Tea Series, Part One
Tea is made from the Camellia Sinensis, period. If you like mint/chamomile/strawberry infusions, that's dandy, but it ain't tea, it's an herbal infusion or tisane. Tea, all of it; green, pouchong, oolong, and black all come from (essentially) the same plant. Darjeeling, Ceylon, Assam, what have ya, the same plant. There are some tiny differences in the botany of tea plants in Darjeeling and say... Yunnan, but so slight that they do not attempt a reclassification. The Camellia Sinensis is a fairly long lived plant, but its peak years of production (quality wise) are between 30 and 50 years of age.
The chain of events that lead to producing the marvelous leaf begins with the plucking. In some areas, this process is mechanical, but in the cases of most high grade tea, the terrain is all but impossible for a machine to operate. Connoisseurs demand a well manicured leaf, so it is done as it has been since before recorded history... by hand. Workers, usually women, get up before dawn and begin the laborious process of plucking. Using only well manicured nails, they carefully remove two of the newest leaves and a bud, or for a coarser tea, any shoots that might appear. The amount of tea that a worker can pluck ranges from 8 to 25 kilos per day, depending upon leaf size, and difficulty of terrain (Darjeeling = 8, Assam = 25). As an aside, some Darjeeling Estates, such as Arya, are so quality-conscious that they will pay the best workers a whole days wages to only pick in the early morning, when the leaf is at its best. Once the day's tea is in bag, it is rushed to giant screens where the leaf is allowed to wither, to make it more pliable.
If green tea is being made, after withering, it is thrown into a big gas-fired wok-like contraption and heated to kill enzymes, packaged, and on its way. What about Pouchong, Oolong, and Black? These are "fermented" teas or, more properly "oxidized". The best way I can describe oxidation? Cut an apple, and what happens? At first nothing, and then after its juices are exposed to the air it starts to darken. Same thing with tea. The leaf is rolled and bruised, causing the juice to come out and the whole thing becomes a sticky mess. The mass of leaf starts to darken. If you want a Pouchong, just let it darken a little. Oolong? Let it darken some more... well, you get the idea. After the tea hits the shade that the master wants, it is fired in a similar manner as the Green, shaped, and shipped.
So, what's in it for you?
1. It's cheap. Even when you are exploring $20 per pound tea, you are drinking the finest stuff in the world. A $20 per pound tea represents the top 1/2 of 1% of tea produced. At 200+ cups per pound, that breaks down to about a dime a cup. How many other top tier products can you indulge in that runs 10 measly cents per serving? Now say that you are fond of an insanely expensive Gyokuro that runs $300 per pound (?!), that still breaks down to a buck and a half a serving, roughly half the cost of a bad house wine purchased during happy hour.
2. Variety. Even employing only three different methods of enjoying tea (say.. English, Gaiwan, and Gung Fu) on each of the world's great teas, you could have three different cups of tea per day, for the rest of your life, and never repeat. Try *that* with a Cognac (and, Lord knows, I've tried)!
3. Collecting. Not tea (for it is too perishable, Pu-Erh aside), but in tea ware. Samovars, Gaiwans, Tetsubins and Yixing pots, tea cups, tea pots. Lomonsov alone could be a lifetime pursuit. If you follow this approach, just chuck reason #1 right out of the window.
4. Health. This delicious stuff is actually great for ya. The antioxidant effect of tea is legendary. The Japanese smoke like chimneys, and yet have some of the longest life expectancy in the world. Georgians (Russia)? Same thing. The caffeine content is fairly benign, when compared to coffee, and yet it has similar revitalizing qualities. One only has to have one night "drunk" with chatty friends on many cups of tea from a Samovar to know how much fun this stuff can be. Many vitamins are found in tea, and studies have shown that large tea consumption retards tooth decay (so what happened with the Brits?)
Yours, in "Tea Life, Tea Mind"
R. "Bear" Graves, International Tea Master Association
