Tea – Fantastic Drink
Tea is the agricultural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. “Tea” also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the common name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself.
After water, tea is the most widely-consumed beverage in the world. It has a cooling, slightly bitter, astringent flavour which many enjoy.
The four types of tea most commonly found on the market are black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea, all of which can be made from the same bushes, processed differently, and, in the case of fine white tea, grown differently. Pu-erh tea, a post-fermented tea, is also often classified as amongst the most popular types of tea.
The term “herbal tea” usually refers to an infusion or tisane of leaves, flowers, fruit, herbs or other plant material that contains no Camellia sinensis.The term “red tea” either refers to an infusion made from the South African rooibos plant, also containing no Camellia sinensis, or, in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other East Asian languages, refers to black tea.
What is Tea?
Tea is basically the dried and processed leaves of only one species of plant called camellia sinensis. Interestingly enough, herbal teas or herbal infusions are not really teas, but simply dried leaves and/or flowers from various other plants and herbs.
Even though all teas come from only one species, there are three major varietals:
The China – Small leaves and generally thrives at higher altitudes.
The India (or Assam) – Larger leaves and generally thrives at lower altitudes.
The Hybrid – Kind of in-between the Chinese and Indian.
Earlier, I talked about the processing of the camellia’s leaves. There are four main methods of processing and each produces a different type of tea. These four main types are:
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