Chai - Things About Tea

Tea or cha or chai is an aromatic mild psychoactive beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water/milk over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. Tea is also rarely made from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans primarily due to its caffeine content. Tea Market Size is was 15 billion 2021.

Types of Tea

There are Six main types of tea: black, yellow, green, white, oolong, and pu-erh. After picking, the Fresh Tea leaves soon starts to wilt and enzymatic oxidation process trigger and causes the leaves to turn progressively darker as chlorophyll breaks down and tannins are released unless immediately dried. For black teas, halting by heating is carried out simultaneously with drying. Without proper curing, growth of undesired molds and bacteria may make tea unfit for consumption. The basic types of of tea, and their more common variations, are described and categorised below.

Black Tea: Fully oxidized during manufacture, black tea has dark brown/black leaves. Notable types of Indian black tea include: Darjeeling, Assam, and Nilgiri. Varieties such as Yunnan and Keemun come to us from China. Sri Lanka is also known for excellent black teas.

Green Tea: Unoxidized, green tea maintains the leaves' green color through processing. Brew made from these delicate leaves is often vegetative. Most green teas are produced in China and Japan.

Oolong Tea: Oolong tea is only partially oxidized in the manufacturing process. Because of this, the color, flavor and aroma of oolongs range widely between that of green and black teas. Formosa (Taiwan) is renowned for the quality of its oolongs.

White Tea: After harvesting, white tea is simply withered and dried (similar to an herb). Occasional baking and firing is used for particular styles of white tea.

Yellow Tea: unwilted and unoxidized but allowed to yellow; It is an increasingly rare and expensive variety of tea. The process for making yellow tea is similar to that of green but with an added step of encasing and steaming the tea. This allows the tea to oxidize at a slow rate for a short period before the tea is heated fully to denature the oxidizing enzymes, producing a far more mellow taste than is found in most green teas.

Pu-erh Tea: Post-fermented (Dark), green tea that has been allowed to ferment/compost (called Pu'er if from the Yunnan district of South-Western China or 黑茶 [hēichá] "black tea" in Chinese tea culture). Pu-erh processing is a closely guarded secret. Properly cared for, pu-erh tea is actually alive as enzymes in the tea are allowed to ferment and age, greatly enhancing the tea's flavor over time. Pu-erh is the only "aged" tea, and can be fully-oxidized like black tea or unoxidized like green tea. Qing Cha (sometimes referred to as "raw" or "green" pu-erh) is the oldest and most famous version of pu-erh processing. Shu Cha ("ripe" or "cooked" pu-erh) is an accelerated version of Qing Cha that was developed in 1972 to help meet consumer demand.

Herbal Tea (Tisanes): Tisanes, Herbal Tea, or Herbal Infusions are brews made using botanical ingredients other than Camellia sinensis, such as herbs, fruit, and flowers. Peppermint and chamomile are common examples of herbal teas.

Forms of Tea(Tea Grading)

Once manufactured, tea is graded based on its physical forms, including leaf size and color. Tea grading varies widely from country to country and from one type to another. It is important to know that tea grading does NOT reflect the quality of the brew (with the exception of graded teas from Taiwan). Indian black teas are subject to the most structured and extensive grading system. The basic term used in grading Indian and Ceylon black tea is Orange Pekoe (pronounced PECK-oh), or OP. The word "pekoe" is derived from the Chinese word "bai hao," for white tip, a reference to the white downy hairs found on the bud leaves. The word "orange" has nothing to do with orange flavor or scent, but may be a reference to the Dutch House of Orange, the Dutch royal family in the early days of the European tea trade.

Whole Leaf Grades

OP - Orange Pekoe: The basic term for whole leaf grade tea. OP contains long, pointed leaves that are larger than FOP and have been harvested when the end buds open into leaf. OP usually does not contain tips.

FOP - Flowery Orange Pekoe: FOP tea is made from the end bud and first leaf of each shoot. FOP contains fine, tender young leaves with buds, also referred to as tips.

GFOP - Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: FOP with golden tips.

TGFOP - Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: FOP with a larger proportion of golden tips than GFOP.

FTGFOP - Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: Very high quality FOP.

SFTGFOP - Supreme Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: Very high quality FOP with lots of golden tips. The numeral "1" is often added to the end of the description to indicate a top quality tea.

Broken Leaf Grades

The term Broken Orange Pekoe, or BOP, is used to describe large leaf fragments. The same Whole leaf grading terminology is used to BOP teas. BOP teas retain much of the quality attributed to whole leaf, or OP tea, and are often used to make tea blends.

Fannings

Fannings are leaf fragments smaller than the BOP grade, mostly used in tea bags.

Dust

Dust is generally the remnants of the grading process. It is often used in ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages such as bottled iced tea.

Myths and Facts about Tea

• They all are same. There are several different types including black, oolong, green, and white. They all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, but the difference lies in how the leaves are treated after they are harvested.
• Little caffiene in tea make it mild stimulating psychoactivelly which help keeping alert and productive.
• It takes 2000 tea leaves to make one pound of tea. One pound of tea will make 181 cups of tea. Lipton Black Tea pack its loose leaf tea in half pound boxes, which gives you 90 cups per box
• Some cultures add butter to their tea In the Himalayas, it is not uncommon to add butter to your milk and tea. It is believed that the fat and salt will keep you better hydrated at that altitude.
• Tea is can help you with weight loss Green tea in particular have been associated with boosting your metabolism. They also keep you feeling full throughout the day if you consume two to three cups a day.
• Tea does not dehydrate you inspite of popular belief that tea dehydrates you, It's around as hydrating as water.
• Iced Tea was invented by the British as early as 1904 It is believed that Ice Tea was invented in 1904 by a British tea merchant named Richard Blechynden.
• It absorbs moisture and can therefore be used to store items You can throw a teabag in to a bag of chips to keep it crispy, or with clothes you store to keep them from getting moldy. or why some people put money in tea containers.
• It's trees can grow super giant A tea tree can grow up to 52 feet long, if you don't harvest its leaves. Tea trees that are harvested tend to be shorter and grow only up to your waist height.
• Tea contains Flavonoids which are natural plant compounds that have potential health benefits, and foods like grapes, berries, and broccoli all contain them. Tea is an especially rich source. According to a USDA database, 1 cup of black tea has 170 milligrams of flavonoids, while 1 cup of broccoli has about 3 milligrams.