China is the homeland of tea. It is believed that China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants could be traced back to two thousand years ago. In china, Tea, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export. At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90 % of the world’s total output. All the tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. the word for tea in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character “cha”. The Russians call it “cha’i”, which sounds like “chaye”(means tealeaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word “tea” sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen. The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries.

Chinese tea may be classified into five categories according to the different methods by which it is processed.

Green tea: Green tea has a great variety, but all of them keep the original color of the tealeaves without fermentation during processing. The most famous teas of this kind are Longjing tea from Zhejiang Province, Maofeng tea of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.

Black tea: Black tea, known as ‘red tea’ in China, is a special category which is fermented before baking; it is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are Qihong from Anhui, Dianhong from Yunnan, Suhong from Jiangsu, Chuanhong from Sichuan and Huhong from Hunan.
Wulong tea: This is a category of the tea that is a half way between the green and black teas, being made after partial fermentation. In china this kind of famous tea can be found in southeast coastal provinces such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.

Compressed tea: this is the kind of tea, which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for transport and storage and mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the border areas of the country. Most of the compressed tea is in the form of bricks; therefore, it is generally called ‘brick tea’, though it is sometimes also in the form of cakes and bowls.

Scented tea: This kind of tea is very common in China and made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tealeaves in the course of processing. Jasmine tea is a well-known favorite.

Normally, a new tea-plant must grow to five years old before its leaves can be picked and made into tea, but at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. At that age the old trunk of the plant must be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. Through this way, a tea plant can serve for about 100 years.

For the fertilization of tea gardens, soya-bean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used, and seldom chemical fertilizers. When pests are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.

The season of tea picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Dragon Well comes from, picking starts from the end of March and lasts through October, altogether 20-30 times from the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. With a longer interval, the quality of the tea will deteriorate.

A skilled woman picker can only gather 600 grams (a little over a pound) of green tea leaves in a day.

The new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. This work, which used to be done manually, has been largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon Well tea, however, still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour, The tea-cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature of about 25℃ or 74℉. It takes four pounds of fresh leaves to produce one pound of parched tea.

The best Dragon Well Tea is gathered several days before Qingming (Pure Brightness, 5th solar term) when new twigs have just begun to grow and carry “one leaf and a bud.” Two leaves have to be pouched. In the old days Dragon Well Tea of this grade was meant solely for the imperial household; it was, therefore, known as “tribute tea”.
For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of tea various machines have been developed and built, turning out about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the workers from much of their drudgery.

Advantages of Tea-Drinking

Tea has been one of the daily necessities in China since time immemorial. Countless numbers of people like to have their tea after meal.

In summer or warm climate, tea seems to dispel the heat and bring on instant cool together with a feeling of relaxation. For this reason, teahouses abound in towns and market villages in South China and provide elderly retirees with the locales to meet and chat over a cup of tea.

Medically, the tealeaf contains a number of minerals, of which 20-30% is tannic acid, known for its anti-inflammatory and germicidal properties. It also contains an alkaloid (5%, mainly caffeine), a stimulant for the nerve center and the process of metabolism. Tea with the aromatics in it may help resolve meat and fat and thus promote digestion. It is, therefore, of special importance to people who live mainly on meat, like many of the ethnic minorities in China. A popular proverb among them says, “Rather go without salt for three days than without tea for a single day.”

Tea is also rich in various vitamins, and for smokers, it helps to discharge nicotine out of the system. After wining, strong tea may prove to be a sobering pick-me-up.

The above, however, does not go to say that the stronger the tea, the more advantages it will yield. Too much tannic acid will affect the secretion of the gastric juice; irritate the membrane of the stomach and cause indigestion or constipation. Strong tea taken just before bedtime will give rise to occasional insomnia. Constant drinking of over-strong tea may induce heart and blood-pressure disorders in some people, reduce the milk of a breast-feeding mother, and put a brown color on the teeth of young people. But it is not difficult to ward off these undesirable effects: just don’t make your tea too strong.