Tea

Tea originates from China with all kinds of different flavors. Chinese people started to drink tea 4000 years ago. The first book about tea called The Book of Tea was written by Luyu in Tang Dynasty. The book describes all kinds of teas in China. Chinese teas can be classified into 4 kinds, green tea, black tea, fermented tea, and half fermented tea. The names of the tea include Wulong, Tieguanying, Puer, Jasmine, chrysanthemum etc. Recent years, Puer Tea from Yunnan Province became popular and the price takes a rocket to rise up very high as it is believed Puer tea is very good for stomach.
When you travel to Hangzhou, China, it is suggested to visit Long Jing Village where you will learn how to make Long Jing tea that is a very popular tea in China.
China has produced tea for five to six thousand years, and tea drinking has been a part of Chinese daily life for at least 1, 500 years In the 6"century tea was introduced to Japan. It is said that tea was introduced into Indonesia in the seventeenth century. Later the Dutch arrived and brought it back to Europe.
The word for tea in many countries comes from the Chinese character "Cha." The Russians say "cha'I", which sounds like "chaye"( tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern china, and the English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of "te" or "tah" from South China. The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though the pronunciation is slightly different.
Tea processing falls into three categories. Green tea is heated soon after picking and is not sub
further processing. Black lea, known as "red tea" in China, is dried and then exposed to the after it is heated. Semi-fermented tea like Wulong tea has an oxidation time somewhat between that of green and black tea. Green tea and black tea differ noticeably in appearance, taste, and chemical composition. Some e ethnic nationalities drink compressed tea, known also as "brick tea" due to its shape. Jasmine tea falls into the category of semi-fermented tea; jasmine buds are put into the tea in an attempt to produce a delicate aroma,
It usually takes five years for a tea-plant to grow before its leaves may be picked. After 30 years, however the plant's trunk has to be cut off to let new stems grow out of the same root and thus continue Io produce tea.
When do people start picking tea? Each local tea production area has its own tea-picking period dew ding on local climate. Along the shores of the West Lake in Hangzhou, from the end of March to October tea-pickers pick the Longjing tea from the same tree every 7 Io 10 days.
The picked leaves are dried by healing in a large and deep iron cooking pot, which used to be done by hand. At present, many tea producers use electricity-heated pot to dry tea leaves. The temperature in the pot is about 25s℃ or 74℉. There are other machines used for grinding or rolling tea leaves into a certain shape.
While travelling to Mt. Wuyi, you can visit the Dahongpao tea factory which presents the best quality of black tea.