Is Loose Leaf Tea Better?
- Details
- Category: Tea Production
Tea bags are convenient, offer quick simple brewing, and even add a nice color to the cup...so it must be the best way to have tea right? Not really...
Tea bags are convenient, offer quick simple brewing, and even add a nice color to the cup...so it must be the best way to have tea right? Not really...
All tea - black tea, green tea, wu long tea - comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The different types of tea depend on how the tea leaves are processed after they are picked. Nevertheless, there are differences in tea leaves. Camellia sinensis can be hybridized very easily, and this has led to the development of more than 3000 varietals (or cultivars).
Black tea has one of the most uniform tea grading systems of all types of tea. This tea grading system is used by most tea producers in India, Sri Lanka, Java, Indonesia, and Africa as well being applicable to some Chinese black tea.
Japanese green tea is processed in several stages from fresh leaf to finished product. There are two types of processing - Aracha and Shiagecha.
Black tea begins with fresh leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant. This plant produces all types of tea - black, green, oolong, white, and yellow - and it is only how the fresh leaves are processed that determines which kind of tea they become.