When I started my journey with the World Tea Academy, I had no idea that there was so much to learn about the tea industry. So much of my time over the year and a half taking classes was spent tasting teas and reading about the history. My goal in this post is to summarize the information that I learned so you can have a better understanding of what tea is and why it is so good for you.
Tea is made from the camellia sinensis plant that originally was grown in China. This plant was discovered by an emperor who sat under a tree one day and the leaves landed in his bowl of water. From the heat of the sun the leaves brewed nicely into a bowl of tea. He went on to share the lovely flavor with others and this is how we now use this plant for tea varieties.
The camellia sinensis plant is used to create several kinds of teas. There are 6 varieties of teas: they are white, yellow, green, oolong black, puerh. The white and yellow tea are fairly expensive. They experience the least amount of processing and are the purest to their natural source.
Green Tea
The green tea is one of the most common teas globally, it keeps its green color because it’s steamed during the processing stage. The flavor of green is commonly recognized across most cultures for its wellness benefits. Green tea is known to support brain function, boost metabolism and fat burning, heart health and lower the risk of cancer. Green tea has catechins, a type of antioxidant that can reduce inflammation.
In comparison green tea has higher levels of catechins, while black and oolong teas have more theaflavins due to oxidation. As mentioned catechins are linked to cancer prevention while theaflavins are more associated with heart health.
Oolong Tea
Oolong tea is a cross between black and green. It’s one of my favorite flavors because its distinctly different than the green and black because it’s oxidation is unique and can deliver vary flavors from floral, roasted toasty notes. One of the many benefits of oolong is bone mineral density, making it beneficial for long term bone health. I enjoy the alertness and relaxation that oolong delivers. Somedays I drink oolong because it calms but it also has keeps me alert. It’s a nice feel good tea with a pleasant flavor.
Black Tea
Black tea is popular for its traditional flavor. We were all raised on Lipton tea which is a Ceylon tea out of Sri Lanka. Now that I am a tea expert, I rarely drink Ceylon because there are so many other options in the black tea variety. We can benefit from the heart and gut health, antioxidants of black tea. Most know that black tea is known to be the most caffeinated of all varieties. What many may not know is that black tea can also help to manage blood sugar levels.
Puerh Tea
The final tea is as we discuss the teas derived from the camellia sinensis plant, is puerh. This is a fermented black tea. The flavor is distinctly different than any other tea because of the fermentation process. It is rolled into a cake like pancake and aged for years. This tea is a sign of wealth in Chinese culture. When special guests visit, the family will serve their finest puerh. I distinctly remember falling in love with puerh the first time I had a cup. It’s the true black tea. Meaning it brews up black where a black tea will brew up with auburn or reddish tones. When preparing puerh it’s ceremonial in that you chip away at the cake to extract what will be brewed.
I hope you learned a bit about the camellia sinensis and how it has blessed us with some many beautiful teas.
Sips of Wisdom Podcast
In this episode of Sips of Wisdom we discuss our tea journey and how it brought us together. One of the key takeaways is the grading of tea and how important it is to make tea with quality loose leaf tea and avoid tea bags. But don’t take our word for it. Go ahead and get a tea bag out the pantry and cut one open. Take a moment to consider if it looks like a leaf or dust. Are the ingredients recognizable? For example if it’s a herbal blend with hibiscus and roses do you see whole pieces of those flowers? If it’s one of the teas mentioned above, can you recognize the tea leaves or does it look like dust? We encourage using loose leaf tea because it is a higher grade and simply taste better than tea bags.
You may argue that the tea bags are significantly cheaper than the loose leaf tea. You are absolutely correct. If you don’t care about taste and benefit then it’s perfectly fine to consume tea using tea bags. But once you have a premium loose leaf tea, it’s virtually impossible to use traditional tea bags.
Shelf Life of Tea
Shelf life of tea is important, especially for green tea. The efficacy of green tea is best when consumed the year it’s harvested. But since most consumers don’t know the year it’s harvested, I recommend that you pay attention to how long it’s in your pantry. To avoid having tea sit for too long, I recommend that you buy it in smaller quantities. When I purchase tea for the tea room, I never keep more than a pound or two on hand. This forces me to buy fresh tea and ingredients often and ensuring that we are using fresh ingredients. Give yourself the gift of high quality tea and enjoy the benefits by drinking tea daily.
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