Did You Know: About Tea

I'm a tea drinker; an avid tea drinker. I drink it all the time, all the day long ...something my dentist is not so thrilled about. Although I do occasionally enjoy herb infusions, I mainly like black teas.

Did you know: Tea was discovered, as legend has it, in 2737 B.C. by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong, who was a skilled ruler, creative scientist, and patron of the arts. One of his edicts required that all drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution. One summer day while his servants were preparing water for the court to drink, dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and it was infused with a brown liquid. As a scientist, the Emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. And so, tea was created. This myth remains as such, but many believe it relates closely to the actual events.

Did you know: As with coffee, all teas come from the same plant (camellia sinensis), and the different flavor characteristics are determined by the region in which it's grown (i.e. China, India, Sri Lanka, Java, etc.)

Did you know: It's the processing that determines whether a tea is "white", "green", or "black". Just as the flavor of coffee is further influenced by how it's roasted, tea is processed differently to produce different results.

After harvesting, some tea is crushed to expose its enzymes. The leaves are allowed to ferment -- (the enzymes oxidize and turn the tea black). White and green tea leaves are not fermented at all. (Note: white tea differs from green tea in that the leaves are harvested before they open fully, when the buds are still covered by fine white hair.) Oolong tea leaves are crushed only slightly to achieve partial fermentation. Black tea leaves are thoroughly crushed, exposing more enzymes to oxidation for full fermentation.

Did you know: The "orange" in orange pekoe has nothing to do with the color or the flavor. Pekoe is a corruption of Bai Hao, the Chinese words for "white hair", which refers to the fine downy growth on the underside of the leaf. The first teas of this quality brought to Holland were presented to the royal family, the House of Orange, and as a marketing ploy, this type of tea was promoted as Orange Pekoe to suggest royal quality. The name stuck.

Did you know: There are grades (read quality) of teas which are determined by what part of the plant the leaves come from.

1. OP - Orange Pekoe denote a specific leaf -- the third one from the top of the plant. OP leaves are left whole or in large pieces during processing, and generally have a dark, well twisted appearance.
2. FOP - Flowery Orange Pekoe refers to teas produced using the top two leaves of the new growth.
3. GFOP - Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe is the same as FOP, but containing a high proportion of "golden tips", which refer to the unopened bud at the top of the plant.
4. TGFOP - Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe has more of the sweet flavorsome tips than GFOP, and is an extremely high grade.
5. FTGFOP - Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe is generally accepted as the most "tippy" of the leaf grades, and is the most sought after, especially for Darjeeling teas.
6. SFTGFOP - Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe An extremely rare find, this grade supersedes (5). For Assam teas, the leaves contain sweet golden tips in abundance, and are consequently referred to as "GT."

As a child, I only knew Lipton's tea and always used the brand name synonymously for the product ...like Kleenex, Xerox, Jello, and Q-tips.

Then I discovered the different quality teas and, with the exception of a brief foray into the coffee realm (back in the 70s ...before Starbucks), tea became and remains my beverage of choice. In fact I use it as a means of consuming my 64 (plus) ounces of water each day.

I'm always sampling new teas, but my favorites, in order of preference, are: Irish Breakfast (a blend of assam and african black teas.), Earl Grey (a blend of black teas flavored with bergamot.), Prince of Wales (a blend of keemun and oolong teas with a hint of black currant.), Ceylon/Orange Pekoe (a blend of orange pekoe teas from Sri Lanka.), English Breakfast (a blend of assam and ceylon black teas.), and Black Currant (a blend of black teas flavored with the leaves of the black currant.). Funny thing is, I still appreciate Lipton's blend, perhaps because it's so familiar ...but it's really not bad at all. I do, however, avoid mentioning this around tea "snobs". It never fails to raise a few hackles.

For more information on teas, see "TeaMuse Article" and "M&P Teas", two sites from which many of the above facts were culled.

Quote of the Week: "Tea does our fancy aid, repress those vapours which the head invade and keeps that palace of the soul serene."