Fun and FlirTea

I feel like it’s pretty safe to say that one of the most common teas in the Western world is black tea. There haven’t been the same kinds of concerted studies into black tea as there are into green tea, so I guess it’s not really in the news as often, but it seems to be the most likely to be found in the cup! Whether taken with milk and sugar or served iced, when in the US or the UK, black is what you’ll most readily find.

Interestingly enough, while black tea has really come to the forefront as the favorite in Europe and the US, it is probably the least consumed type of tea in China, where it (and all other tea) originated. Black teas in particular are produced in a number of different countries including China, India, Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon), and even the US in more recent times.

(more…)

“All there is to making tea is to pick it, steam it, pound it, shape it, dry it, tie it and seal it.”
    -Lu Yu, The Classic of Tea

The first time I read that sentence, I started cracking up. It implies that making tea is a simple process, then contradicts itself immediately with the number of steps involved (few of which are easily or quickly explained). Making tea is clearly a process. There are multiple steps to follow and, depending on your intended outcome, they must be performed in specific orders and some steps may even be repeated.

This is an excerpt from the first ever book on tea, called the Ch’a Ching, or The Classic of Tea. Written in the eight century (yes, that means in the 700’s AD), it’s remarkable how little has changed regarding the growing, plucking, and manufacture of (orthodox) teas. To be fair, the process described by Lu Yu above is no longer exactly right, so I’ll take a little time to talk to you about how tea is made today.

(more…)