Though it is impossible to put down all the facts about tea in a small blog post, I have been reading up about tea and here are some of the facts that fascinated me.
There are 6 main categories of tea based on how the tea leaves are processed. White, green, yellow, wulong (oolong), black and Pu er. All these types can be made from the same plant!
Masala Chai is made using loose black tea leaves.
India is the second largest producer of tea in the world! The largest being China! 70% of tea produced in India is consumed by the local Indian market...boy do we love our tea!
Most black tea in India is produced using the CTC method which consists of grinding tea leaves into very small pieces. This method lead to the creation of tea bags. The other method of making black tea is called the orthodox method. More complex than the CTC method, the orthodox method produces the best black teas. In both methods tea leaves are oxidized after they are picked, which gives them their black color. Black tea is called red tea in China since the infusion is usually red in color.
The four biggest tea growing regions in India are Assam, Western Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
To extract the best taste out of your black tea infuse black tea leaves in water, that has been boiled to around 203F (95C) (just below boiling), for around 3 minutes. I actually bought a thermometer to test different temperatures and different infusion times to come up with the best combination that works for our masala chai recipe. What are those you ask? ....shh .....that's a trade secret ;)
Those were some quick facts for this post. Look out for more blog posts on tea culture and history in the days to come.
Read a book called "Tea- history terroirs varieties" written by the folks at The Camellia Sinensis (that is the botanical name for the tea plant by the way :)) tea house, if this blog post perks your interest about tea. A lot of the information in this blog post is from reading that book.
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