Chinese Black Tea

Black tea, known in China as red tea, is the most common product produced by our favorite Camellia sinensis plant.   It’s the most consume type of tea in the world; however, it is the least popular style in China.  The quality range is also greater than any other tea grown.  It is the Chinese black tea that is known for its highest quality compared to the other mechanically harvested and grown in places like India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

There is a lot of debate among tea scholars as to when black tea was actually invented.  But everyone definitely agrees that tea appeared in the Chinese market by the 16^th century.  Obviously for that to happen, the origin of tea production had to have gone back farther.

There are those who argue that black tea was created during the beginning of the Ming Dynasty around 1391.    Tea drinking in general had become accepted in Chinese society but was traded in the form of tightly compressed tea cakes.  These teas were considered worth their weight in gold.  At its peak, the tea trade was very well known for its wealth and corruption.

At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, under the rule of Ming Hong Wu Lian decided to put a halt to the corruption by ordering the end of the production of the tea cakes.  With the production halted, the monasteries that produced tea were stuck with tea and nothing to do with it.   The Wu Yi Shan’s monasteries began attempting to try pan-friend loose leaf green tea.   They were never successful because they could not get the teas to stop oxidizing.  This is typical of black tea.   Thus green tea was created by the time the 16^th century rolled around.

Fun history, no?  Are you a fan of black tea, dear readers?

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Japanese Matcha

Japanese Tea.  Usually this means green tea of some kind but why is it so special?  Honestly, it is because the Japanese have come up with several different ways to process their little Camellia sinensis plant.

Like typical green tea, it is the least oxidized of all of the teas.  Japanese green teas are also steamed so that they can maintain their bright green color.  Then they’re prepared several different ways.

Sencha is the most popular green tea in Japan.  It is harvested in the early season.  It is created by grinding the tea leaves.  It represents about 80 percent of the tea produced in Japan.

Gyokuro is a high grade of green tea that is grown in the shade.  In fact, it is actually grown in the shade for at least twenty days.  There is actually a different type of green tea that is grown in the shade known as kabusecha.  This type of tea differs from Gyokuro only because it is shaded for approximately a week.

Matcha is the well known green tea powder.  The leaves are steamed, dried and then ground into powder.  This is the tea that mostly used in traditional Japanese Tea ceremonies.  Today matcha is also used to flavor and dye foods like mocha, soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of Wagashi (Japanese confectionery).

Hojicha is made by roasting the green tea leaves unlike most Japanese green teas that are steamed.  The tea leaves are fired at a high temperature which alters the leaf color from green to reddish brown.

Genmaicha is a blend of green tea leaves and popped rice.  It is also known as popcorn tea because a few grains of the rice pop during the roasting process.  This type of tea was normally drunk by poor Japanese farmers because the rice acted as a filler for and reduced the price of the tea.

Bancha is a tea made from the leaves picked in the late summer.  That’s about all the difference between Bancha and Sencha.

What about you, dear readers? Have you tried the different Japanese green teas?  If so, what do you think? Which ones are your favorites?

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A good illustration of FTGFOP

FTGFOP. Phew what a mouthful!  It feels like a code of some kind.  In a way it is.  It is actually an acronym for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe.  It is considered the highest grade of Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka.  The acronym states exactly what this type of classification: it’s the finest, with lots of tips, flowery…oh and it’s orange pekoe.

I will digress briefly because I would like to explain what orange pekoe is.  I’m sure you have seen it around in the grocery store.  When I first saw it, I assumed that it was black tea with some orange for flavoring.  Actually, this tea has nothing to do with orange; it’s a misnomer.  It is actually a typical black tea of medium size leaf.

The word pekoe apparently comes from a mispronounced transliteration of a word for Chinese tea known as white down/hair (白毫;Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pe̍h-ho). This refers to the white hairs on the leaf.

The origin of the word ‘orange’ is a little tricky.  It’s not related to an orange flavor.  One possible origin is that the Dutch East India Company marketed the tea as orange in reference to the Dutch royal House of Orange-Nassau.

Another possible origin is that the name refers to the leaves copper color of high quality oxidization before drying.  Or it could refer to the bright orange color of the dried pekoes in the finished tea.

There are actually more acronyms out there.  In fact, there is a whole list of grades for orthodox black tea.  There are lists for whole leaves, for whole broken leaves as well as fanning grades.

Oh! I almost forgot, among some tea aficionados, there is a another meaning for the acronym FTGFOP: Far Too Good for Ordinary People. Ha! What do you think?

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Tea

While tea has been around for centuries, it wasn’t until recently in the 20^th century that the popularity of tea really began to rise.

This was the century that the all too familiar tea bag came into existence thanks for the creative mind of Thomas Sullivan.  He was a tea merchant from New York who used to send tea samples in silk bags to his customers.  Because of this intriguing invention, the cost of tea lowered in price.  This also allowed for the masses to be able to drink tea without the need of extra and complicated utensils.

It was also during this century that the tea crop itself began to expand in its source.  Where it was once strictly in Asia, our familiar Camellia sinensis started to find its new home in Africa as well as South America.

But that’s not all.

There are three other major reasons as to why tea consumption in the west grew in popularity:

One was the ever rising trend in the whole “let’s get back to nature” trend as well as the aspiration of leading a simple and healthy lifestyle.  Tea, being a natural beverage with many obvious health benefits was easily adapted into this trend.

Another was the massive immigration of Asians to the west.  In doing so, the immigrants also brought their love of tea with them to the western countries.

Another is the increase of western travelers journeying to the east.  In their return, they would also bring tea with them.

The result is that tea activity has grown to a whopping three billion dollar a year industry producing more than 2.5 million tons of product yearly in more than 20 countries!  Phew what an industry!

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