What Are The Different Teas From Around the World?
For centuries the major tea producing countries have been in Asia, though Africa and even the U.S., on a small scale now grow the evergreen from which tea leaves come. China, Japan and India have long been known as the source of most tea products, with Taiwan and Ceylon contributing in the last two hundred years.
From China come several of the teas that grace tables around the globe, both green and black.
The green tea of China is grown at high elevations, from 2,500-4,500 feet (762m-1372m) above sea level. Climatic conditions provide for excellent growing conditions, though the labor intensive nature of tea growing makes them difficult to care for there. There are some varieties that are ready for harvesting for only a few weeks out of the year, making them all the more difficult to process.
Dragon Well is a delicious green tea that comes from China. Its flat, shiny leaves that hint of chestnuts have been enjoyed by the Chinese for centuries. Another popular green tea from China is the Jasmine Balls variety. Rolled into a ball by tea workers, the long leaves are prepared by surrounding them with Jasmine flowers.
Keemun tea, which has been consumed in Great Britain for 150 years, also has its origins in China. As a black tea, it’s actually more popular in Europe than its home country.
Most of the green tea shipped around the planet also originates in China, Japan and Taiwan.
Japan’s production is among the highest of any country, thanks to yields of 1,500 pounds per acre of this fine plant. Much of that comes from the Shizuoka region, south of Tokyo. The country consumes 98% of the home grown product, though, so it often seems as if they are one of the minor producers.
One of the most popular green teas in Japan is a variety known as Sencha. Served throughout the country, tea lovers will find it in any restaurant or store. Gyokuro is another very common tea in Japan, one with a caffeine content that is unusually high.
Matcha green tea is a type traditionally reserved for Japanese tea ceremonies, but now finds its way into many everyday circumstances where tea is consumed.
Hojicha, a kind of roasted tea, is also popular in Japan and has the advantage of having very little caffeine. Perfect for those who love tea, but are sensitive to the stimulant.
But by all accounts, India is and remains the world’s most important tea producer. Demand, both internally and throughout the world, is so high that even this giant of tea production can’t satisfy it all.
For the first time in years there are appearing shortages of Indian teas. The supply has become so tight that India now imports tea from Kenya, Indonesia and Vietnam to blend with native grown product. Kenya is among the world’s largest exporters of black tea leaf.
India has dozens of different teas. There is the world-famous Darjeeling, of course. But there is also the Assam black, the Puttabong green and the Iyerpadi Estate black, popular for over a hundred years.
Naturally, there are many others one could mention. Rooibos from South Africa is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Formosa Oolong from Taiwan has been on tables around the world for decades, if not centuries. The delightful teas of Ceylon have had a following for two hundred years.
No tea drinker would want to be restricted to a single country’s output, since - like coffee - there are so many delightful blends from around the world. Internationalism is the hallmark of any tea devoted drinker. Drink up!
The 5 Minute Guide To Tea History
Tea, as a beverage, is older than coffee, older than wine and maybe even older than beer. Some may argue about the latter, since some types of beer may be as old as 10,000 years, while tea has been around for ‘only’ about 5,000. Fair enough, let’s not quibble. Tea is old.
Tea is also enormously popular. That much is obvious at a casual glance. But just how popular is it? Annual production today of tea leaves is in the neighborhood of 2 billion pounds. Yes, billion. Considering it only takes an ounce or so to make a cup, that’s a lot of tea. And that is the annual production. Annual, as in: ‘every year’.
Well, you say, at least tea has less caffeine than coffee. Yes and no. Tea leaves have about 1-3% caffeine by weight, more than twice as much as a similar weight of coffee beans. But, it’s true that a prepared cup of coffee will have about 100mg of caffeine and tea only about 60mg. And, after all, people drink tea and coffee much more often than they eat the leaves or beans.
Beer, wine, coffee and tea all have health benefits some of which are the result of the very same compounds present in the drink. Antioxidants are present in both wine and tea. Caffeine, in moderate amounts, has been shown to have healthy effects.
But, let’s face it. For most people it isn’t history or economics or science or medicine that creates the huge, centuries-old and present-day demand for tea. Tea is simply wonderful to drink.
Whether you want a robust pick me up in the morning, or a relaxing hot cup at night, tea is - dare we say it - perfect. It clears out the cobwebs and at the same time relaxes. Iced or hot, green or black (or Oolong, which is in between), or even red or white (yes, they exist), tea tastes great and makes you feel wonderful.
Throughout history and up to the present day, drinking tea has been both a delightful experience and a social ceremony. Yes, people will certainly sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee or a mug of beer or glass of wine together.
But in very few cultures is there anything like a ‘beer ceremony’. Ok, in a way there are, among college students. But, calling those ‘ceremonies’ is really stretching a point. Anyway, tea ceremonies aren’t exclusive to Japan. In England it’s practically an afternoon requirement. New York has clubs devoted to the fine art of tea.
East and west sometimes agree on very little. But all over the world - China, Turkey, Russia, Australia, the U.S. and the UK, and all the points on the map in between enjoy a cup of tea.
So wherever you are, you can now have a Wu Yi in a Yixing clay pot, or a Rooibos in a Danish glass cup. You can enjoy a lemon grass tisane or even a blueberry vanilla Ceylon. What you can’t do, if you are among the over one billion tea drinkers in the world, is resist a perfectly brewed cup of the world’s finest drink. Tea.
Oh Wonderful Beverage, A Brief History of Tea
Like beer and wine, tea is an ancient beverage. Yet in some countries that are strongly associated with it, such as Great Britain, it was introduced only recently on the historical time scale.
No one knows with certainty who first had the odd idea of taking leaves from the Camilla Sinensis plant and adding them to hot water to make a brew. It may have been an accident at first, with leaves from the bush floating into a heated kettle. But almost certainly, the practice began over 5,000 years ago in China.
However it began, the art spread quickly after the taste and health benefits were discovered by those early pioneers. Eventually, in 800 AD, an ex-monk named Lu Yu wrote the Ch’a Ching, containing all that was then known about the ways of preparing tea. The word spread to Japan by way of Buddhist monks, in particular one named Yeisei, where it quickly became a royal favorite.
The Portuguese and other western seamen later made contact with the Orient. They were introduced to a beverage unlike any other they knew in their native countries. From their travels in the early 17th century, they returned with many treasures, including the precious tea leaves. The importation of this then-expensive novelty rapidly made many of them wealthy.
In the mid-17th century, Britain finally got into the act and began to import tea from China and the East Indies. As is obvious now, it became so popular that afternoon tea is now strongly associated with that country.
With the merger of the John Company and the East India Company, both importers of tea with a near monopoly in the western world, tea spread everywhere. By the end of the 17th century tea imports were 40,000 pounds.
A few years later, though, the novelty had become a commodity. Over 240,000 pounds were imported into England in 1708 and the leaves were being sold in common food shops in Holland and France. Most of Europe doesn’t have the right climate to grow its own tea. The drink that had been imported and made popular by royalty was now consumed by nearly everyone.
At the same time, tea was spreading to other nations around the world. The Russian Tsar Alexis received several chests as a gift in the early 17th century. By the end of it the Russians were engaging in regular trade with China across their common border. The need to travel over a year across thousands of miles kept the price high. But eventually the practice spread throughout society and tea could be found in every samovar.
The United States, as some may remember, had a little ‘ceremony’ called the Boston Tea Party. As an act of protest against the heavy-handed British government, several Americans decided to dump large quantities of the good into the Boston harbor. In reaction, the British government closed the port and troops occupied the city. A revolution began. The results that followed changed the world forever.
Be a part of history and enjoy a fine cup of tea today.