A brief introduction to Tea

Tea culture has been in the making for a couple of millennia, first in East Asia and South East Asia, then throughout the world. It is also a drink made with leaves from the plant species Camellia Sinensis. This species is an evergreen shrub or small tree, with some exemplars growing in the wild that grow considerably in size and are dated around 300 years old or more.

Tea types or kinds.

All different Teas are produced using buds, leaves, and even stems or twigs, mainly from the Varieties Sinensis or Assamica. With an extended use for Cultivars, breed taking advantage of mutations that show desired traits, like frost resistance or a particular fragrance imbued into the leaves.

What differentiates the classes of teas is the post-harvest processing of the leaves. The degree of oxidation is perhaps the most noticeable aspect built into the tea category. Some processes can involve fermentation or roasting as well.

Teas are usually classified into white, green, yellow, blue, red, or black. This, on its own, does not provide enough information but provides a simple way to subdivide teas into more recognisable categories.

Tea and other brews

Although terms like herbal teas and Tisane are widely used, they should not be considered tea. Tea is a beverage made by infusing processed leaves of the Camellia Sinensis species. All other brews that include herbs, fruits, spices, or others are regarded as herbal infusions. Tea scented with fragrances besides its own is regarded as scented tea. There are, of course, products that present scented tea leaves with other herbs or spices, it gets fuzzy.

For simplicity, tea is pure tea leaves from the Camellia Sinensis species. And herbal infusions, infusions, or Tisane for the rest.

The world of loose-leaf tea

Tea production, like many other products, generates several grades of quality. The sorting process is one of the easiest to understand. Observing an unsorted lot of tea, we find mixed in different sizes of particles, leaves, fannings, dust, twigs, etc.

The sorting process takes care to separate those different sizes and removes other debris that might have mixed in. On the one hand, those different products might be later on blended for specific products. On the other hand, we have the higher quality grades, whole leaves and buds, sold under the umbrella term, loose leaves teas.

Usually found in bags or tins, anywhere from vacuum sealed 30g bags to compressed cakes of 357g. Depending on the country of origin, the type of tea and the brew method commonly used. Loose-leaf tea brewing uses a filter, gaiwan, teapot or similar to separate the brew from the leaves. The brewing vessel is a tool to let the leaves unfold as they infuse, loose-leaf tea is often stepped multiple times, depending on the tea itself and brewing style.

The farmers and the environment where the tea was grown are decisive to the final quality of the tea. The post-harvest management and production of the tea is the other key component. If quality is maintained during the entire post-harvest processing, the resulting brew should be an enjoyable tea experience.

Down the rabbit hole

This brief and shallow introduction is a glimpse of a culture with ancient, deep roots. The following posts will describe other sides of the Tea culture, in particular, the Japanese, which will inevitably include others like the ones from China, Korea and Taiwan, along with others.