The Story of tea

Tea has a long and eventful history. For centuries this beverage has been enjoyed across the world.

There are several legends about the invention of tea. Tea is first mentioned in a Chinese story from 2700 BC, the time of Emperor Shen Nung. He is said to have invented tea during one of his travels around the Chinese Empire. While taking a short rest, a few leaves fell off a shrub, straight into his cup of boiling drinking water. A lovely scent came up from the cup, and the curious emperor tasted the drink made by chance. The beverage did not only have a wonderful taste, but a refreshing, energizing effect as well. The emperor became so impressed by the new invention that he began to propagate the magic shrub. The first Chinese name of tea was ’te’ which then became ‘chia’.

Europe was introduced to tea in 1610, when the first tea freight arrived on a Dutch sailing ship. Tea import was limited for quite a while because journeys lasted very long. Sometimes the ships were on the way for nearly a year. As a result tea became a rather expensive product. During the 18th century tea become cheaper and therefore popular.

The biggest tea consumers of the world are the Irish, followed by the British on the second place only. But large quantities are drunk also in Japan and other Asian countries, such as Turkey, Syria and Iran. In Holland they drink a larger amount than, for instance, in India, the United States or Germany.

Cultivation & harvest

A tropical or subtropical climate and fertile soil are needed to grow tea successfully. The crop is normally cultivated in hillside plantations, with the altitude having a considerable bearing on quality.

Cultivation

The higher tea is grown, the better the quality. China and India are the world’s main tea-growing countries, together accounting for about half of global production.

Harvesting can begin once the tea plant is about four years old. The leaves are normally picked by hand, making the harvest an extremely labour-intensive process. Tea can be harvested at any time of year, but leaves are at their best in the dry monsoon season.

The harvest

Tea shrubs can first be harvested when they are four years old. The manual harvest of the leaves requires intensive work. In some regions where labour force is deficient the traditional manual work is replaced by machines, but the quality of the tea harvested in this way can decrease essentially.

Tea harvesting has three techniques: the standard harvest, when two leaves and one bud are picked, the medium harvest (three leaves and a bud) and the raw harvest (four leaves and one bud on a stem). The finer the harvest is, the better the tea will be. On the higher located plantations, otherwise with better conditions for cultivating quality tea, fine harvest is exclusive.

Tea shrubs live long. Assamica reaches 40 years on average, while Sinensis can crop for as long as 100 years.