Soursop Green Tea 101
History Of Tea.
Geographical Origins
India, Here Come The British
Black Tea vs. Green Tea: What’s the Difference?
Black tea and green tea are two of the most common categories of tea – whether you’re a newcomer to the tea world or are a tea aficionado, you’ve likely tasted them both before a couple of times. These two types of tea are actually produced from the same plant, and contain many of the same properties and health benefits. So what exactly is the difference between black and green tea?
Differences between black tea and green tea
How they’re processed
The main difference between black and green tea is how they’re processed and the level of oxidation they experience. In simple terms, oxidation just means that the tea leaves have been exposed to oxygen for a period of time. If you’ve ever seen an apple slice turn brown, you’ve experienced oxidation! Immediately after being harvested, the leaves of green tea are heated in order to halt the oxidation process, usually either by steaming or pan-firing. This ensures that the tea experiences minimal oxidation and stays a bright green color. Black tea, meanwhile, is allowed to fully oxidize after it’s harvested. This means that the leaves turn brown or black, with green no longer present anywhere on the leaf.
Different varietals
While black and green tea are both produced from the same plant, they’re often made from different varieties of camellia sinensis. Green tea is almost always produced from camellia sinensis var. sinensis, which grows primarily in China and other Asian countries. Black tea, meanwhile, may be produced from either camellia sinensis var. sinensis or camellia sinensis var. assamica, which is primarily grown in India. In addition to these two main varieties of the tea plant, there are a variety of other regional tea cultivars, many of which have been cultivated over decades in order to be especially suited to producing a particular type of tea.
How they look and taste
Most people who have tried both black and green teas are able to identify the most obvious difference between the two: their taste and appearance. Black teas tend to brew up a rich, reddish copper-colored brew. They also tend to have a stronger flavor, with notes of stone fruit, malt, honey, and spice. Indian black teas are especially robust, while Chinese black teas tend to be softer but still full-bodied. Green teas, meanwhile, tend to be lighter and more delicate. These teas may be anywhere from a pale golden color to a rich, mossy green. Green teas usually have a lighter body, and may have nutty, vegetal, or oceanic notes. Chinese green teas tend to be lighter and mellower, while Japanese green teas tend to be a darker green with a more savory umami flavor.
Caffeine levels
Black tea and green tea also differ in terms of their caffeine levels. Black tea is typically high in caffeine, containing about half as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. Green tea is usually lower in caffeine, containing about half as much caffeine as black tea.
Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves, leaf buds, and stems can be used to produce tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree.
White tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, and black tea are all harvested from one of two major varieties grown today, the Chinese variety, Camellia sinensis sinensis, has a small leaf and is more tolerant of cold weather.
The second variety, Camellia sinensis assamica, is native to the Assam region in India. It thrives in tropical areas and low elevation, but are processed differently to attain varying levels of oxidation with black tea being the most oxidized and green being the least.
Three main kinds of tea are produced in India:
- Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production, Assam, India. Assam teas, or blends containing Assam tea, are often sold as “breakfast” teas. Assam, comes from the near sea-level heavily forested northeastern section of India, the state of Assam. Tea from here is rich and full-bodied. The first tea estate in India was established in Assam in 1837. Teas are manufactured in either the orthodox process or the CTC process.
- Darjeeling tea, is from the cool and wet Darjeeling highland region, tucked in the foothills of the Himalayas. The tea is delicately flavored, and considered to be one of the finest teas in the world. The Darjeeling plantations have three distinct harvests, termed ‘flushes’, and the tea produced from each flush has a unique flavor. First (spring) flush teas are light and aromatic, while the second (summer) flush produces tea with a bit more bite. The third, or autumn flush gives a tea that is lesser in quality. Most estates here produce black tea, some estates have leaves for making green, white, and oolong teas.
- Nilgiri tea is made by infusing leaves of Camellia Sinensis that is grown and processed in the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu, India. Most estates here produce black tea, some estates have leaves for making green,m white, and oolong teas. It is generally described as being a brisk, fragrant and full-bodied tea. The region produces both rolled and crush, tear, curl tea and it is predominantly used for blending. Nilgiri tea is also used for making iced tea and instant tea. Nilgiri teas are subtle and rather gentle, and are frequently blended with other, more robust teas.
Tea processing is the method in which the leaves from the tea plant Camellia Sinensis are transformed into the dried leaves for brewing tea.
The categories of tea are distinguished by the processing they undergo. In its most general form, tea processing involves different manners and degrees of oxidation of the leaves, stopping the oxidation, forming the tea and drying it.
The innate flavor of the dried tea leaves is determined by the type of cultivar of the tea bush, the quality of the plucked tea leaves, and the manner and quality of the production processing they undergo. After processing, a tea may be blended with other teas or mixed with flavourants to alter the flavor of the final tea. When producing black, pu’erh and oolong teas there is an additional purpose of processing: to encourage oxidization, which further develops flavour and aroma compounds.
- Plucking: Tea leaves and flushes, which includes a terminal bud and two young leaves, are picked from Camellia Sinensis bushes typically twice a year during early spring and early summer or late spring. Autumn or winter pickings of tea flushes are much less common, though they occur when climate permits. Picking is done by hand when a higher quality tea is needed, or where labour costs are not prohibitive. Depending on the skill of the picker, hand-picking is performed by pulling the flush with a snap of the forearm, arm, or even the shoulders, with the picker grasping the tea shoot using the thumb and forefinger, with the middle finger sometimes used in combination. Tea flushes and leaves can also be picked by machine, though there will be more broken leaves and partial flushes reducing the quality of the tea. However, it has also been shown that machine plucking in correctly timed harvesting periods can produce good leaves for the production of high quality teas.
- Withering / wilting: The tea leaves will begin to wilt soon after picking, with a gradual onset of enzymatic oxidation. Withering is used to remove excess water from the leaves and allows a very slight amount of oxidation. The leaves can be either put under the sun or left in a cool breezy room to pull moisture out from the leaves. In a withering room, leaves are spread out along troughs for 8–14 hours, usually overnight. During this time 35 percent of moisture is lost. The appropriate conditions for withering, such as temperature and relative humidity, are not readily defined in literature as it can vary depending on climate, producing region and type of process used. However, variations in the rate of withering, such as a hard or soft wither, has been shown to influence flavor compounds. The leaves sometimes lose more than a quarter of their weight in water during withering. The process is also important in promoting the breakdown of leaf proteins into free amino acids and increases the availability of freed caffeine, both of which change the taste of the tea
- Disruption: Known in the Western tea industry as disruption or leaf maceration, the teas are bruised or torn in order to promote and quicken oxidation. The leaves may be slightly bruised on their edges by shaking and tossing in a bamboo tray or tumbling in baskets. More extensive leaf disruption can be done by kneading, rolling, tearing, and crushing, usually by machinery. The bruising breaks down the structures inside and outside of the leaf cells and prevents the co-mingling of oxidative enzymes with various substrates, which allows for the beginning of oxidation. This also releases some of the leaf juices, which may aid in oxidation and change the taste profile of the tea.
- Oxidation: For teas that require oxidation, the leaves are left on their own in a climate-controlled room where they turn progressively darker. This is accompanied by agitation in some cases. In this process the chlorophyll in the leaves is enzymatically broken down, and its tannins are released or transformed. The tea producer may choose when the oxidation should be stopped, which depends on the desired qualities in the final tea as well as the weather conditions (heat and humidity). For light oolong teas this may be anywhere from 5–40% oxidation, in darker oolong teas 60–70%, and in black teas 100% oxidation. Oxidation is highly important in the formation of many taste and aroma compounds, which give tea its liquor colour, strength, and briskness. Depending on the type of tea desired, under or over-oxidation can result in grassy flavours, or overly thick winey flavours. This process is sometimes referred to erroneously as fermentation in the tea industry.
- Fixation / kill-green: Kill-green is done to stop the tea leaf oxidation at a desired level. This process is accomplished by moderately heating tea leaves, thus deactivating their oxidative enzymes and removing unwanted scents in the leaves, without damaging the flavour of the tea. Traditionally, the tea leaves are panned in a wok or steamed, but with advancements in technology, kill-green is sometimes done by baking or panning in a rolling drum. In some white teas and some black teas such as CTC blacks, kill-green is done simultaneously with drying.
- Sweltering / yellowing: Unique to yellow teas, warm and damp tea leaves from after kill-green are allowed to be slightly heated in a closed container, which causes the previously green leaves to turn yellow. The resulting leaves produce a beverage that has a distinctive yellowish-green hue due to transformations of the leaf chlorophyll. Through being sweltered for 6–8 hours at close to 98 degrees, the amino acids and polyphenols in the processed tea leaves undergo chemical changes to give this tea its distinct briskness and mellow taste.
- Rolling / shaping: The damp tea leaves are then rolled to be formed into wrinkled strips, by hand or using a rolling machine which causes the tea to wrap around itself. The most commonly used rolling machines are big, circular rotators that press the leaves between two grooved wooden plates which tear, squeeze and bruise the leaves. The roller machines can process up to 25 kg at a time. This rolling action also causes some of the sap, essential oils, and juices inside the leaves to ooze out, which further enhances the taste of the tea. The strips of tea can then be formed into other shapes, such as being rolled into spirals, kneaded and rolled into pellets, or tied into balls, cones and other elaborate shapes. In many types of oolong, the rolled strips of tea leaf are then rolled into spheres or half spheres and this is typically done by placing the damp leaves in large cloth bags, which are then kneaded by hand or machine in a specific manner. The tea can also be pressed into bricks through the use of heavy stones or presses.
- Drying: Drying is done to finish the tea for sale. This can be done in a myriad of ways including panning, sunning, air drying, or baking. Baking is usually the most common. Great care must be taken to not overcook the leaves. The drying of the produced tea is responsible for many new flavour compounds particularly important in green teas.
- Aging / curing: While not always required, some teas require additional aging, fermentation, or baking to reach their drinking potential. For instance, a green tea puerh, prior to curing into a post-fermented tea, is often bitter and harsh in taste, but becomes sweet and mellow through fermentation by age or dampness. Additionally, oolong can benefit from aging if fired over charcoal. Flavoured teas are manufactured in this stage by spraying the tea with aromas and flavours or by storing them with their flavorants.
- Sorting: Tea sorting can help remove physical impurities, such as stems and seeds. Using sorting equipment to improve tea production efficiency is very common in tea processing plants, especially in black tea processing. A Color sorter may also be used to classify final product grades according to color and shape.
* ISO-9001-2015 (International
* GMP (Good Manufacturing Processes) Certified
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as “orange pekoe”, and the lowest as “fannings” or “dust”. Pekoe tea grades are classified into various qualities, each determined by how many of the adjacent young leaves (two, one, or none) were picked along with the leaf buds. Top-quality pekoe grades consist of only the leaf buds, which are picked using the balls of the fingertips. Mechanical tools are not used, to avoid bruising. Certain grades of leaf are better suited to certain varieties of tea. For example, most white tea is processed from the buds or shoots of the tea plant.
When crushed to make bagged teas, the tea is referred to as “broken”, as in “broken orange pekoe” (“BOP”). These lower grades include fannings and dust, which are tiny remnants created in the sorting and crushing processes.
Orange pekoe is referred to as “OP”. The grading scheme also contains categories higher than OP, which are determined primarily by leaf wholeness and size.
Broken, fannings and dust orthodox teas have slightly different grades. CTC teas, which consist of leaves mechanically rendered to uniform fannings, have yet another grading system.
Grading By Appearance
Some teas are graded by their appearance. Whole leaves are easier to grade by appearance than broken pieces.
Orange pekoe, or OP is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of black teas (orange pekoe grading). Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within Chinese-speaking countries. The grading system is based upon the size of processed and dried black tea leaves.
The tea industry uses the term orange pekoe to describe a basic, medium-grade black tea consisting of many whole tea leaves of a specific size; however, it is popular in some regions (such as North America) to use the term as a description of any generic black tea (though it is often described to the consumer as a specific variety of black tea). Within this system, the teas that receive the highest grades are obtained from new flushes (pickings). This includes the terminal leaf bud along with a few of the youngest leaves. Grading is based on the “size” of the individual leaves and flushes, which is determined by their ability to fall through the screens of special meshes ranging from 8–30 mesh. This also determines the “wholeness”, or level of breakage, of each leaf, which is also part of the grading system. Although these are not the only factors used to determine quality, the size and wholeness of the leaves will have the greatest influence on the taste, clarity, and brewing time of the tea.
When used outside the context of black-tea grading, the term “pekoe” (or, occasionally, orange pekoe) describes the unopened terminal leaf bud (tips) in tea flushes. As such, the phrases “a bud and a leaf” or “a bud and two leaves” are used to describe the “leafiness” of a flush; they are also used interchangeably with pekoe and a leaf or pekoe and two leaves.
Fun Fact
Lipton is the largest tea manufacturer in the world. Sir Thomas Lipton, the 19th-century British tea magnate, is widely credited with popularizing, if not inventing, the term “orange pekoe”, which seems to have no Chinese precedent, for Western markets. The “orange” in orange pekoe is sometimes mistaken to mean the tea has been flavoured with orange, orange oils, or is otherwise associated with oranges. However, the orange fruit is unrelated to the tea’s flavor.
History of Tea Bags
The earliest recorded history of teabags was during the Tang Dynasty, when tea leaves were stored on paper folded and sewn on all sides. Ireland came late to the widespread use of tea bags; holding firm to loose tea leaves for a superior brew. Not so in the US, where tea bags were enthusiastically adopted almos from their invention,m though that date is difficult to pin down. In 1901, two friends living in Milwaukee, Roberta Lawson and Mary Molaren, filed for a patent for a “tea leaf holder” _ a mesh bag to hold tea leaves for a single cup of tea. Nothing much seems to have happened though until 1908 when New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan, who surely had Irish roots, began shipping samples of his product to potential buyers in small silk pouches. He didn’t intend the buyer to dip them into hot water. But they did, and the convenient method of making tea took hold when he switched to cheaper mesh bags.
The next major breakthrough was in 1930 when William Hermanson patented the heat-sealed paper fibre tea bag, marketed in earnes in the 1950’s when Joseph Tetley and Co began to mass-produce tea bags. The round tea bag was introduced in 1989, and then the pyramid-shaped tea bag was invented by Brooke Bond, a Unilever tea brand that spent four years developing this kind of teabag. Brooke Bond is known for its PG Tips and Brooke Bond tea products. Pyramid-shaped tea bags are more spacious than regular and round tea bags.
We consider tea bags heaven-sent because we can quickly have a cup of tea and do other things. The taste and aroma of loose tea leaves brewed in the teapot is still the best experience, although, in the end, it still depends on the tea quality and how organic your tea is. We do not have much time to clean the pots and cups after drinking, and it is also inconvenient to brew and strain a few leaves in a teapot where only one or two people will drink tea.
Some teabags do not accurately replicate the quality of loose leaf tea. Worse, the tea inside the bag is just tea leaf bits and powder.
Pyramid Tea Bags
What makes them unique over other tea bags? A pyramid tea bag has more space, and the tea leaves inside can move freelly and fully expand, resultin in infusing more flavors and making a brewed tea leaf rather than a dusty tea since tewa makers can put large, high quaity tea leaves inside the teabag. There’s even more space for dried flowers, fruits, and spices, making tea brewing and tasting more fund than ever. When hot water is poured into the teacup, the tea leaves will immediately move in a circular motion, making the taste more widespread. The weave of the teabag allows for high water flow. Pyramid tea bags will serve as a tea infuser instead of just a wet bag of tea leaf bits.
Generally, lower-quality green teas are steeped hotter and longer while higher-quality teas are steeped cooler and shorter, but usually multiple times (2–3 typically). Steeping too hot or too long results in the release of excessive amounts of tannins, leading to a bitter, harsh brew, regardless of initial quality. The brew’s taste is also affected by the steeping technique; two important techniques are to warm the steeping container beforehand to prevent the tea from immediately cooling down, and to leave the tea leaves in the pot and gradually add more hot water during consumption
Fannings are small pieces of tea that are left over after higher grades of teas are gathered to be sold. Traditionally these were treated as the rejects of the manufacturing process in making high-quality leaf tea like the orange pekoe. Fannings with extremely small particles are graded “Dust” (See “Dust grades” below). Fannings and dusts are considered the lowest grades of tea, separated from broken-leaf teas which have larger pieces of the leaves. However, the fannings of expensive teas can still be more expensive and more flavourful than whole leaves of cheaper teas.
This traditionally low-quality tea has, however, experienced a huge demand in the developing world in the last century as the practice of tea drinking became popular. Tea stalls in Pakistan and the South Asian subcontinent and Africa prefer dust tea because it is cheap and also produces a very strong brew; consequently, more cups are obtained per measure of tea dust.
