.: Chinese Tea Types And Its Production Since The Early Years

By:Sarah Williams

Category:Home / Food and Drink

Chinese has been drinking tea for approximately 4,000 years. Along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, the Chinese considered tea as one of the seven necessities to begin a day.



Types of Tea



The Chinese tea may be classified into five types according to the different methods by which it is processed. Here are the classifications:



• Green Tea – is the variety which keeps the original color of the tea leaves without fermentation during processing.



• Black Tea – This is known as “red Chinese tea”, the type which is fermented before baking. Note also that black tea is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea.



• Wulong Tea – Also known as Oolong Chinese tea, this category represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas. This is being made after partial fermentation.



• Compressed Tea – is the kind of Chinese tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. Many people considered this as good for transport and storage and are mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the border areas of the country.



• Scented Tea – This kind of Chinese tea is known as “scented” because it is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of processing. The flowers that are commonly used for this purpose include the jasmine and magnolia, among others.



The Tea Production



Chinese has maintained that a new tea plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the following year. This sort of rehabilitation must be repeated as this allows the tea plant to serve for about a hundred years.



The season of tea picking generally depends on the local climate and it varies from area to area. As you all know, China is the homeland of tea. It has tea shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of these plants dates back two thousand years. Today, it was reported that tea is produced in vast areas of China from Hainan Island down in the extreme south to Shandong Province in the north, from Tibet in the southwest to Taiwan across the Straits. To sum up, the Chinese tea grows at more than 20 provinces.



On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Longjing comes from, it was reported that the picking starts from the end of March and lasts through October. A skilled woman picker can only gather 600 grams of these green tea leaves in a day.



After the harvest, the new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. Accordingly, this work has now been largely mechanized, although the top grade Longjing tea still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour. Then, the tea cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature of about 25 degree centigrade or 74 degree Fahrenheit. It then takes four pounds of fresh Chinese tea leaves to produce one pound of parched Chinese tea.



For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying, different kinds of machines have been developed and built. This work turned out about 100 kilograms of finished Chinese tea an hour, relieving the workers from much of their drudgery.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article Source: http://www.articles32.com

Need to flush your system fast? Quick Detox can rid your body of all traces of toxins in as little as two hours! Active hyperlink must remain with this article.





.: New Food and Drink Articles

1). Why is Goji Berry So Beneficial?
Goji berries are perhaps one of the richest sources of vitamins and other nutrients. It has been clinically proven that Goji berries contain over 18 different amino acids and vitamins like B1, B2, B6, C and E.

2). What Is Importance Of Digestion Hygience
With the stomach and other digestive organs in a state of perfect health, one is entirely unconscious of their existence, save when of feeling of hunger calls attention to the fact that food is required, or satiety warns us that a sufficient amount or too much has been eaten.

3). Goji Berries - A Quick Insight
Anyone who has ever visited Tibet or Mongolia might have heard of Goji berries which are undoubtedly one of the most precious as well as one of the least known gifts of nature. And why are Goji berries so precious, well there are ample reasons behind it. And that is what we are going to see.

4). The Way To Cook Grains
All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to so disintegrate their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy of digestion.

5). Discover Best Of Soup Making
Lean, juicy beef, mutton, and veal, form the basis of all good soups; therefore it is advisable to procure those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and such as are fresh-killed. Stale meat renders them bad, and fat is not so well adapted for making them.

6). Side Effects of Drinking Green Tea
Drinking green tea has some side effects you need to be cautioned of. If you want to know what to look out for, as well as what will benefit you, then you can simply look before drinking.

7). The Benefits of Black Tea
Black tea is one of the most popular teas in the world. The English love it and use it as a constant ingredient in many of their breakfast teas. Black tea comes from the same plant that green tea, white, and oolong tea come from.


.: Top Food and Drink Articles

1). Convection vs. Conventional Ovens... What's The Difference?
If you are in the market for a new oven and you’ve already begun shopping for one, you’ve probably noticed that there are a few different types. Two of the most popular oven types are conventional and convection, and many newer ovens have the option of cooking food in either fashion depending on the set mode. The difference in these two types of ovens is the way in which the heat in the oven is dispersed during the cooking process.

2). The Different Kinds Of Beef Jerky
Beef jerky seems to cause extreme reactions in people. They either love it or hate it. I love it. Yes, eating beef jerky can be a marathon chewing experience. But I love the taste of it. It also helps me avoid eating too much junk food because after I eat a few pieces of beef jerky I’m satisfied and no longer want to consume an entire bag of potato chips.

3). Different Types Of Cookie Sheets Yield Different Tasting Cookies
Anybody who takes the time to make cookies from scratch obviously wants the cookies to come out perfectly and taste delicious. Mixing ingredients is almost unheard of these days with just about everything being available in pre-mixed or pre-made packages. Most people simply buy a roll of cookie dough, slice it, and stick it in the oven for 15-18 minutes.

4). Honey – Important Health Facts!
Honey is the most known apicultural product, it is a substance that the bees produce through a complicated process of elaboration, where they absorb the nectar and deposit it in their stomach, then go back to the beehive to deliver it, throwing up repeated times; this way ferments, acid and albumen are added to the nectar. It contains most of the essential mineral elements that our system needs.

5). How to Make Authentic Mexican Cerviche
When I mention the word “cerviche” to people I am usually questioned, “what the ___is that?” After they taste my recipe for true Mexican cerviche they are begging me to teach them how to make it.

6). Benefits Of Garlic Juice
Benefits of Garlic are numerous. Garlic, like the onion, has a powerful effect on healing wounds and is also very good as a disinfectant.

7). The Pumpkin: Not The Original Jack O’Lantern
Why is the pumpkin always associated with Halloween? When and where did that custom originate? Why is it also called a Jack 0’Lantern? These and other colorful questions will be addressed below. Read on, no matter how you may feel about the color orange.


Page loaded in 0.023 seconds.