It is astonishing just how much tea is drunk around the world and it is one of the most popular drinks in the world and for thousands of years it has remained so.
Tea is normally purchased already prepared in one of two ways both as a sealed packet containing loose tea leaves and you also have tea bags which contain enough tea for one cup in a perforated bag. To make a drink of tea either the tea bag or loose tea must be dropped into boiling water for however long you require the length of time being the deciding factor for how strong the tea tastes.
There are many different types of tea and each type may be processed differently that enables you to differentiate between the flavors but it will also be affected by which specific type of plant was grown as well as the area it was grown in.
There are several regions of Asia where where tea has been grown for many centuries and many of these areas suit the growth of the tea leaves perfectly due to their warm and rainy summers and being grown at higher altitudes, which suits the growing requirements of the tea plant .
It was the Chinese who first developed tea and they still produce huge quantities but tea is big business and there are a lot of competing countries eager to grow tea plants to provide work and profits for their people who live in regions suitable for cultivation.
The process used to produce tea is what decides on the classification as to the type of tea produced and four distinctive types of true teas are the green, black, white, and oolong
but flavors will vary depending on where in the world the tea was grown and which variety of tea plants was used.
To produce the tea leaves we all know a selection of whole tea leaves from a specific region will be selected
the leaves will then be put through the oxidation processing method and the eventual tea produced will be decided by the amount of oxidization used.
When you look at tea in your local store you will see many varieties on sale though there are really only four types of tea available and for the least amount of oxidation try white tea with green tea coming next on the list.
The last of the four are the oolong tea but if you are looking for the highest levels of oxidization go for the black, which is also known as red, this being the last of our different types of tea and these are blended to produce the branded teas you see on the shelves of stores.