Camellia Sinensis: Tea Is An Aromatic Beverage Prepared by Pouring Hot or Boiling Water Over

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Tea 

is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves
of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to China and other East Asian countries.[3] After water, it
is the most widely consumed drink in the world.[4] There are many different types of tea; some have a
cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour,[5] while others have vastly different profiles that include
sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans primarily due to
its caffeine content.[6]

Tea plants are native to East Asia and probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and
north Burma.[7][8][9] An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text
written by Hua Tuo.[10] It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and
tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to
Europe during the 16th century.[11] During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the
English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in India.

The term herbal tea refers to drinks not made from Camellia sinensis. They are the infusions of fruit,
leaves, or other plant parts, such as steeps of rosehip, chamomile, or rooibos. These may be
called tisanes or herbal infusions to prevent confusion with "tea" made from the tea plant.

Contents

 1Etymology

 2Origin and history

o 2.1Botanical origin

o 2.2Early tea drinking

o 2.3Developments

o 2.4Worldwide spread

 3Cultivation and harvesting

 4Chemical composition

 5Processing and classification

o 5.1Additional processing and additives

 6Tea culture

 7Production

 8Economics
o 8.1Labor and consumer safety problems

o 8.2Certification

 9Packaging

o 9.1Tea bags

o 9.2Loose tea

o 9.3Compressed tea

o 9.4Instant tea

o 9.5Bottled and canned tea

 10Storage

 11Gallery

 12See also

 13References

o 13.1Citations

o 13.2General sources

 14External links

Etymology[edit]

Main article: Etymology of tea

Wuyi tea plantation in Wuyi Mountains, Fujian, China


The etymology of the various words for tea reflects the history of transmission of tea drinking culture
and trade from China to countries around the world.[12] Nearly all of the words for tea worldwide fall into
three broad groups: te, cha and chai, present in English as tea, cha or char, and chai. The earliest of the
three to enter English is cha, which came in the 1590s via the Portuguese, who traded in Macao and
picked up the Cantonese pronunciation of the word.[13][14] The more common tea form arrived in the
17th century via the Dutch, who acquired it either indirectly from the Malay teh, or directly from
the tê pronunciation in Min Chinese.[13] The third form chai (meaning "spiced tea") originated from a
northern Chinese pronunciation of cha, which travelled overland to Central Asia and Persia where it
picked up a Persian ending yi.

Origin and history[edit]

Further information: History of tea and History of tea in China

Botanical origin[edit]

Tea plants are native to East Asia and probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and
north Burma.[7]

Chinese (small-leaf) type tea (C. sinensis var. sinensis) may have originated in southern China possibly
with hybridization of unknown wild tea relatives. However, since there are no known wild populations of
this tea, its origin is speculative.[15][16]

Given their genetic differences forming distinct clades, Chinese Assam-type tea (C.
sinensis var. assamica) may have two different parentages – one being found in
southern Yunnan (Xishuangbanna, Pu'er City) and the other in western Yunnan (Lincang, Baoshan).
Many types of Southern Yunnan Assam tea have been hybridized with the closely related
species Camellia taliensis. Unlike Southern Yunnan Assam tea, Western Yunnan Assam tea shares many
genetic similarities with Indian Assam-type tea (also C. sinensis var. assamica). Thus, Western Yunnan
Assam tea and Indian Assam tea both may have originated from the same parent plant in the area
where southwestern China, Indo-Burma, and Tibet meet. However, as the Indian Assam tea shares
no haplotypes with Western Yunnan Assam tea, Indian Assam tea is likely to have originated from an
independent domestication. Some Indian Assam tea appears to have hybridized with the
species Camellia pubicosta.[15][16]

Assuming a generation of 12 years, Chinese small-leaf tea is estimated to have diverged from Assam tea
around 22,000 years ago, while Chinese Assam tea and Indian Assam tea diverged 2,800 years ago. The
divergence of Chinese small-leaf tea and Assam tea would correspond to the last glacial maximum.[15][16]

Early tea drinking[edit]


A 19th-century Japanese painting depicting Shennong: Chinese legends credit Shennong with the
invention of tea.[17]

Tea drinking may have begun in the region of Yunnan, where it was used for medicinal purposes. It is
also believed that in Sichuan, "people began to boil tea leaves for consumption into a concentrated
liquid without the addition of other leaves or herbs, thereby using tea as a bitter yet stimulating drink,
rather than as a medicinal concoction."[9]

Chinese legends attribute the invention of tea to the mythical Shennong (in central and northern China)
in 2737 BC, although evidence suggests that tea drinking may have been introduced from the southwest
of China (Sichuan/Yunnan area).[17] The earliest written records of tea come from China. The
word tú 荼 appears in the Shijing and other ancient texts to signify a kind of "bitter vegetable" (苦菜),
and it is possible that it referred to many different plants such as sow thistle, chicory, or smartweed,
[18]
 as well as tea.[19] In the Chronicles of Huayang, it was recorded that the Ba people in Sichuan
presented tu to the Zhou king. The Qin later conquered the state of Ba and its neighbour Shu, and
according to the 17th century scholar Gu Yanwu who wrote in Ri Zhi Lu (日知錄): "It was after the Qin
had taken Shu that they learned how to drink tea."[2] Another possible early reference to tea is found in
a letter written by the Qin Dynasty general Liu Kun who requested that some "real tea" to be sent to
him.[20]

The earliest known physical evidence[21] of tea was discovered in 2016 in the mausoleum of Emperor Jing
of Han in Xi'an, indicating that tea from the genus Camellia was drunk by Han dynasty emperors as early
as the 2nd century BC.[22] The Han dynasty work, "The Contract for a Youth", written by Wang Bao in 59
BC,[23] contains the first known reference to boiling tea. Among the tasks listed to be undertaken by the
youth, the contract states that "he shall boil tea and fill the utensils" and "he shall buy tea at Wuyang".
[2]
 The first record of tea cultivation is also dated to this period, during which tea was cultivated on Meng
Mountain (蒙山) near Chengdu.[24] Another early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century
AD, in a medical text by Hua Tuo, who stated, "to drink bitter t'u constantly makes one think
better."[25] However, before the mid-8th century Tang dynasty, tea-drinking was primarily a southern
Chinese practice.[26] Tea was disdained by the Northern dynasties aristocrats, who describe it as a
"slaves' drink", inferior to yogurt.[27][28] It became widely popular during the Tang dynasty, when it was
spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The Classic of Tea, a treatise on tea and its preparations, was
written by Lu Yu in 762.

Developments[edit]

Tea with ingredients, China

Through the centuries, a variety of techniques for processing tea, and a number of different forms of
tea, were developed. During the Tang dynasty, tea was steamed, then pounded and shaped into cake
form,[29] while in the Song dynasty, loose-leaf tea was developed and became popular. During
the Yuan and Ming dynasties, unoxidized tea leaves were first stirred in a hot dry pan, then rolled and
air-dried, a process that stops the oxidation process that would have turned the leaves dark, thereby
allowing tea to remain green. In the 15th century, oolong tea, in which the leaves are allowed to
partially oxidize before being heated in the pan, was developed.[26] Western tastes, however, favoured
the fully oxidized black tea, and the leaves were allowed to oxidize further. Yellow tea was an accidental
discovery in the production of green tea during the Ming dynasty, when apparently careless practices
allowed the leaves to turn yellow, which yielded a different flavour.[30]

Worldwide spread[edit]
Tea-weighing station north of Batumi, Russian Empire before 1915

Tea was first introduced to Western priests and merchants in China during the 16th century, at which
time it was termed chá.[11] The earliest European reference to tea, written as chiai, came from Delle
navigationi e viaggi written by Venetian Giambattista Ramusio in 1545.[31] The first recorded shipment of
tea by a European nation was in 1607 when the Dutch East India Company moved a cargo of tea
from Macao to Java, then two years later, the Dutch bought the first assignment of tea which was
from Hirado in Japan to be shipped to Europe.[32] Tea became a fashionable drink in The Hague in the
Netherlands, and the Dutch introduced the drink to Germany, France, and across the Atlantic to New
Amsterdam (New York).[33]

In 1567, Russian people came in contact with tea when the Cossack Atamans Petrov and Yalyshev visited
China.[34] The Mongolian Khan donated to Tsar Michael I four poods (65–70 kg) of tea in 1638.
[35]
 According to Jeremiah Curtin,[36] it was possibly in 1636[37] that Vassili Starkov was sent as envoy to
the Altyn Khan. As a gift to the tsar, he was given 250 pounds of tea. Starkov at first refused, seeing no
use for a load of dead leaves, but the Khan insisted. Thus was tea introduced to Russia. In 1679, Russia
concluded a treaty on regular tea supplies from China via camel caravan in exchange for furs. It is today
considered the de facto national beverage.

The Raymond, Hugh Mckay Commander. The first vessel direct from China to Hull on her arrival on 14
October 1843 with a cargo of tea

The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an East India
Company office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting "the best sort of chaw" in
1615. Peter Mundy, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fujian in 1637, wrote, "chaa – only
water with a kind of herb boyled in it".[38][39] Tea was sold in a coffee house in London in 1657, Samuel
Pepys tasted tea in 1660, and Catherine of Braganza took the tea-drinking habit to the English court
when she married Charles II in 1662. Tea, however, was not widely consumed in the British Isles until
the 18th century and remained expensive until the latter part of that period. English drinkers preferred
to add sugar and milk to black tea, and black tea overtook green tea in popularity in the 1720s.[40] Tea
smuggling during the 18th century led to the general public being able to afford and consume tea. The
British government removed the tax on tea, thereby eliminating the smuggling trade, by 1785.[41] In
Britain and Ireland, tea was initially consumed as a luxury item on special occasions, such as religious
festivals, wakes, and domestic work gatherings. The price of tea in Europe fell steadily during the 19th
century, especially after Indian tea began to arrive in large quantities; by the late 19th century tea had
become an everyday beverage for all levels of society.[42] The popularity of tea played a role in historical
events – the Tea Act of 1773 provoked the Boston Tea Party that escalated into the American
Revolution. The need to address the issue of British trade deficit because of the trade in tea resulted in
the Opium Wars. The Qing Kangxi Emperor had banned foreign products from being sold in China,
decreeing in 1685 that all goods bought from China must be paid for in silver coin or bullion.[43] Traders
from other nations then sought to find another product, in this case opium, to sell to China to earn back
the silver they were required to pay for tea and other commodities. The subsequent attempts by the
Chinese Government to curtail the trade in opium led to war.[44]

Chinese small-leaf-type tea was introduced into India in 1836 by the British in an attempt to break the
Chinese monopoly on tea.[45] In 1841, Archibald Campbell brought seeds of Chinese tea from
the Kumaun region and experimented with planting tea in Darjeeling. The Alubari tea garden was
opened in 1856, and Darjeeling tea began to be produced.[46] In 1848, Robert Fortune was sent by
the Honourable East India Company on a mission to China to bring the tea plant back to Great Britain.
He began his journey in high secrecy as his mission occurred in the lull between the First Opium War and
the Second Opium War.[47] The Chinese tea plants he brought back were introduced to the Himalayas,
though most did not survive. The British had discovered that a different variety of tea was endemic
to Assam and the northeast region of India, which was then hybridized with Chinese small-leaf-type tea.
Using Chinese planting and cultivation techniques, the British colonial government established a tea
industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate it for export.[45] Tea was
originally consumed only by Anglo-Indians; however, it became widely popular in India in the 1950s
because of a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Board.[45] The British introduced tea
industry to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1867.[48]

Cultivation and harvesting[edit]


Tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka

Camellia sinensis is an evergreen plant that grows mainly in tropical and subtropical climates.[49] Some


varieties can also tolerate marine climates and are cultivated as far north as Cornwall in England,
[50]
 Perthshire in Scotland,[51] Washington in the United States,[52] and Vancouver Island in Canada.[53] In
the Southern Hemisphere, tea is grown as far south as Hobart in Tasmania[54][55] and Waikato in New
Zealand.[56]

Tea plants are propagated from seed and cuttings; about 4 to 12 years are needed for a plant to bear
seed and about three years before a new plant is ready for harvesting.[49] In addition to a zone 8 climate
or warmer, tea plants require at least 127 cm (50 in) of rainfall per year and prefer acidic soils.[57] Many
high-quality tea plants are cultivated at elevations of up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level. Though at
these heights the plants grow more slowly, they acquire a better flavour.[58]

Women tea pickers in Kenya

Two principal varieties are used: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, which is used for most Chinese,
Formosan and Japanese teas, and C. sinensis var. assamica, used in Pu-erh and most Indian teas (but not
Darjeeling). Within these botanical varieties, many strains and modern clonal varieties are known. Leaf
size is the chief criterion for the classification of tea plants, with three primary classifications being:
[59]
 Assam type, characterised by the largest leaves; China type, characterised by the smallest leaves; and
Cambodian type, characterised by leaves of intermediate size. The Cambodian-type tea (C.
assamica subsp. lasiocaly) was originally considered a type of Assam tea. However, later genetic work
showed that it is a hybrid between Chinese small-leaf tea and Assam-type tea.[60] Darjeeling tea also
appears to be a hybrid between Chinese small-leaf tea and Assam-type large-leaf tea.[61]
Tea plantation near Sa Pa, Vietnam

A tea plant will grow into a tree of up to 16 m (52 ft) if left undisturbed,[49] but cultivated plants are
generally pruned to waist height for ease of plucking. Also, the short plants bear more new shoots which
provide new and tender leaves and increase the quality of the tea.[62] Only the top 2.5–5 centimetres (1–
2 in) of the mature plant are picked. These buds and leaves are called 'flushes'.[63] A plant will grow a
new flush every 7 to 15 days during the growing season. Leaves that are slow in development tend to
produce better-flavoured teas.[49] Several teas are available from specified flushes; for example,
Darjeeling tea is available as first flush (at a premium price), second flush, monsoon and autumn. Assam
second flush or "tippy" tea is considered superior to first flush, because of the gold tips that appear on
the leaves.

Pests that can afflict tea plants include mosquito bugs, genus Helopeltis, which are true bugs and not to
be confused with dipterous insects of family Culicidae ('mosquitos'). Mosquito bugs can damage leaves
both by sucking plant materials, and by the laying of eggs (oviposition) within the plant. Spraying with
synthetic insecticides may be deemed appropriate.[64] Other pests are Lepidopteran leaf feeders and
various tea diseases.

Chemical composition[edit]

See also: Phenolic content in tea and Health effects of tea

Physically speaking, tea has properties of both a solution and a suspension. It is a solution of all the
water-soluble compounds that have been extracted from the tea leaves, such as the polyphenols and
amino acids, but is a suspension when all of the insoluble components are considered, such as the
cellulose in the tea leaves.[65] Tea infusions are among most consumed beverages globally.[66]

Caffeine constitutes about 3% of tea's dry weight, translating to between 30 and 90 milligrams per 250-
millilitre (8+1⁄2 US fl oz) cup depending on the type, brand,[67] and brewing method.[68] A study found that
the caffeine content of one gram of black tea ranged from 22–28 mg, while the caffeine content of one
gram of green tea ranged from 11–20 mg, reflecting a significant difference.[69] Tea also contains small
amounts of theobromine and theophylline, which are stimulants, and xanthines similar to caffeine.[70]
Fresh tea leaves in various stages of growth

Black and green teas contain no essential nutrients in significant amounts, with the exception of
the dietary mineral manganese, at 0.5 mg per cup or 26% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI).
[71]
 Fluoride is sometimes present in tea; certain types of "brick tea", made from old leaves and stems,
have the highest levels, enough to pose a health risk if much tea is drunk, which has been attributed to
high levels of fluoride in soils, acidic soils, and long brewing.[72]

The astringency in tea can be attributed to the presence of polyphenols. These are the most abundant
compounds in tea leaves, making up 30–40% of their composition.[73] Polyphenols
include flavonoids, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and other catechins.[74][75] Although there has been
preliminary clinical research on whether green or black teas may protect against various human
diseases, there is no evidence that tea polyphenols have any effect on health or lowering disease risk.[76]
[77]

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