Tea is one of those essential products that is always in any home. The drink is loved by both children, and their parents, and grandparents. In today's market, what kind of tea is not there. There are varieties that many have heard of only on TV: they are very expensive, and therefore not available to every buyer. But there are also quite affordable offers. In a word, from the current tea assortment, my eyes just run up. But in order to acquire a quality product, many criteria must be considered. There is the most diverse classification of tea, and therefore it is necessary to understand a little how to determine the quality of the product. Well, of course, you should be guided by your wishes and tastes.
To get a crop
Before moving on to the classification and types of tea, you need to familiarize yourself with the process of growing it. After all, growing tea is an incredible work that takes a lot of time and effort. To grow a beautiful bush, it is necessary to plant cuttings in the ground, although one or two year old seedlings are sometimes used. The first crop of leaves can be removed only after four to five years after planting. Tea bushes are constantly pruned so that they do not grow in height, but so that a lot of side shoots grow.
As a rule, a tea plantation consists of a number of shrubs, the height of which reaches one and a half meters. The width of the aisles is the same size.
Tea leaf type classification
Classification of tea by the type of tea leaves is one of the parameters for organizing the product. So, the classification of dry tea leaves by the type of leaves is as follows:
- OP (Orange Pekoe) - a special designation, which is the main degree of quality. This product is truly worthy of the kings themselves. As a rule, it is made from the topmost two young leaves of a tea bush. Such leaves are still covered with a young fluff. Such a tea leaf should be whole and twisted. It notes a high level of natural aromatic oils. If the product packaging is marked with OP, this means that the finished tea will be strong, with an incredibly pleasant aroma.
- P (Pekoe) - tea, for the manufacture of which they take very young, only blooming leaves, twisted by balls. Belongs to large-leaf varieties. The infusion will not be very strong, but with a delicate amber and delicate taste.
- F (Flowery) - in the composition of tea with a similar labeling there are tips. These are the buds of a plant that have just blossomed. They give the infusion an excellent taste and a delicate smell.
- B (Broken) - a product in which tea leaves are moderately crushed during machine cutting or twisting, but not to the point of crumbs.
- D (Dust) - a grade of tea dust with tannic acid in the composition. It is usually used to make packaged cheap tea.
Fermentation rate
There is also a classification of tea according to the level of fermentation. Fermentation is a process of irreversible transformation of substances that accumulate in the tea leaves during growth. This process begins at that instant when the leaf is removed from the branch, and it ends only when all substances are transformed into more stable compounds. According to the degree of fermentation, tea is divided into five basic groups:
- Bai cha (white tea). To make white tea, it is necessary to withstand the collected raw materials in the sun. In this case, a process called “slow fermentation” occurs. The buds and leaves do not curl in any way, but preserve their natural shape, which is one of the important characteristics of white teas.
- Liu cha (green tea). This group includes the least fermented teas. To get green leaf tea, it is necessary to subject the torn leaves to a heat treatment, which eliminates the bitterness, and fermentation stops. Then the leaves are twisted and finally dried and sorted. Now tea can be consumed.
- Oolong tea (Oolong tea). These are blue-green or partially fermented teas. The peculiarity of the variety is that the leaves are fermented in different ways, zonally. For example, the middle of the leaf may be less fermented, and the border more.
- Hong cha (red tea). Chinese red tea is the drink that we commonly call black. For him, the leaves are harvested in hot summer weather. Fast (active) fermentation is a feature of making tea in this category. The product is almost completely fermented.
- Hey cha (black tea). This is a post-fermented, aged tea for years. Over time, such a product group only gets better.
What's in your lineage
Classification of tea by origin also takes place:
Chinese - China is the largest producer of tea (more than a quarter of the total world volume). The country produces white, black, yellow, oolong, puer, red and green loose tea.
Indian - India is in second place in tea production. As a raw material, an Assamese variety of a plant is used. Mostly black drinks are made in the country.
Ceylon - Sri Lanka produces about a tenth of the world's tea volume. To get the product they take the same raw materials as in India. India specializes in green and black varieties.
Japanese - as a rule, in Japan they produce only a few varieties of tea that are exported. Everything else is made for domestic consumption.
Indochina (Vietnam and Indonesia) - make black and green varieties of the drink.
African - except Kenya, all other manufacturers are considered small.
Plant type
Tea can also be classified by plant type. So, the Chinese variety grows in the form of a bush. Often, a tea bush is planted on gentle slopes, because it always needs moisture, but stagnation of fluid under the root is fatal to the plant. The youngest shoots are considered the most valuable. New stems are harvested exclusively by hand. True, at the time, several attempts were made to mechanize the process, but this made the quality of raw materials only worse.
The Assamese variety is a tree whose height reaches 26 meters. The Cambodian variety is a hybrid of the two varieties described above and grows in Indochina.
Type of leaf treatment
The classification and assortment of tea may vary depending on the type of leaf processing. High-grade leaf teas are those drinks that were described in the first paragraph of the article. Mid-range offers are teas that are made from cut or broken leaves that appear during the production of whole-leaf varieties. But sometimes the sheets are chopped and specially. The drink will be strong and brew very quickly, but its taste and aroma will not be the most pleasant.
Low-grade ground teas are about the same products as medium-quality teas, but their quality is much worse.
A granular version is obtained by passing the sheets through gear rotating rolls. The drink will have a viscous taste and a bright shade and a faint aroma.
Tea bag consists of tea dust and crumbs. Although its quality is low, but due to its ease of use, it has great popularity.
Brick is made almost entirely from tea litter by pressing. He brews well, but to say that his taste is bad is to say nothing.
To create a soluble drink, manufacturers use low-quality raw materials, which are a dry extract of a natural product.
Tea from Sri Lanka
One of the most popular on the planet is Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka. The local population uses tea instead of water to quench their thirst. After all, if you drink one cup of such a drink, then for three hours you will not feel like drinking. In Sri Lanka, a total of six varieties of Ceylon teas are grown. Product characteristics are much dependent on the height of plantations. They can be low, medium and high mountain. The best Ceylon tea grows near a city called Nuwara Eliya.
But tea leaves are also harvested in areas of Sri Lanka such as Dimbula, Ruhuna, Uva and Uda Poussellava. Due to the cool climate and monsoons in Dimbul, tea acquires a delicate taste, the strength of which varies from saturated to medium. Tea harvested on plantations in Ruhun will have a tart taste. The exotic taste of the drink can be felt if you try to make it from the leaves growing in Uwe. Well, in Uda Pessellava they make soft-tasting tea of medium strength.
Varieties of Ceylon Tea
The best Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka is produced by such companies: Hyson, Mlesna Tea, GILBERT'S PREMIUM TEA and Basilur. For commercial purposes, these corporations produce the following main types of tea:
- PF1 - small granules. This is a strong infusion, which is an unsurpassed option for packaging in bags.
- FBOPF Ex. - an integral leaflet with a large number of tips, an impeccable soft taste, characterized by a caramel flavor.
- FBOPF 1 - plain medium leaf tea with a sweet and strong taste.
- Silver Tips - high-quality leaf buds, which during the drying process acquire a velvety-silver hue. This is a sophisticated aromatic drink with mystical healing properties.
- Gun Powder - green tea, made in accordance with a special technology of calcination in a Chinese frying pan.
Green Classification
Separately, there is a classification of green tea, which looks like this:
- YH - Tea plants are harvested at the beginning of the season.
- FYH is a variety of green Chinese leaf tea.
- N - Chinese broken green tea from differently twisted leaves.
- FH - Chinese cut tea, the leaves of which are not twisted equally.
- SOUMME - seeding. Tea from heterogeneous petals with medium infusion.
Tea from other countries
In addition to the above states, there are other countries producing tea. So, tea bushes are cultivated in Taiwan. The first seedlings of plants were brought here in the XVII century. Today, the total area of tea plantations exceeds 20 thousand hectares. The main fields are located near Taipei - the capital of the state.
In the Middle East, Turkey is the largest producer of tea. Over a year, more than one hundred tons of product are produced here. Turkish tea products are not in special demand on the world tea market, since they are many times inferior to successful Chinese, Ceylon and Indian products.
For more than one century, teas have been grown in the Caspian and northern regions of Iran. About 60 thousand tons of product is grown every year.
Georgia should not be overlooked, where the first tea shrubs were planted in the 19th century. After several decades, mass production of tea has been established here. From Georgian tea, a high-quality drink could be obtained only with rigorous manual processing. But the quality of the product on an industrial scale does not differ excellent characteristics.
In Brazil, the cultivation and production of tea is also established, but it is consumed only in the state.
Total
From all of the above, we can conclude that before tea gets on store shelves, it must go a long way. First you need to plant and grow a tea bush, then make sure that the leaves on it grow beautiful. Then they are collected, processed for a long time and only after that they get tea leaves. In the tea business, there are many classifications that allow you to choose the tea that the consumer will like more than other varieties.