Assam second flush or “tippy” tea is considered superior to first flush, because of the gold tips that appear on the leaves.
- That said, some studies suggest milk makes no difference and that in fact it may instead be the infusion time that holds the key to enjoying these benefits.
- Turkey, with 2.5 kilograms (5 lb 8 oz) of tea consumed per person per year, is the world’s greatest per capita consumer.
- Oolong and pouchong teas are produced mostly in southern China and Taiwan from a special variety of the China plant.
- Tea blending is the combination of different teas together to achieve the final product.
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London’s best afternoon teas
Polyphenols found in tea may work with other factors to slow the development of certain types of cancer. The origin of the tea, picking season, and the processing techniques may be intentionally misidentified. Iranians have one of the highest per capita rates of tea consumption in the world. In many cultures, tea is consumed at elevated social events, such as the tea party. One form of Chinese tea ceremony is the Gongfu tea ceremony, which typically uses small Yixing clay teapots and oolong tea. Sinar Sosro in 1969 with the brand name Teh Botol Sosro (or Sosro bottled tea).
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- English drinkers preferred to add sugar and milk to black tea, and black tea overtook green tea in popularity in the 1720s.
- Registered nutritionist Kerry Torrens showcases the many health benefits of this popular drink.
- Tea became a fashionable drink in The Hague in the Netherlands, and the Dutch introduced the drink to Germany, France, and across the Atlantic to New Amsterdam (New York).
- Unlike Southern Yunnan Assam tea, Western Yunnan Assam tea shares many genetic similarities with Indian Assam-type tea (also C. sinensis var. assamica).
- What sets the different types of tea apart is the degree of fermentation they undergo – white tea receives the least, then green, oolong and, finally, black tea.
- Ireland, as of 2016, was the second-biggest per capita consumer of tea in the world, after Turkey.
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Chai muffins
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The majority of black tea goes into blends such as English breakfast tea; commercial blends can contain up to 30 different teas. All tea is made from the processed leaves and buds of the evergreen ‘Camellia sinensis’ bush. There are a huge variety of teas, however, generally classified by the size of the leaves and the way in which they’re treated. Tea, beverage produced by steeping in freshly boiled water the young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. That said, some studies suggest milk makes no difference and that in fact it may instead be the infusion time that holds the key to enjoying these benefits.
Tea blending is the combination of different teas together to achieve the final product. Such teas may combine others from the same cultivation area or several different ones. In 1567, Russian people came in contact with tea when the Cossack Atamans Petrov and Yalyshev visited China. The Mongolian Khan donated to Tsar Michael I four poods (65–70 kg) of tea in 1638. Starkov at first refused, seeing no use for a load of dead leaves, but the Khan insisted.
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Health effects
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More often than not, it is drunk in “doses” of small cups (referred to as “cutting” chai if sold at street tea vendors) rather than one large cup. Tea bricks or compressed tea are produced for convenience in transport, storage, and ageing. Compressed tea is prepared by loosening leaves from the cake using a small knife, and steeping the extracted pieces in water. During the Tang dynasty, as described by Lu Yu, compressed tea was ground into a powder, combined with hot water, and ladled into bowls, resulting in a “frothy” mixture. In the Song dynasty, the tea powder would instead be whisked with hot water in the bowl.