The Origin of Tea

The story of tea begins in China , According to legend, more than 4000 years ago, Emperor ShenNong, the father of Farming and Chinese Herb Medicine, discovered tea during his study of herbal remedies. It was mentioned in an ancient herbal remedy book - “ShenNong Herb Classics”- that tea rescued ShenNong from herbal poisoning 72 times a day during his herbal medicine trails.

Though it is believed such a legend might carry some truth, there is no archaeology discovery to support. The earliest writing record of tea found so far is a Hang dynasty slave buying contract called “TongYue”, in this 59 BC scroll, buying and preparing tea were listed in the slave's task sheet. It reflects prevailing tea drinking habits in the noble society, and indicates the existence of a tea market in southwest China at the early age.

Evolution of a cuppa

Tea consumption began not in a cup, but was chewed down for its medical effects. Gradually, Chinese learnt to quench their thirsty by drinking it. In early time, fresh or preserved leaves were boiled to make a cuppa. The preserve method was simple, fresh leaves were either sun dried or toasted for a whole years use.

Tea cakes emerged in Wei Dynasty (220-265) to facilitate shipping and storage, fresh leaves were directly compressed into cakes before sun dried or baked. Next revolution was the introduction of steaming to reduce grassy taste of the beverage; fresh leaves were steamed, crushed, molded into tea cakes and dried in this order.

Tea became the whole nation's popular drink in Tang Dynasty (618-906), when the steaming method was matured. It was in Tang Dynasty, a scholar named Lu Yu (783-804) completed the first tea encyclopedia “Cha Jing” (The Tea Classic, around 780 AD); In the book he elaborated various tea facts, such as origin, cultivation, manufacture, preparation, choice of tea ware, etc. The influence of this work crowned Lu Yu as China 's Tea Saint.

Tea cake processing method was further refined in Song Dynasty (960-1279), sophisticated designs were created and embossed on tea cakes; for example, the trendy dragon and phoenix tea cake. Making those intricate designs was time consuming, and could cause the loss of most flavors; some tea lovers thus developed loose teas to replace great appearance for gourmet taste. In this more efficient method, fresh leaves was firstly steamed or fried, then rolled and finally dried, this process retain more original flavors of tea.

Both tea cakes and loose teas developed in harmonious parallel for a long time. The balance was broken by the first Emperor of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In 1391, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated an imperial decree, it abolished the traditional tribute of the dragon and phoenix tea cake; instead ordered loose tea for loyal consumption. Advocated by such a high profile role model, loose tea production and consumption overshadowed tea cakes, and finally squeezed the later out of mainstream market. To stay ahead of the competition, tea manufacturers of the time took great efforts to achieve higher quality and unique characteristics, their works bred the six basic processing methods, which is still used by today's China tea industry to manufacture and classify their numerous outputs.

Classification of China Tea

Chinese traditionally prefer straight teas, which are pure teas made from buds and leaves of Camellia Sinensis. Normally 4 kilograms of fresh leaves (including buds) could produce 1 kilogram tea. Based on the level of fermentation, they named teas in a colorful way:

GREEN - Green Tea is an unfermented tea. It is the most popular tea in China . Freshly plucked leaves (including buds) are quickly heated by either frying or steaming at a temperature over 120 degrees Celsius to deactivate enzymes and prevent fermentation, the heated leaves are cooled down immediately, then sent for rolling, and finally dried. Speedy cooling and drying are critical in the making of green tea. Gunpowder and Dragon Well (LongJing) are two famous China green known to global tea drinkers. Shencha is a steam-heated green tea, and is preferred by Japanese drinkers.

YELLOW - Yellow Tea is a slightly fermented tea. High grown tea bushes in certain areas are ideal for making such a tea. It is not even a familiar name with ordinary Chinese, and is favored by a small fraction of gourmet tea lovers. It follows the same procedure as green tea, except it is not dried immediately after rolling; instead, humid leaves are wrapped and stay for fermentation before finally dried. JunShan* Needle and MengDing* Yellow Buds are two famous ones.

WHITE - White Tea is a lightly fermented tea. It is a speciality tea preferred by a growing number of tea fans. Modern researches on white tea discovered it has great health benefits. The raw materials are tender spring tea buds and leaves of low-chlorophyll species. Fresh leaves (including buds) are spread out for withering under shaded sun, and dried after reaches proper fermentation level. It is the least processed tea. Generally there are three specifications: 1) bud only, 2) a bud and one leaf, and 3) a bud and two leaves. Pekoe Silver Needle and White Peony are two prestigious white. India and Sri Lanka now also make white tea.

INDIGO – Indigo Tea is called Oolong tea by the western world. It is a semi-fermented tea. It gains popularity in China in recent decades thanks to better marketing skills. Oolong processing is in between green and black tea. Fresh leaves are lightly withered, and then lightly/moderately rolled in a horizontally axised cylindrical machine; fermentation takes place during withering and light rolling. When the right level of fermentation is due (some type of Oolong fermented lighter with a more floral flavor, and some heavier with stronger taste), the leaves are heated by frying to distill enzymes and stop further oxidation, rolling and drying are followed afterwards to complete the tea. Famous Oolongs are Iron Goddess and WuYi* Rock Tea.

RED – What Chinese called red is known to the world as black tea. It is a fully fermented tea, a common type of tea in China but not as popular as green. The Chinese developed the orthodox method, and the Western invented the Rotorvance and CTC methods. In the orthodox method, fresh leaves (including buds) are heavily withered before rolling, rolled leaves are then exposed for a full-scale fermentation followed by re-rolling and drying. Both Rotorvane and CTC machines designed to cut, tear and curl withered leaves simultaneously for a quicker and more intensive fermentation. Keemen and Lapsang Souchong are two unique orthodox Chinese Blacks. BP and BOP are CTC black tea.

BLACK – Though this type of tea looks really black, it is not THE black tea known by the world. It is a post-fermented tea, the new dietary star Puer tea is among this category. This type of teas use fully matured tea leaves, some even including stems. Raw materials are heated, rolled and dried as in the making of green tea, except that in the drying stage, it is not thoroughly dried, instead they are accumulated and piled up for post-fermentation to play its trick. During the post-fermentation stage which lasts for weeks/months, water is constantly spread on to keep proper humidity, the heap is periodically ventilated to assure an even oxidation. Tea produced in this method matures with time as does wine. Besides dried in the form of loose tea, they are often compressed into cakes, bricks or other shapes. Tea bricks could endure distance transportation and lengthy storage, and are traditionally favored by ethnic minorities live in West China . Puer is believed have sliming effects by Hongkong drinkers.

All the six teas need to be sorted and graded after respective process. Scented tea, flavored tea and string-crafted tea all use straight tea mentioned above as a base.

Scented teas are made by mixing fresh flower/petals with tea. Similar to the Western pairs wines with foods, the Chinese scent different teas with different flowers. The most famous is jasmine green tea. Freshly budding jasmine flowers are mixed with green tea, after the tea fully absorbed the flavors; it is sieved to separate most flowers out of the tea, and then baked to get rid of excessive moisture. The reason to sieve before drying is to avoid excessive jasmine remnants will result in a dull baked-smell in the final product. For higher quality jasmine tea, a second or third round of scenting may take place. Black tea is often flavored by rose, and Oolong goes well with osmanthus. White tea is rare and delicate to be spoiled with any foreign scent. Yellow tea has a distinctive subtle character that would be wasted if flowers are added. And Puer is an aging tea that could not come to good term with floral freshness.

Flavored teas are teas adding with fruits, seeds, artificial or natural flavors. For example, peach, apple, ginger, clove, lotus seeds, etc. There is a huge range of choice to cater for different tastes.

String-crafted teas are a new version replicating the Song Dynasty's emphasis on esthetic appearance. It strings teas and flowers into beautiful shapes, such as a ball that could open into flower shape when steeped in hot water.

*the three are names of tea producing places in China

Historical record of tea's route to the world

805 AD, a Japanese Zen Buddhism monk brought the first tea seeds back to Japan, this marks the beginning of Japanese tea.

828 AD, a Korea Ambassador took back some tea plants after his trip to China ; tea estates gradually starts in the Korea Peninsula .

Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), Arab merchants exported tea from South China to Arabian and Middle Asia regions. Tea also came to Southeast Asia Countries via sea.

1517, Portugal sailors brought home China tea.

1610, the Dutch sent the first commercial shipment of China tea to Europe , tea was ready to penetrate the continent and the British Isle.

1626, the Dutch shipped China tea to America .

1780, the East India Company started its tea growing project in India .

19th Century, Countries like Sri Lanka , Malaysia , Brazil , and Morocco began to grow tea.

1925, Kenya built up tea gardens and soon became the world's major supplier of black tea.