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China, the Homeland of Tea
Of the three major beverages
of the world-- tea, coffee and cocoa-- tea is consumed by the
largest number of people.
China is the homeland of tea.
It is believed that China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six
thousand years ago, and human cultivation of teaplants dates
back two thousand years. Tea from China, along with her silk and
porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand
years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export.
At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with
Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All
tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or
indirectly in China. The word for tea leaves or tea as a drink
in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character
"cha." The Russians call it "cha'i", which
sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as it is pronounced
in northern China, and the English word "tea" sounds
similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen
(Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the
same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight
difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th
century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till
the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in
the world is legion and is still on the increase.
The Categories of Tea
Chinese tea may be classified
into five categories according to the different methods by which
it is processed.
1) Green tea: Green tea is the variety which
keeps the original colour of the tea leaves without fermentation
during processing. This category consists mainly of Longjing tea
of Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui
Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.
2) Black tea: Black tea, known as "red
tea" (hong cha) in China, is the category which is
fermented before baking; it is a later variety developed on the
basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are Qihong
of Anhui, Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of
Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.
3) Wulong tea: This represents a variety half
way between the green and the black teas, being made after
partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on
China's southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.
4) Compressed tea: This is the kind of tea which
is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for
transport and storage and is mainly supplied to the ethnic
minorities living in the border areas of the country. As
compressed tea is black in colour in its commercial form, so it
is also known in China as "black tea". Most of the
compressed tea is in the form of bricks; it is, therefore,
generally called "brick tea", though it is sometimes
also in the form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in
Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
5) Scented tea: This kind of tea is made by
mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of
processing. The flowers commonly used for this purpose are
jasmine and magnolia among others. Jasmine tea is a well-known
favourite with the northerners of China and with a growing
number of foreigners.
Tea Production
A new tea-plant must grow for
five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of
age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old
plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the
roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this
way, a plant may serve for about l00 years.
For the fertilization of tea
gardens, soya-bean cakes or other varieties of organic manure
are generally used, and seldom chemical fertilizers. When pests
are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent
their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.
The season of tea-picking
depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the
shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea
Longjing (Dragon Well) comes from, picking starts from the end
of March and lasts through October, altogether 20-30 times from
the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. With a longer
interval, the quality of the tea will deteriorate.
A skilled woman picker can
only gather 600 grams (a little over a pound) of green tea
leaves in a day. The new leaves must be parched in tea
cauldrons. This work , which used to be done manually, has been
largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon Well tea, however, still
has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half
hour. The tea-cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature
of about 25oC or 74oF. It takes four pounds of fresh leaves to
produce one pound of parched tea.
The best Dragon Well tea is
gathered several days before Qingming (Pure Brightness, 5th
solar term) when new twigs have just begun to grow and carry
"one leaf and a bud." To make one kilogram (2.2 lbs)
of finished tea, 60, 000 tender leaves have to be plucked. In
the old days Dragon Well tea of this grade was meant solely for
the imperial household; it was, therefore, known as
"tribute tea".
For the processes of
grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of
tea various machines have been developed and built, turning out
about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the
workers from much of their drudgery.
China's Tea-Producing Areas
Tea is produced in vast areas
of China from Hainan lsland down in the extreme south to
Shandong Province in the north, from Tibet in the southwest to
Taiwan across the Straits, totalling more than 20 provinces.
These may be divided into four major areas:
1) The Jiangnan area: It lies south of the
middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, and
is the most prolific of China's tea-growing areas. Most of its
output is the green variety; some black tea is also produced.
2) The Jiangbei area: This refers to a large
area north of the same river, where the average temperature is
2-3 Centigrade degrees lower than in the Jiangnan area. Green
tea is the principal variety turned out there, but Shaanxi and
Gansu provinces, which are also parts of this area. produce
compressed tea for supply to the minority areas in the
Northwest.
3) The Southwest area: This embraces Sichuan,
Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet, producing black, green as well as
compressed teas. Pu'er tea of Yunnan Province enjoys a good sale
in China and abroad.
4) The Lingnan area: This area , consisting of
the southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and taiwan,
produces Wulong tea, which is renowned both at home and abroad.
Advantages of Tea-Drinking
Tea has been one of the daily
necessities in China since time immemorial. Countless numbers of
people like to have their aftermeal cup of tea.
In summer or warm climate, tea seems to dispel the heat and
bring on instant cool together with a feeling of relaxation. For
this reason, tea-houses abound in towns and market villages in
South China and provide elderly retirees with the locales to
meet and chat over a cup of tea.
Medically, the tea leaf
contains a number of chemicals, of which 20-30% is tannic acid,
known for its anti-inflammatory and germicidal properties. It
also contains an alkaloid (5%, mainly caffeine), a stimulant for
the nerve centre and the process of metabolism. Tea with the
aromatics in it may help resolve meat and fat and thus promote
digestion. It is, therefore, of special importance to people who
live mainly on meat, like many of the ethnic minorities in
China. A popular proverb among them says, "Rather go
without salt for three days than without tea for a single
day."
Tea is also rich in various
vitamins and, for smokers, it helps to discharge nicotine out of
the system. After wining, strong tea may prove to be a sobering
pick-me-up.
The above, however, does not
go to say that the stronger the tea, the more advantages it will
yield. Too much tannic acid will affect the secretion of the
gastric juice, irritate the membrane of the stomach and cause
indigestion or constipation. Strong tea taken just before
bedtime will give rise to occasional insomnia. Constant drinking
of over-strong tea may induce heart and blood-pressure disorders
in some people, reduce the milk of a breast-feeding mother, and
put a brown colour on the teeth of young people. But it is not
difficult to ward off these undesirable effects: just don't make
your tea too strong.
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